Victorian Mourning Hair Art 19th C. Domed Glass Oval Frame Memento Souvenir
The art of arranging these mourning and mementos of love and friendship was a booming industry in the 1800s, France. I've shown a page from a hair artist's catalogue of samples of ways a customer could choose to have their loved one's locks of hair worked. Sometimes the memento was to mark a daughter's departure to a convent, or a little son's first haircut, or a bride's offering to her husband or token to be left behind with her family as she moved away, unsure they'd ever be back. Tokens of love, and also of mourning. The type you see in this one, thick elaborate curls, is the type used either to preserve the thick long hair of a young woman who is entering life as a nun and has had her locks shorn, or perhaps a young boy's long hair shorn as he turns about 4-5 and becomes his father's son, a rite of passage for a boy.
Lastly, it might well be lush thick long hair mourning the loss of a relatively young loved one. All worked against an oval of French opaline glass, it is often the case that either the opaline or that deep bombe cover glass sustain damage over time. But this one is splendid. No damage or missing parts. At Soul Antiques & Sacred Art we take pride in our work by making detailed and accurate descriptions of every item.
The item "Victorian Mourning Hair Art 19th C. Domed Glass Oval Frame Memento Souvenir" is in sale since Tuesday, November 16, 2021. This item is in the category "Jewelry & Watches\Vintage & Antique Jewelry\Mourning Jewelry". The seller is "soulantiques" and is located in Saint-Gilles. This item can be shipped worldwide. 
