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- Written by Dr. Lori Verderame Dr. Lori Verderame
Along with the Roman goddess of marriage, Juno, Valentine’s Day honors the Christian martyr St. Valentine.
Persecuted by the Roman Emperor in 273 AD, St. Valentine enjoys a legacy that has been carried on by lovers, young and old, for centuries.
St. Valentine’s Day is celebrated by gifting flowers, sharing love symbols, and sending romantic cards.
While St. Valentine presented the flowers from his garden to young lovers in an effort to promote the Catholic sacrament of matrimony during his lifetime, the February holiday that bears his name has sparked the exchange of various artisan works.
During the Victorian era of the late 19th century, Valentine traditions prompted loved ones to share homemade baked goods and handcrafted keepsakes.
Since the way to someone’s heart is really via the stomach, Victorians on Valentine’s Day showed love by giving items that were useful in the kitchen. The Victorians said “I love you” with gifts of decorative ceramic rolling pins, pie plates, and hand-painted, decorated china.
From Heart to Hair
Although the valentine card remains the most recognizable of the lover’s offerings, Victorian gifts from the heart—and the head—were the most desirable.
One such gift was an item that would assist in making handicrafts: the hair receiver. Today, antique hair receivers range in value from $15 to $500 for specialty examples; in the Victorian era, a hair receiver was a common dresser accessory.
Victorian women saved their hair in a small ceramic bowl with a hole in its top, called a hair receiver. After accumulating a good amount of locks, the brushed hair would be used for weaving hair pictures, hair bracelets, hair lockets, hair chains, hair watch fobs, etc.
Today, the popular hair crafts made from all of this saved hair are hard to find. These hair crafts were the result of years of saving actual human hair.
Intricately woven hair crafts became love gifts from circa 1850 to 1910. Hair jewelry was most commonly used for sentimental remembrances and as gifts.
On Valentine’s Day, women believed that giving their beloved a hair bracelet or hair watch fob would serve as a love charm and ensure a long and happy relationship. Many Civil War soldiers had such items and many are found by relatives alongside military memorabilia.
Blonde or Brunette?
One of the most beloved Valentine antiques is the coveted hair picture, which was a devotional object coveted by families for generations. Accompanied by a handwritten inscription, hair pictures are fascinating mementos. Some of the most common Victorian valentines featured the symbolic lover’s rose or a bouquet of forget-me-not flowers to remember the dead, all made from the hair locks of one’s beloved.
With values in the $1,000 to $5,000 range, framed Victorian hair pictures grew from loving pictures to fine memorials. Images made of hair related to the lover’s lifestyle or his or her occupation, military service, or hobbies.
Hair pictures made of woven hair depicted intricate landscapes, family homesteads, military symbols like rifles or sea anchors, bicycles, and still lifes of favorite fruits or flowers documenting the bounty of a couple’s love or a life well lived.
If you are looking to collect a hair receiver, hair picture, or piece of woven hair jewelry in the form of a watch fob or locket, look for pieces that are in period frames and in very good condition.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Celebrity Ph.D. antiques appraiser, author, and award-winning TV personality, Dr. Lori hosts antiques appraisal events worldwide. She is the star appraiser on international hit TV shows: Discovery’s Auction Kings, History channel’s The Curse of Oak Island, and Fox Business’ Strange Inheritance. Visit www.DrLoriV.com, Facebook.com/DoctorLori, or call (888) 431-1010.