Victorian mourning jewelry was made to keep someone close, and a hand-painted enamel locket and earring set in the collection at Charles Schwartz & Son shows exactly how it worked. From the front, the set is all color: painted figures on a deep blue ground, framed in beaded 14K yellow gold. Turn the pendant over and the purpose changes. Behind a small glazed window is a space made to hold a lock of hair from someone who had died.
Charles Schwartz & Son, a Washington jeweler since 1888, has handled antique and estate jewelry for longer than most of the pieces in this story have existed. This set is a good place to start for anyone who has inherited a hair locket, is considering buying one, or simply wants to understand what the Victorians were doing when they wore their grief in gold.
Antique Jewelry in DC Set: A Pendant Locket and a Pair of Earrings in Hand-Painted Enamel
The Victorian Enameled Locket and Earring Gold Set is a matched suite: an oval pendant locket and two oval drop earrings, all in 14K yellow gold. Jewelers call a matched group like this a parure, or a demi-parure when it has only a few pieces.
The pendant measures 2.60 by 1.25 inches. Its center is a painted enamel scene of a young woman in rose drapery walking among flowers, set against a black ground. The earrings, 1.86 by 0.75 inches each, carry a pair of winged children, the figures art historians call putti. A border of cobalt blue enamel dotted in white rings each picture.
The gold does as much work as the paint. Each frame is edged in rows of tiny gold beads, and the earrings are topped with fan-shaped palmette crests. That vocabulary of beaded borders and classical ornament belongs to the archaeological revival taste that swept Victorian jewelry in the middle of the nineteenth century, which the next sections explain.
The Back of the Pendant: Where the Mourning Lives
The front of this locket would not look out of place at a wedding. The back is what makes it mourning jewelry.
On the reverse of the pendant is a glazed compartment, a small window of glass set into the gold. Victorian families placed a lock of hair from a lost loved one behind it, so the wearer carried the person, quite literally, against the body.
The Gemological Institute of America explains the reasoning in its history of Victorian era mourning jewelry: the Victorians believed hair “had a sacred quality because it contained something of the essence of the person.” Hair was also durable. The Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford notes that hair, made mainly of keratin, “is very durable and lasts for years,” which is why so much hairwork survives today.
A History of Antique Jewelry in Washington DC: Victorian Mourning Jewelry
The custom is far older than Queen Victoria. GIA traces mourning jewelry to at least the Middle Ages, when skulls and crossbones served as memento mori, reminders of death. What changed in the Victorian era, 1837 to 1901, was scale.
The turning point was personal. Prince Albert died in 1861, and according to GIA, Queen Victoria “spent much of the next four decades wearing black crepe dresses and mourning jewelry.” The Royal Collection Trust holds one of her own memorial pieces, a gold locket of about 1861 with an oval onyx center set with a diamond star. It “opens to reveal hair on one side and photograph of Prince Albert on the other, both under glass.” The construction is the same idea as the pendant at Charles Schwartz & Son: a decorated front, and a private glazed space behind it.
Demand followed the Queen. GIA reports that by the middle of the 1800s, England was importing about 50 tons of hair a year. The Pitt Rivers Museum records that an 1855 exhibition in Paris reportedly showed a full-length portrait of Queen Victoria made entirely of hair. Then the fashion faded. Hair jewelry, the museum notes, declined along with Victorian mourning culture after the 1880s.
Mourning or Sentimental? Reading the Colors
Many people picture Victorian mourning jewelry as black, and much of it was. GIA lists jet, onyx, black enamel, dark tortoiseshell, bog oak, vulcanite and gutta percha among the standard materials, and notes that white enamel was used to remember unmarried women and children.
So why is this set painted in rose, blue and gold?
Because hair jewelry was never only about death. The Victoria and Albert Museum puts it plainly in its record for an eighteenth century English hair locket: “Hair jewels were worn to cherish the living as well as to remember the dead.” The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, which holds an American hair bracelet from about 1870, says the same: “Not all hair jewelry was mourning jewelry.” The Pitt Rivers Museum adds that by the 1850s hair jewelry marked betrothals and weddings as well as deaths.
A colorful front with a hair compartment behind it sits right on that line. The jewel could be worn openly in society, while its meaning stayed private. What made it mourning jewelry was what its owner chose to keep behind the glass.
The habit of hiding sentiment on the reverse is old. A pendant of about 1780 in the V&A’s jewellery galleries carries a painted flower and the Italian motto “Ricordati de me,” remember me, on the front, with plaited hair set into the back.
How the Set Was Made: Painted Enamel and Archaeological Gold
Enamel is glass, ground to a powder, applied to metal and fused in a kiln. Painted enamel takes the technique furthest, using enamel colors almost like paint to build up a picture. Britannica dates the technique to Flemish craftsmen working for the Burgundian court around 1425 to 1450. The workshops of Limoges in France dominated by the beginning of the sixteenth century, and enameled jewelry later centered on Geneva, where the craft “continued to flourish into the 19th century.”
Look closely at the faces on this set, the shading of a cheek, the folds of drapery, the flowers at the figures’ feet. That is painting at miniature scale, carried out in glass.
The gold frames point in a different direction: toward Rome. The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes how the Roman firm of Castellani developed what it called “Italian archaeological jewelry,” inspired by the excavations of its day, using granulation, engraved gems, enameling and micromosaic. Castellani “dominated in the production of historical revival styles of many earlier cultures, including Etruscan.” The beaded edges and palmette crests on this set echo that taste. It is not signed by Castellani, and Charles Schwartz & Son does not attribute it to the firm, but it speaks the same design language.
The metal is 14K yellow gold. Under the Federal Trade Commission’s guidance on buying gold jewelry, “a piece marked 14K gold is 14 parts gold mixed with 10 parts of another metal.” The FTC’s Jewelry Guides govern how karat is described in the United States today.
Buying a Victorian Hair Locket: What to Look For
A Victorian locket rewards a slow, close look. These are the questions a jeweler asks at the counter.
- Is the glazing original and intact? The glass on a hair compartment should sit tight in its frame. A loose or cracked glazing lets in moisture and dust.
- Is there hair inside, and is it original? Some lockets still hold their hair; many have been emptied. Hair cannot be traced to a named person without documentation, so value an inscription or family history only when it can be supported.
- How is the enamel? Look under magnification for chips at the edges, cracks across the ground, and areas of later repainting, which tends to look flatter and less glassy than fired enamel.
- Do the hinges and fittings work? Locket hinges and earring fittings carry the most wear. Ask whether earring fittings are original or later conversions.
- Has the gold been tested? Many nineteenth century pieces carry no karat mark. A reputable jeweler tests the metal and states its karat in writing.
- Is there a written description? Ask for the era, metal, measurements and any condition notes on the receipt.
For an independent opinion of value on a piece already in the family, Charles Schwartz & Son offers appraisals; contact the stores to arrange an appraisal.
Wearing and Caring for Painted Enamel
Enamel is glass, and it behaves like glass. It resists fading and keeps its color for centuries, but a hard knock against a counter edge can chip it.
GIA’s tips on caring for jewelry advise that antique and vintage jewelry “should be handled delicately and can be cleaned with just water and a soft, lint-free cloth,” and that ultrasonic cleaning “is best left to jewelry professionals.” For a piece with a glazed hair compartment, the soft cloth is the right tool. GIA also recommends storing each piece in its own padded box rather than loose in a drawer, which keeps gold frames from scratching painted faces.
A pendant this size wears well on a simple gold chain, and the earrings sit comfortably for an evening. If a hinge loosens or a glazing shifts, the jewelry repair bench at Charles Schwartz & Son can assess it before the problem grows.
More Victorian Painted Jewelry at Charles Schwartz & Son
The enamel locket set has company in the vintage brooches collection.
The Victorian Enamel and Gold Brooch and Pendant is a round painted enamel portrait of a classical profile in a plumed helmet and laurel wreath, set in 14K yellow gold. It converts between a brooch and a pendant, with a pin closure and an open bail for a chain.
The Antique Pearl Diamond Gold Portrait Brooch frames a painted portrait of a woman in powdered curls with rose cut diamonds, an estimated 1.10 carats in total, and three small pearls, in 18K yellow gold. The back is engraved “Elizabeth Kealhofer Paris 1888,” the same year Charles Schwartz & Son was founded in Washington.
Each is one of a kind. When a piece sells, there is no second example to order. Browse vintage necklaces and vintage earrings for other pieces from the period, or read the guide to estate jewelry in DC for a wider view of the eras.
If You Have Inherited a Hair Locket
Families in Washington, Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Northern Virginia often bring in Victorian hair jewelry found among a relative’s things, sometimes unsure what it is. A jeweler can identify the period and the materials, test the gold, and explain what the piece meant to the people who wore it.
Some families keep these pieces and wear them again. Others decide to sell. Charles Schwartz & Son buys estate jewelry at its Chevy Chase location; learn more about selling antique jewelry.
See the Set in Person! The Victorian Enameled Locket and Earring Gold Set can be viewed at Charles Schwartz & Son. Contact us to confirm availability, since each piece is one of one. Directions and parking are on the store locations page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Victorian mourning jewelry?
Jewelry worn to remember someone who had died, most popular in Britain and the United States between Prince Albert’s death in 1861 and the 1880s. It was often black, in jet, onyx or black enamel, and frequently held the hair of the deceased.
Why did Victorians put hair in jewelry?
Hair was believed to carry something of the person’s essence, and it lasts for generations without decaying. Keeping a lock in a locket or brooch let the wearer carry the person close.
Is all antique hair jewelry mourning jewelry?
No. Hair was also exchanged between the living, as love tokens and to mark betrothals and weddings. Inscriptions, dates and black or white enamel are the best clues that a piece was made for mourning.
How can you tell if a Victorian locket is real gold?
Many nineteenth century pieces are unmarked, so a mark alone is not reliable. A jeweler can test the metal and state its karat.
Can you add new hair or a photograph to an antique locket?
Often, yes. A jeweler can usually open the glazed compartment, insert a lock of hair or a photograph, and reseal it, though the condition of the hinge and glass should be checked first.
Where can I buy Victorian jewelry in Washington DC?
Charles Schwartz & Son, founded in 1888, offers Victorian, Edwardian and Art Deco jewelry from its showrooms in Chevy Chase and at The Willard in downtown Washington.
Glossary
Brooch: A decorative jewel fastened to clothing with a pin and catch. Many Victorian brooches also have a bail so they can be worn as pendants.
Castellani: A Roman jewelry firm run by three generations of one family, known in the nineteenth century for jewelry based on ancient Etruscan, Greek and Roman designs.
Enamel: Powdered glass fused to metal by firing in a kiln, producing a hard, glossy, lasting color.
Granulation: An ancient goldsmithing technique in which tiny spheres of gold are fused to a gold surface to form patterns.
Hairwork: Jewelry or decorative art made from human hair, either braided and woven into forms or arranged behind glass.
Jet: A black, lightweight organic gem formed from fossilized wood, widely used in Victorian mourning jewelry.
Karat: The measure of gold purity in 24 parts. 24K is pure gold; 14K is 14 parts gold and 10 parts other metal.
Limoges: The city in central France whose workshops led European painted enamel production from the early sixteenth century.
Locket: A pendant that opens to hold a keepsake, such as a photograph, a portrait or a lock of hair.
Memento mori: Latin for “remember that you will die.” Objects, often with skulls or hourglasses, meant to remind the viewer of mortality.
Mourning jewelry: Jewelry worn in memory of someone who has died, often black and often containing the person’s hair.
Painted enamel: Enamel colors applied like paint to build up a picture on metal, then fused by firing.
Parure: A matched set of jewelry designed to be worn together. A demi-parure is a smaller set, such as a pendant and earrings.
Putti: Winged infant figures drawn from classical and Renaissance art, often shown as cupids.
Rose cut: An early diamond cut with a flat base and a domed top of triangular facets, common in antique jewelry.
Victorian era: The reign of Queen Victoria, 1837 to 1901.
Yellow gold: Gold alloyed mainly with silver and copper to keep a warm yellow color.
