Firmly Intertwined

Sentimental Bracelet Made of Braided Hair, Around 1870

€ 289.00 ^*

Content 1 piece

Unit price €289.00 / piece

Incl. VAT, Shipping

Sentimental Bracelet Made of Braided Hair, Around 1870

Description

This description was automatically translated from German. If you have any questions about this piece of jewellery, we will be happy to help!

Gifts from hair were an integral part of the culture of friendship and love in the 18th and 19th centuries. The family, one's own home and friends played a major role in the life of the time, the age of romanticism was characterized by special sensitivity. In this context, pieces of jewellery made of hair were created, which were intended as particularly personal gifts to express an intimate bond. Stendhal, the great French novelist of the early 19th century, records in his correspondence with Balzac that men also wore such jewellery made of hair. In 1810, at the height of Napoleon's reign, when the intimidated Austrians had to negotiate an alliance with France in St. Cloud, he was able to observe how the Austrian negotiator Prince von Metternich wore a bracelet made of hair from Caroline Murat, Napoleon's sister. In this way he was able to subtly express his will for the alliance of the two countries, which a little later sealed Napoleon's marriage to Marie-Louise of Habsburg, the eldest daughter of the Austrian Emperor Francis I. As an irony of history, the disappointed Caroline Murat allied herself with Austria against her brother a little later - the ribbon of hair on Metternich's arm thus connected the two far more and for longer than they probably first suspected. Cf. Stendhal: Die Kartause von Parma, Munich 2007, commentary, p. 802. The bracelet here is a wonderful example of how long this tradition remained alive. The brown hair is made of three rows of oval interwoven elements, which thus illustrate the indissolubility and infinity of love. Mounts with gold plating hold the three braids together; a chain renewed later allows the bracelet to be worn in different lengths. The bracelet was probably made in the years around 1870.

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Gifts from one's own hair were commonplace in the 18th and 19th centuries, a tradition which reached its peak as a gift of friendship or love in the Biedermeier era. The family, one's own home and friends played a major role in the life of the time - the age of Romanticism was characterized by particular sensitivity. In this context, jewellery made of hair was also created, which as particularly personal gifts, (because hair is, after all, a part of one's own body!) was intended to express an intimate bond. In popular belief, hair is the seat of life force. Whoever possesses a hair from another has power over him. So whoever gives his hair to another, delivers himself to him, so to speak, and gives him a part of his own body: "A hair ties stronger than the strongest iron cord" report old fairy tales, as one can read in the "Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens". The simplest form of hair ornament, which has survived to this day, is the locket or braided hair chain, which the loving wife gave as a gift to the young husband.

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Size & Details

Firmly Intertwined

€ 289.00 ^*

Content 1 piece

Unit price €289.00 / piece

Incl. VAT, Shipping

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