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Rare VICTORIAN Antique Mourning HAIR Swivel Brooch
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Rare VICTORIAN Antique Mourning HAIR Swivel Brooch
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Rare Victorian/Antique Rolled Gold SWIVEL Brooch with Hair & Old Photograph c. 1850-60 An exquisite and very sentimental Victorian SWIVEL mourning brooch set in a rolled gold framework. It has 2 original beveled & glazed rock-crystal compartments which hold both a well-preserved tightly woven brown hair memento on one side and an old photo (likely an ambrotype) of a very charming boy wearing a cap, on the other. This brooch is likely a mourning piece worn by the young boy's mother. Perhaps the poor fellow died young. The hair is likely his. This is a Swivel Brooch, so either side can swivel and be worn to face up. The hair memento is in very well-preserved condition, as is the photo. It is surrounded by an elaborate twisted hollow-tube rope mount with etched details . Retains its original antique tube-hinge, c-clasp, and extended pin-stem, in very good working order. Goldwork is in excellent condition; without dents or dings. Measures just under 1.75" long x 1.50" wide In the largely forgotten craft of hairwork, practiced widely in nineteenth-century America, the hair of loved ones--living and deceased--was woven into jewelry, wall decorations, and keepsakes. Rings, bracelets, lockets, and brooches were set with metalwork or ivory and painted with rich patterns. Pocket watches hung from long, woven hair fobs. Parlor walls were decorated with elaborate wreaths made of hair fashioned into twigs and flowers, often adorned with beads or ribbons. More unusual items even included a tea set made entirely out of hair. Victorian men and women treasured hairwork not only as remembrances of loved ones and memorials of relationships but also as objects of beauty and means of personal expression.Beginning as a trade of highly skilled craftsmen in the late eighteenth century, hairwork became tremendously popular among the middle class, and supported at its peak in the mid-nineteenth century an industry that included catalog dealers of premade pieces, standardized patterns, and how-to books for hobbyists. Advertisements, stories, and illustrations in popular publications depicted hairwork as the height of sentimental fashion.
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