Untitled (Case with portraits of a man and woman and hair ornaments)

c. 1870s
Image: 3.5 x 3 cm (1 3/8 x 1 3/16 in.); Case: 9 x 5 x 1 cm (3 9/16 x 1 15/16 x 3/8 in.)
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Location: not on view

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Did You Know?

"Hairwork," produced in commercial workshops and as a popular craft during the Victorian era, was used to celebrate the living and commemorate the dead.

Description

The photographs of this man and woman, presumably husband and wife, are juxtaposed with clippings of their hair arranged to form their initials, A and M. In the late 1800s, photographic portraits and hair clippings combined in jewelry or frames served as mementos or memorials for loved ones. For permanence, the portraits here were vitrified on enamel, a process now used primarily for funerary monuments.
Untitled (Case with portraits of a man and woman and hair ornaments)

Untitled (Case with portraits of a man and woman and hair ornaments)

c. 1870s

19th century

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