Museum Notebook: Hair art became popular in sentimental Victorian era

The hair bouquet, made from samples of hair from the creator's family and friends. Whanganui Regional Museum Collection Reference: 2020.26

A decorative bouquet crafted from human hair. It's a concept that may initially strike one as macabre, bizarre or even grotesque. But this new acquisition at the Whanganui Regional Museum is an object of exquisitely crafted and delicate beauty. At a quick glance, it's likely you may not even realise the materials from which it is made.

Donated to the museum by Harvey Porteous, it is believed that the hair bouquet was made by either Miss Isabella Gray or her sister Jane who were sisters of Porteous' grandfather John Gray, whose father Robert Gray had a blacksmith's business on Drews Ave. Porteous inherited the bouquet from his late parents, and says rather than being displayed, it had been sitting in a cupboard before finding its new home at the museum.

"When my grandmother died everything went to my mother. And with me being the eldest son of the eldest son, everything came my way," he says.

A lock of hair can retain its colour for centuries. Hair art such as commemorative wreaths and bouquets and hair jewellery - where locks of a loved one's hair were incorporated into items such as bracelets, rings, earrings, watch chains and even riding whips - found popularity in the sentimental Victorian era as a way of commemorating both the living and the dead. As a craft, this became as fashionable a parlour activity with women as crochet, cross stitch and embroidery.

The hair bouquet, made from samples of hair from the creator's family and friends. Whanganui Regional Museum Collection Reference: 2020.26

Hair art is typically associated with memento mori objects of mourning. However, it was just as commonly used as a way to make gifts for friends or to make family trees.

When Prince Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria wore mourning jewellery containing his hair until her death in 1901. It then became fashionable for other English women to do the same.

Made using assorted shades and sources of hair which Porteous believes to all be from different family members, the detail in the hair bouquet is compelling. It is a reflection of the Victorian fashion for documenting mourning and sentimentality through objects.

Porteous says Isabella tragically drowned on the family farm. She had been riding her horse which suddenly shied, causing her to fall into the creek where she was found.

Porteous, a member of Whanganui's Genealogy Society, says he did take the bouquet out of the cupboard to show members of his group about two years ago. "Some said, 'isn't that cute?' and others recoiled."

While the hair bouquet is one of its kind in the museum's collection, the museum does have a beguiling selection of hair and mourning jewellery.

• Kiran Dass is marketing and communications co-ordinator at Whanganui Regional Museum.