{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O130484"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O130484/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BL8800/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BL8800/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2007BL8800","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2007BL8799","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O130484/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O130484","accessionNumber":"T.342&A-1965","objectType":"Brooch","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Death was highly visible in Victorian culture. It was a time for communal feeling, studied response and ritual, with people encouraged to give public expression to their grief. Throughout the Victorian period there were 'hair artists' who specialised in turning locks of hair into jewellery that could be worn as a very physical memorial to someone who had died. Printed catalogues presented customers with a choice of designs and offered discreet guarantees that the locks of hair were not muddled or substituted in the process. The back of this brooch is engraved with the dates of a sixteen-year-old who died in 1842.","physicalDescription":"Hair-work brooch made of brown human hair. Shaped in a bow. The centre is bound round with gold wire and the ends are trimmed with gold tassels. There is a gold pin engraved with the birth and death dates of a 16-year-old. With a black card box with an engraved label.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"A. Forrer","id":"A18357"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"x40240"},"note":"Antoni Forrer was a Swiss-born jeweller, born c.1804. Forrer had a workshop and retail premises in London at 136 Regent Street until 1856 where he employed fifty staff. He had a Royal Warrant from c.1845. At the Great Exhibition of 1851 he showed a selection of hair jewellery and an ornamental frame containing miniatures of Queen Victoria and the royal family mounted in hair and gold, receiving a Prize Medal for his participation. He also received an ‘Honorable Mention’ for his work at the 1862 International Exhibition in London. In 1856, he moved premises to 24 Baker Street, Portman Square, and again in 1860/61 to 2 Hanover Street, Hanover Square. His advertisements display the coveted title: ‘Artist in Hair and Jewellery to the Queen, by Appointment’."}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"hair","id":"AAT11820"},{"text":"gold","id":"AAT11021"}],"techniques":[{"text":"engraving","id":"AAT53829"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Hair, gold wire, engraved","categories":[{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"},{"text":"Jewellery","id":"THES48930"},{"text":"Death","id":"THES48970"},{"text":"Clothing","id":"THES48975"},{"text":"Europeana Fashion Project","id":"THES265804"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&F","id":"THES48601"},"images":["2007BL8800","2007BL8799"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES343884"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES343884"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES343884"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES343884"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Box","id":""}],[{"text":"Brooch","id":""}],[{"text":"Lid","id":"AAT45712"}],[{"text":"ephemera","id":"AAT28881"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1842","earliest":"1837-01-01","latest":"1846-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Miss M. B. Sparks","dimensions":[],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Bow-shaped hair-work brooch, with card box, made by A. Forrer, London, ca. 1842","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"John Culme, The Directory of Gold & Silversmiths: Jewellers & Allied Traders 1838-1914, Vol. 1, (Suffolk: Antique Collectors Club, 1987)"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"‘In and Out of Mourning’ in Shirley Bury, Jewellery 1789-1910: The International Era, Vol. II 1862-1910, (Suffolk: Antique Collectors Club, 1991), 656-709"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"‘Mourning Jewellery’, in Lou Taylor, Mourning Dress, (London: Routledge, 2010), 224-247"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["T.342A-1965","T.342-1965","T.342B-1965","T.342C-1965"],"accessionNumberNum":"342","accessionNumberPrefix":"T","accessionYear":1965,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Box","Brooch"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-03-25","recordCreationDate":"2006-12-20","availableToBook":true}}