Victorian Hairwork Jewelry

As a child, I had long banana curls that snarled quite easily. The morning comb out process is not something that I remember fondly. When I was eight years old, I was finally allowed to get my hair cut but to my dismay one of those nightmarish curls ended up in the old family album. Therefore, when my husband and I got into the antiques business, I was not shocked to find that many people kept locks of hair for sentimental reasons. After all, I am a woman of the world. Or so I thought.

One day at our auction house, I was sorting through an estate and came across a bag of jewelry. In the bag was an odd looking bracelet. I had never seen anything that looked quite like it before. I asked our auction manager what it was. She casually informed me, “It’s a Victorian hairwork bracelet made from human hair and it’s most likely a piece of mourning jewelry.” Oh, yuck! Some woman of the world I turned out to be.

Taking a lock of hair and putting it in an album is one thing but making a piece of jewelry from it and actually wearing it is quite another. I was absolutely mortified. All I could think was what did one do back then when they saw a piece of this stuff? Admire it and say, “I just love your bracelet. Is it Aunt Mary?”

It took awhile before I was able to put the collectible known as hairwork jewelry into proper perspective but I did and now I realize that these very special pieces gave great comfort and solace to those who wore them. It allowed them to have a remembrance from a departed loved one that they could carry with them always. 

The art of hairwork was the taking of hair from family members, family friends and other loved ones and transforming it by needlework into jewelry and other items of sentimental value. This jewelry was made up of bracelets, earrings, necklaces, watch fobs, brooches, hair ornaments and cufflinks. Other hairwork creations included:

·        Bonnets

·        Special postcards with pictures of beautiful women on which ladies would artfully arrange locks of their own hair

·        Wreaths of hair made from past generations of fa mily members

·        Lacework made from hair woven into different designs such as flowers, crosses and hearts

Hairwork dates back to Egyptian times and perhaps even further. Egyptian tomb murals show pharaohs and their queens exchanging hairballs as tokens of love.  It became a trend in other areas of the world as well. Mexican Indian women kept their hair combings to eventually be buried with them because they considered this loose hair to still be a part of their bodies; and in Sweden hairwork actually became a legitimate trade during the1800’s. Hair crafters would travel near and far selling their wares. This art was popular right up to and during the Victorian era.

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Jet jewelry was also used by people in mourning during the same time period as hairwork, although it is believed that jet jewelry is older. Jet is a fossilized wood that was found in many different locations but the best jet was located in Whitby, England. It is black and can hold a high polish that can actually look mirror-like. Since it is so lightweight, large intricate pieces could be worn comfortably, helping to dress up mourning attire that by its very definition was dark and drab.

Upon the sudden death of Prince Albert in 1861, Queen Victoria went into mourning. She insisted that everyone in her court wear black for a period of three years and, for part of that time, she only allowed jet jewelry to be worn by those closest to her.

Queen Victoria outlived Prince Albert by forty years and she continued to mourn him right up until her death in 1901. She never wore anything but black again for the rest of her life. Victoria had already been familiar with hairwork jewelry prior to the death of Albert. Although she apparently did not use hairwork as part of the mourning process that she had made so prevalent within her court she must have approved of this art form.

At the 1853 Crystal Palace Exposition that she and Albert attended, there was a full line of hairwork jewelry on display. Following this Queen Victoria herself gave the Empress Eugenie of France a bracelet made of her own hair. According to Victoria’s diary, the Empress was "touched to tears."

The hairwork jewelry made during Victoria’s reign was done in the early neo-classical style and was quite popular with the general public. In addition to the hairwork jewelry made for mourning, women made and wore brooches created from their own hair and men carried hairwork fobs made from their wives’ hair.

It was common during the Victorian age for a woman's vanity table to display a hair receiver.  A hair receiver was a special container where a woman would place her hair after collecting it from a hairbrush. Many of these Victorian hair receivers can still be found today. There are also many affordable reproductions out there for those who are just interested in having a vintage look.

During Queen Victoria’s time of mourning, hairwork was not only popular in England it was popular in both Europe and the United States as well. Soldiers of the Civil War carried a variety of hairwork objects from their wives including hair fobs for their watches. These soldiers would also leave locks of their hair behind before going off to battle. If a soldier died, some of his hair was made into a piece of mourning jewelry that was then worn by his wife or another family member.

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Hairwork had become common enough to warrant its own line of tools, weights, turners, molds and work tables. The art of making this jewelry and other related items was passed down from family to family. There were some written instructions and patterns available but we are not sure how many of these are still available.

We do know that before using hair to make a keepsake item, the hair was boiled in soda water for fifteen minutes. Then it was cut so all the strands would be the same length. The hair was then divided into groups of six to thirty strands, depending on the intended work. Long hair was easier to work with but hairwork could also be done with short hair. However if someone wanted a full size bracelet they needed strands that were between twenty and twenty four inches in length.

At the close of the 19th century, cameras were becoming more and more commercialized and photographs began to replace hairwork as treasured keepsakes. The art of hairwork almost became a thing of the past but thanks to some crafters this tradition continues today although on a much smaller scale. Should you come across a piece of what you believe to be hairwork, it can be tested. Take a pin and extract a single strand and then burn it. If it sputters and smells like burning hair, it is hairwork. 

When I began writing this article, a wave of nostalgia washed over me so I cut off a lock of my husband’s hair.  I told him I wanted it for sentimental reasons. If I’m not mistaken, he’s been sleeping with one eye open ever since.

Written by Anne Benedetto, Auction House Talk
 All Rights Reserved

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