Antique American Folk Art Love Token with Hearts, Hands and Hair. Circa 2nd Quarter of the 19th Century

Peggy McClard Antiques

Americana & Folk Art

Beginning in the early decades of the 19th century, women and young ladies kept memory books and friendship albums which they filled with paper and fabric cuttings of hearts and hands embellished with woven or otherwise arranged hair of friends and family. Woven hearts and hands embellished with hair were traded as 19th century tokens of love and friendship. The double lobed heart has been the symbol of love since antiquity, showing up in Cro-Magnon pictograms and early Egyptian paintings. European immigrants brought the heart as the symbol of romantic love to America where they added two other symbols, the heart and hand and the heart in hand which both symbolized the heart's guidance of the hand's actions. This beautiful and sensitive image of love shows up in highly collectible Christmas, New Years, and Valentine greetings and declarations of love.

Because hair does not disintegrate if it is properly protected, American women made it a symbol of abiding love as well as deeply felt loss. Mothers kept locks of their children's hair and unmarried women often gave locks of their hair to suitors as tokens of love. Locks of sitter's hair were often added to miniature portraits. A popular nineteenth-century women's periodical described hair ". . . at once the most delicate and last of our materials. [It] survives us like love. It is so light, so gentle, so escaping from the idea of death, that, with a lock of hair belonging to a child or friend we may almost look up to heaven and compare notes with angelic nature, may almost say, I have a piece of thee here, not unworthy of thy being now."¹

This beautiful love token was taken from a memory album (prior to my acquisition). It features the hair of baby Horace Preston (hair taken at 10 months), the hair of his father, Horace Preston, Sr. and the hair of mother, Patty Preston. Baby Horace's hair adorns a vibrant blue heart that has a little baby-sized hand attached. Dad and Mom's hair is braided separately and, together, adorn a single heart. The heart is adorned with a Dad-sized and a Mom-sized hand. The paper has a blue tint, making the entire piece sing with blue. This love token was apparently take from the same memory book as the other I'm currently offering (see the other listing which notes the very faded inscription across the bottom that reads "Mrs. Preston Present from M.M.B.") I've framed this lovely piece of American folk art in a period ebonized frame with original dry surface. The love token is lightly hinged with archival tape to a bit of handmade acid-free paper. This is all placed atop lovely paper that is hand-marbled in the same method that has been used since the 18th century. This type of marbled paper was favored by 19th century Americans. The frame measures 11 3/4" x 8 1/2". The love token, itself, measures 7 5/8" x about 5 7/8". Circa second quarter of the 19th century.

(#424) $850

References:

Eisenbarth, Erin E., "Made for Love: Selections from the Jane Katcher Collection of Americana", Spring 2007, Antiques & Fine Art. (online article at antiquesandfineart.com)

Shaw, Robert. "United as this Heart You See: Memories of Friendship and Family", Expressions of Innocence and Eloquence Selections from the Jane Katcher Collection of Americana, Ed. Jane Katcher, David A. Schorsch, Ruth Wolfe. Marquand Books, 2006. 85-101.

Ockenga, Starr. On Women & Friendship A Collection of Victorian Keepsakes and Traditions. Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1993. 107-117.

¹Shaw, id. at 101 (quoting Leigh Hunt, Godey's Lady's Book (May 1855)).

Please forgive the copyright notice that runs through the photos. I've been experiencing quite a bit of image theft and must start labeling the photos.