Human hair jewelry? I had never heard about this before until reading the Etsy forums. Someone started a post about making human hair jewelry. Another person commented on the fact that people used to make memorial jewelry including the hair of a deceased loved one, to remember them by.
Finding this intriguing, I decided to do some research, and this is what I found.
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Victorian Pendant - Gold, Pearls and Human Hair |
Jewelry fashioned from hair actually began in Georgian times, but
it became very widespread during the Victorian era. Victorian hair work
jewelry was produced not only by professionals, but also as a pastime by
Victorian ladies and gentlemen. Hair work was as popular as crocheting
or tatting in the late 1850’s. Victorian hair work jewelry served not
only as a memento to remember the dead, but also as “love tokens” to
keep dear ones close. These precious locks of hair were often kept in
special compartments on the back of brooches, rings, lockets or watch
fobs.
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Victorian Locket - Photo courtesy of SmithsonianMagazine.com |
There are two different kinds of Victorian hair work. One is where
small designs are made on an artist’s palette. This is referred to as
“palette” work. Here, the hair is placed within a crystal. Sometimes only
a curl was used. Other times elaborate designs or pictures were
fashioned out of the hair. The finest of these Victorian “palette”
hair brooches ever produced were made in the 1840’s and 1850’s in
England.
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Victorian hair bow pin. This photo is from the reprint of "The Art of Hair Work, 1875" by Mark Campbell,
page 144. |
The second type of Victorian hair work is called “table worked” hair.
The hair was actually woven and worked like lace. This hair weaving
technique is done using a special table with a hole through the center.
The hair is weighted with bobbins and the weaving is similar to bobbin
lace. The hair is prepared, counted, weighted and placed on the table.
With this technique, the hair was woven into coils and threads used to
make chains, bracelets, earrings, crosses, rings, etc. Not all hair used
in these designs was human hair. Occasionally coarser horse hair was
substituted.
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Hair woven
on
gold cross pendant. From Bell's
"Collector's Encyclopedia of Hairwork Jewelry" page 124. |
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Victorian hair
double
dangle earrings of table work and gold fittings. |
These woven pieces of hair were then sent to a Victorian
goldsmith who would fashion fittings for them so they could be worn as
jewels. The process was reasonably priced, so these pieces were often
given as gifts to a loved one.
After the death of Prince Albert of England in 1861, hair was often taken from the deceased (both adults and children) and incorporated into pieces of mourning jewelry.
You can find many more examples of hair jewelry on the website,
Morning Glory Antiques and Jewelry.
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This information is courtesy of The Antique Jewelry
University
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