These bracelets were made in the mid-1800s using two popular techniques of the time: fancy hairwork, a method of braiding and twisting human hair for use in decoration, and daguerreotyping, an early form of photography. Created as gifts from a father to his two daughters and made from a braided band of human hair with a locket containing a daguerreotype portrait, these bracelets served as physical reminders of the family's treasured memories.
Hairwork was first developed in Sweden during the 1800s, but over the course of the century the technique gained popularity and spread throughout the world. Particularly popular in the United States and in England, where Queen Victoria frequently gave and received hair tokens, hairwork jewelry was made to commemorate happy circumstances, such as engagement or friendship, and as mourning jewelry. It was popular among people of all classes, and pieces could be bought from jewelers or made at home using instructions printed in magazines.
While hairwork jewelry preserved a physical part of a loved one, daguerreotypes provided a way to create and preserve a photographic likeness of an individual. Invented in 1839, daguerreotypes are one of the earliest forms of photography and use a chemical process to create a photographic image on a highly polished sheet of metal. Unlike modern photography, deguerreotyping does not use film or produce negatives, so the images are unique and cannot be reproduced. Creating a daguerreotype was a slow process, and the subject of the portrait had to sit still for several minutes while the metal plate was exposed to light in a large box camera.
Learn More: Hairwork Bracelets with Lockets (1927.07.0003A-B)
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