Bracelet

Bracelet made up of a braid of six strands (two solid and four of net) mounted on two gold cartouches with a border of vegetal motifs enamelled in black. At one end there is an opening circular medallion, decorated with a border of black enamelled braids and gold flowers with a button of aljafar; on the lid, with a wavy profile, there is a geometric motif enamelled in black and decorated with five pearls and four rubies. Inside is a portrait of a child, executed in gouache on a photographic support. At the other end, the clasp is fastened by a small flower with a button made of alchemist's pearl. \Hair jewellery was, like that made from jet and its substitutes (ebonite or vulcanite and black glass, known as French jet) one of the ornaments that women wore during the long periods of mourning that marked the nineteenth-century decorum. The hair of the deceased loved one was, together with his or her photograph, the most precious souvenir in the hands of the living, so much so that it was used as the main raw material for a multitude of objects evocative of the deceased. Thus, throughout the century and in the context of mourning, the hair of the deceased was preserved in many different ways. \For example, in the case of women's hair, it was common to make memorials, like paintings, in which a bun or braid took centre stage. Another variety of this interest in preserving memories of the deceased used the hair as if it were thread, with which handkerchiefs were embroidered, on which the date of death was written. Hair was also used as if it were a fine line of paintbrush that allowed the creation of elaborate compositions with iconography alluding to death (weeping willows, funerary urns, pansies, forget-me-nots, cut ears of corn, etc.). Such motifs made with hair were arranged both in large paintings and, as miniatures, in the small spaces offered by earrings, brooches or bracelets.Precisely Pérez Galdós, in his novel La de Bringas, set in the months before the revolution of 1868, devotes the first chapters to describe the hair memorial that the protagonist of the work makes by hand as a tribute to the deceased daughter of one of his friends: The bereaved mother kept the beautiful hair of Juanita and was looking for a skilled person to make a commemorative and ornamental work with them. \Finally, the hair of the deceased could also be braided, which gave rise to two-dimensional elements (ribbons) or three-dimensional (frames, pendants). These components were made both in the privacy of the home by women and by specialized craftsmen; and combined with gold, pearls and other precious or semi-precious stones, they formed the basis of jewellery similar to those that make up the lots described. \In the collections of Spanish museums few jewels of this nature are preserved: in this sense, those that are part of the National Museum of Romanticism and the National Museum of Decorative Arts are an exception. Nevertheless, written references to similar pieces abound, for example in the inventory of Isabel II's possessions. At the same time, paintings also bear witness to its use in our country. This is the case of the Portrait of Isabel II girl studying Geography, painted by Vicente López in 1843 (National Museum of Romanticism), where we can see that the sovereign wears a gold bracelet with a gold bracelet. And the canvas Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, painted by Madrazo in 1857 (Museo Lázaro Galdiano), in which we can see another magnificent bracelet with braided hair.