by Jillian Price, Exeter Historical Society Trustee and volunteer
As we approach Halloween, let's take a look at an intricate set of mourning jewelry from our collections. These drop earrings and brooch, dating to 1844, are made from braided human hair, and were created in memory of Mary Anne Martin Lovering.
While the practice may seem rather creepy to many modern Americans, our predecessors in the nineteenth century frequently made and wore hair jewelry. We might save a lock of hair from our child's first hair cut, but actually wearing a family member's hair is uncommon today. Victorians, however, preserved locks of loved ones' hair under glass in pendants, rings, or brooches. For more elaborate pieces, a hair worker could braid a long lock of hair into a rope to serve as a watch chain, bracelet, or necklace. Mourning jewelry is the most well-known type of hair jewelry, but these items were also made and given as tokens of affection. By the 1860s, at least one American wig-making company was importing hair from Europe to make jewelry items for retail. Thus Victorians would wear not only hair from beloved friends or family, but the hair of unidentified persons from around the world.
Indeed, hair work could be quite delicate and beautiful. Our earrings and brooch are of the most complex type of hair braiding - openwork lace braid worked on a braiding table. Hair workers processed the hair by washing away all oil and dirt. Then, up to 80 bobbins containing small section of hair were placed around a braiding table. The worker would then weave the hair in complex patterns - think of making friendship bracelets, but with ten times the number of strands - using a braiding form or stick to create an openwork tube. Finally, the piece was boiled to set the design.
Our set, using only 24 strands per braided bead, would have been a comparatively simple design to make. It is likely a that a member of Mary Anne Lovering's family made these pieces in their own home, rather than commissioning a professional hair worker to do so. The gold findings, however, were likely designed and sold for the specific purpose of making hair jewelry.