Edwardian pin with hair???

[gauntlettgems]

I thought this was a guilloche something or other but upon further inspection it's something under glass  It almost looks like thread to me  Could it be hair?  It was hard to get a really defined pic 

[tinkersilver]

Keeping hair as an adornment was quite common for the period you mentioned. It appears so. Maybe from a child or relative? It's a striking example. The hair looks to be weaved in a pattern. Is the pin gold? Amazing the things you find:)

[gauntlettgems]

I haven't tested it yet I do remember hearing about mourning jewelry with hair, I think The weave is so precise It almost looks like a machine did it It really does not look like hair but like silk or something..........

I search high and low for my goodies ty 😉

[bluedaemon23]

The hair weave is very similar to a Victorian brooch I sold some time ago. Sometimes hair was arranged in pictures or fancy patterns. It was a common thing to keep the hair of a deceased loved one as a memento. You're right about how precise it is, though, and I don't know exactly how the hair brooches were made - I would imagine that jewelers employed workers who did the hair weaving to order.

[arlene_v]

This brooch looks Victorian to me and not Edwardian, I think that by the Edwardian period the fashion for hair jewelry was over.

Sometimes the hair was that of a loved one who had died, but it could also be a keepsake of someone who was alive. The mourning pieces were usually done with a  black enamel border or embellishment, and sometimes would have an inscription to indicate that the person had died (dates etc)

Blonde hair is rarer than brown and black hair. The patterns can be quite intricate.

While I was doing research on a Victorian  ring I sold with hair woven into it I was surprised to read that sometimes horse hair was used as well, this was quite a lucrative industry ..... If I find the link I will post it here.

LOL it's strange to imagine that there was a time when woven hair jewelry was all the rage, but then again so were dead bugs and butterfly wings!

[cool-awesome-vintage]

As Arlene said, hair jewelry is more from the Victorian period. And yes it was also mass produced, if you scroll down on this link you can see catalog pages where it was advertised.

http://www.morninggloryantiques.com/collectVictHair.htm

[cool-awesome-vintage]

Here is a catalog page for some brooches:

http://www.morninggloryantiques.com/imagesJC/BernHair/bern9.jpg

[zienty]

I hope this link works. It's from a recent re-run from the Antiques Roadshow that talks about hair jewelry and hair.

http://video.pbs.org/video/2365504820/

[zienty]

Sorry. It doesn't work. But if you go to the Antiques Roadshow site you will find it.

[arlene_v]

It worked for me! Thanks for posting that, Zienty, interesting.

[calis_stuff]

I love Victorian hair jewelry. Here's a large swivel brooch I recently had to 'help'.

I think the darker hair was from his head and the red hair was his beard, but that is just a guess on my part.

[arlene_v]

There are a lot of collectors of hair jewelry and memorial jewelry. I am always surprised at how fast Victorian mourning and sentimental  jewelry sells .... especially the pieces that are well made and are in good condition.

I guess it touches a cord in us, this idea that love transcends time, and we get to capture a bit of that in this jewelry. We look at these old photographs and scraps of history and connect with those emotions.  No jewelry made today  does that. Some might find this Victorian focus on death and sentiment gloomy, but I don't.

[calis_stuff]

I agree Arlene. Lives gone on before and memories that you can wear as a testament to the loved ones who inspired them. I may never know who the person was that wore the jewelry but the fact they DID live, love and die and it can be felt in such a tangible way is wonderful to me.

[gauntlettgems]

That is too funny. I just watched that same episode last night! I saw the commercial for it and recorded it because I wanted to know what all the strange things were she had in front of her! Her hair was sooooo long and thick. Crazy.

[gauntlettgems]

Wow. They must of had great vision and really steady hands to do this work. I don't think I'd have the patience. Lol.