Museum Blog

Blog by Kathy Greensides, Collection Assistant

Working in the collections department of a museum means you often discover drawers full of unusual and unique objects. Cabinet thirty/drawer five at the museum is one such drawer as it contains artefacts made of or containing human hair.

The craft of making jewellery and crafts commercially from hair began in Scandanavia where farmers wives would sell handmade crafts to supplement their income. As popularity for the objects grew, hair workers from Sweden would travel throughout Europe selling their wares. By the 1850’s hair jewellery became so popular that merchants would travel throughout Europe to trade ribbons and other trinkets from peasant women in exchange for their tresses.

After Prince Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria wore mourning jewellery containing his hair for the traditional second mourning period of nine months and continued to do so until her death in 1901, so it became quite fashionable for English women to do likewise.. Over in America meanwhile, men who went to fight in the Civil War would leave behind a lock of hair which would be incorporated into a locket or brooch with a photograph upon their death as a momento mori. It is hardly surprising then to learn that factories sprung up in London, sometimes employing fifty or more women to make adornments to fulfil the hair jewellery mania that swept over the country at this time.

 So popular was the craft that in the mid- nineteenth century it became as fashionable a parlour craft  with women as crochet, cross stitch and embroidery. They were able to incorporate the locks of beloved friends and relatives into items such as bracelets, rings, earrings, watch chains but also more unusual items such as bags, book markers, studs, scent bottles, and even riding whips. In 1853 at the Crystal Palace Exhibition, a range of hair jewellery was exhibited along with a complete tea set made entirely of hair.

 Godey's Lady's Book of the time endorsed the fashion, attaching a sense of romanticism to its ownership. The following excerpt extolling the virtues of hair work is from c. 1850:

‘’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."

The following are instructions on how Victorian ladies could  process and fashion the hair into jewellery: ‘’The hair to be used was first boiled for 15 minutes in soda water to remove any oils,  then divided into strands consisting of 20 to 30 hairs. Horse hair is often used by beginning hair workers because it is coarser and easier to work with than human hair. The technique used in Victorian hair work is similar to the Japanese art of kumihimo. The hair worker used a round table at the centre of which was  a wooden mould to fashion the hair around. The hair was wound on a series of bobbins, and Weights were attached to the ends of the hair and hung over the sides of the table. . Hair was wrapped around  wooden rods or beads  used as a mould. When the work was finished and while still around the mould,  it was taken off, boiled for 15 minutes, dried and removed. It was then ready to go to a  jewellers for mounting.

Here at the museum we have a selection of hair and mourning jewellery, below are some examples.

 This gold mourning ring  has grey and blond hair interwoven into a basket weave design in centre oval which is covered by a bevelled edged glass. The shoulders of

the ring are decorated with five channels above an engraved leaf pattern either side.

 Large glass covered section of hair, gold thread and seed pearls arranged into fleur-de-lis or Prince of Wales design. Hair is surrounded by an ornate gold filligree setting. A small gold ring is attached top-back enabling the wearer to also use brooch as a pendant. The centre image can be turned to display the reverse as a frontispiece of the brooch.

Mourning brooch featuring a lock of hair and a photograph. Photograph features an older woman wearing a bonnet, a lace tie around her neck and holding a piece of paper. The photograph is set in an ornate, gold filligree setting. The reverse of the locket has a lock of blonde curled hair.. At the base are four small seed pearls. Running through the centre of the hair is a piece of gold  thread, the end fashioned into an ear of corn. The centre image can be turned to display the hair as a frontispiece of the brooch.

A pair of mourning earrings .  Each earring has two separate loops of dark brown woven human hair connected to round gold balls engraved with floral designs.  An open hook is attached at the top of each earring. These were made by wrapping the hair around a vertical wooden dowel set into a table before drying and then connecting to fittings.

 Watch chain of dark brown woven and plaited human hair interwoven with jet beads.  Jet (or fossilised coal ) was often fashioned into mourning jewellery and also popularised by Queen Victoria.

 Watch chain, made from human hair with gold fittings and winder.

 This flower spray is made from human hair. The hair came from the head of the donor her four daughters and friends. It is woven and twisted with cotton