Victorian
Hair Jewelry
Sentimental Tokens of Love
By Jane
Marie
"Hair is at once
the most delicate and last of our materials and survives us like love.
It is so light, so gentle, so escaping from the idea of death, that,
with a lock of hair belonging to a child or friend we may almost look up
to heaven and compare notes with angelic nature, may almost say, I have
a piece of thee here, not unworthy of thy being now." Godey's
Lady's Book, circa 1850
My husband's aunt gave us a
shadow box containing a myriad of woven layered
auburn hair flowers, a small straw basket at the bottom with more hair
flowers, and two blonde lengths of ringlets on either side of the
flowers, tacked at the top with blue bows. All this was hand stitched
to a bed of combed raw cotton in what looks to be a hand carved wooden
frame covered with glass. We don't know to whom the box belonged, whose hair
it was, or how old the piece is precisely, but we realize it is a treasure to
be respected and cared for.
Humankind has long
felt - erroneously - that hair goes on living after a love one has departed this earth,
thereby representing eternal life. Because of this, the fashion of
crafting hair into jewelry, framed landscapes of hair, crowns, tea sets,
shadow boxed pictures, or whatever the imagination and patience could
develop, became highly accepted and prized, especially in Victorian
times. No matter what the end product, the procedure and common name
for this art form is “hair work.”
What we know as
Victorian hair work began in Scandinavia as a craft. Groups
of unmarried girls traveled throughout northern Europe to sell their
intricate handmade products.
England’s Queen Victoria had her own hair
made into a bracelet for her friend, Empress Eugénie. Eugénie, it is
said, was touched to tears. Victoria had given refuge to Eugénie and
her family when they were deposed after the French defeat in the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.
American Betsy Bonaparte was an aunt by
marriage to Eugénie's husband, Emperor Napoleon III
Wearing hair
jewelry was popular on both sides of the Atlantic as early as the
American Civil War. Mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives in mourning,
by custom, were to wear nothing shiny on their persons for the first
year and one day of deep mourning. After that, a lock
of hair left behind when a soldier went off to battle might be
intricately braided or woven and placed in a small locket or brooch. The bereaved
might also wear a small braid topped with a gold initial placed inside a
glass domed ring or a braided hair ring topped with a gold initial.
Queen Victorian
established strict Rules
of Mourning when she lost her husband.
A grieving father
could use a plaited watch fob, belt buckle, or cuff links if they
contained hair or were made with hair of a loved one. Cross pendants
were made from a combination of hair, ivory, or jet, a fragile black
substance formed from compressed saturated drift wood that sunk to
the bottom of the ocean and settled in the mud for many years.
By the mid
1800s, hair jewelry and other forms of hair work were being made to a represent
those loved ones who were still alive but had gone away, as well as those
who had died. Godey's magazine eventually supplied patterns for the home
crafter, who could practice first on thicker horsehair.
The instructions
explained the hair must be boiled in soda water for fifteen minutes,
drained, cooled, then sorted into long strands, at least 24 inches long.
Next, they were to be divided into bundles of two to three dozen hairs.
Multiple colors of hair might be woven on wooden molds and bobbins that
would keep the pattern regular. The finished hair art was boiled for
another quarter hour. When dry, it was removed from the mold and ready
to be inserted into a metal locket, brooch, or picture frames.
Seed pearls, blue
or pink ribbons denoting the male or female being honored, lace, or a
twisted rope border could be added. Often, ivory or gold was engraved
with initials or something such as "with fond remembrance" or the name
of a battle or place.
A family might clip
hair from each member to make a framed partial horseshoe-shaped wreath.
If more children were born, their hair was added to complete the
wreath to a full circle.
Today, societies
and museums display and sell hair work and promote
instruction in hair work techniques. Fund raisers are inevitably
given the name "Hair Ball."
