Recently when I visited an auction I choose to bid on a brooch lot. It contained a mourning brooch. Unfortunately I did not win the brooches but I wás fascinated by the hair brooches.
From the eighteenth century through the Victorian era it was fashionable to incorporate hair and portraiture into a brooch. The practice began as an expression of mourning, then expanded to keepsakes of loved ones who were living.
Below you see a brooch not only with the hair inside, but the sides are also made out of hair!
Above you see a sentimental triple knot hair brooch in yellow gold settinng, circa 1880. This is an unusual design, and may have been done by siblings in a family.
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