19th-Century Mourning Jewelry
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GUEST:
It was given to me by a very good friend of the family. It's a jewelry set made from hair. Mm-hmm. And I believe it's mourning jewelry and it was given to him by his mother. Pete was like a surrogate grandfather to us because my grandfather had passed away and he courted my grandmother.
APPRAISER:
And on the front of the box there's a gold panel with the name "Evelyn." Now, who is Evelyn?
GUEST:
Evelyn is Pete's grandmother and she's from, probably, the Boston area.
APPRAISER:
The New England area? We can open up the box and we'll see what the jewelry is. This is all braided hair of Evelyn and you can see here, it has her name inscribed on the lid. These are both lockets, and you can open up... you can probably open up your side and it shows a daguerreotype of someone in the family. Could you tell me something about who that gentleman is or who you think it might be?
GUEST:
Well, we think it might be her husband since all of the pieces have her name on them.
APPRAISER:
The reason I love this piece so much, it's in perfect condition.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
And mourning jewelry was used to mourn the death of a loved one in the family either by a daughter, by a sister, and it was very intricately woven. I think the condition, the original box and the history on it, you're probably looking somewhere in the neighborhood between $5,000 to $7,000 at auction.
GUEST:
Wow! That's great. Thank you.
Appraisal Details
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