Can someone tell me what this is

DEVEREUX

My two year old daughter handed this object to me which she found in the back garden.
It looked like a button of some sort to me, but when i cleaned it up and looked closer there seemed to be a small knot of hair enclosed behind the glass. Maybe a childs lock of hair? There is very crude decoration around the circumference and two small loops either side.

Degsy

Possibly a small Reliquary but really not sure.

Very interesting anyway.

Wild_Dogger

Yep , Degsy is right I believe .

But, probably not a relic of a saint .
In 18th and 19th Cent people kept locks of hair as a token of love and affection to those close to them .

I think its a lovely thing , and had real sentimental value to somebody at one stage .

Often when somebody died , a capture of hair would give reassurance to the mourning , knowing part of the person would be always with them .

A token of hair will survive time and decay

Degsy

If you ever decide to sell..

arnhem44

Degsy wrote: »

If you ever decide to sell..

An advert can be placed on www.adverts.ie and the link can be placed here on the thread.

DEVEREUX

I most likely will hold onto it as i find it very interesting........but for argument sake how much is something like this worth? not a lot i would imagine?

Degsy

DEVEREUX wrote: »

I most likely will hold onto it as i find it very interesting........but for argument sake how much is something like this worth? not a lot i would imagine?

No idea,it'd be very difficult to put a price on it as it has almost no intrinsic value but would be purely desirable as a curio.

Like i said,its very interesting in its own right.

roweeeeena

I'm so jealous that you (or rather your daughter ) found something like that in your garden! I collect Victorian items, particularly mourning jewellry. It was very common for lockets to be made of loved ones who had passed away or were gone far away (to war etc), with their photo on one side, and a lock of their hair, often elaborately twirled with dried flowers, on the other side. I can't see the photos very well but it could well be something similar from your description. The value is probably very small depending on the material used, but mourning jewellery can go for thousands if it is made of valuable material such as gold or precious stones. The value is also higher depending on the condition and if both photo and hair remain together. Yours may not be worth a lot in monetary terms but enjoy wondering about the history of the item! Maybe I should go digging in my back garden!!....