Austen (Jane), A lock of hair made into a weeping willow over a gravestone bearing the inscription 'Jane Austen', early to mid 19th century.

This "in memoriam" hair jewellery is believed to be made from a lock of Jane Austen's hair. The fine light brown hair has been intricately made into a weeping willow (a standard symbol of mourning and also resurrection) with its branches shading the decorated gravestone of Jane Austen, her name lettered in hair strands upon the gravestone. The piece is skilfully glued on an oval piece of vellum measuring 55 x 75 mm and mounted in a typical early to mid 19th-century wooden frame with an acorn and oak leaves gilt clasp and hook, the backing of 1850s period laid paper and old velvet. There are no marks of maker, place or provenance.

"We have been researching this for some time," said Dominic Winter. "We have shown it to various Austen and decorative object experts including Tom Carpenter, curator at the Jane Austen House, Chawton, in Alton, Hampshire, where we compared it with the only other known lock of Austen's hair extant. Their lock is discoloured and the evidence from direct comparison was inconclusive. First-hand accounts of Jane Austen's hair colour vary too, from light to darkish brown. We have taken the back off the frame and examined all the materials and in our opinion this could have been made at the time of Jane Austen's death in 1817, or slightly later as the backing paper and frame look closer to mid 19th century as Austen's fame rose. There is no sign that this was made recently or to deceive, the lucky vendor who spotted it some twenty years ago among some bric-a-brac having no idea of its previous provenance."

Hairwork as a craft became prominent in England from the early 1800s and flourished in the Victorian era, with hair preserved in lockets and brooches. Rarely signed or placed these have a collecting currency as antique objects in themselves. It is well documented that Cassandra, Jane Austen's sister, cut off several locks of hair as mementoes before Jane's coffin was finally closed. The fate of these various locks has been lost in the mists of time and perhaps this lock was given to one of the six brothers, hence it not being made into an item of jewellery, which would be more likely for a woman. Dominic comments, "The best suggestion is Edward (1767-18152) who in 1783 became heir to the property of his second cousin Thomas Knight, took his name, and was the steady benefactor of his mother, brothers, and sisters. But this is still just speculation and the truth may never be known as all we know is that the owner unearthed it in an antiques shop in Worcestershire over twenty years ago. We think that Museums and Jane Austen Collectors worldwide will be intrigued enough to bid on this visual piece to enhance their collections."

Of course, the lock could have been cut from the head of another Jane Austen as the name is not uncommon and Jane even had a cousin named Jane Austen; but whoever did it would have had some wealth to pay the skilled artisan, making it likely that this was made in memoriam to a notable person. It's easier to believe this is the Jane Austen than not. Now Dominic Winter have called off their own investigation and offer it up for sale in their monthly Book Auction on Wednesday 18th June. Last April Christie's New York failed to get any bidding interest for the mysterious painting of a young girl, The Rice Portrait of Jane Austen, with an estimate of $400,000-$800,000. Compared to this the lock of hair, with an estimate of £3000-£5000, will prove a snip!

Jane Austen's Hair – An Historical Note

The first biography of Jane Austen (her brother Henry Austen's 'Biographical Notice of the Author', published with the first edition of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, 1818) makes no mention of the novelist's hair, nor does the same writer's extended version of his text, 'Memoir of Miss Austen', published with the Bentley edition of Sense and Sensibility in 1833. Anna Lefroy's 'Recollections of Aunt Jane', 1864, refers only to 'the fine naturally curling hair, neither light nor dark' (p. 158 of J.E. Austen-Leigh's Memoir of Jane Austen [and other texts], edited by Kathryn Sutherland, 2002). Yet Caroline Austen's My Aunt Jane Austen, 1867, ibid. p. 169, says 'Her hair, a darkish brown, curled naturally - it was in short curls round her face... she always wore a cap'. The second edition of James Edward Austen-Leigh's Memoir of Jane Austen, 1871, ibid. p. 70, speaks of 'brown hair forming natural curls close round her face'. Yet family traditions are unreliable, since another niece, Edward Knight's daughter Louisa (1804-1889) is quoted by Elizabeth Jenkins (in the Jane Austen Society's Report for the Year 1980, p. 26) as having, as a child, seen Jane Austen with long black hair (yet this quotation comes from a letter of 1856 by another person, so memory may be lending enchantment!).

Deirdre Le Faye in her book Jane Austen: a Family Record, 2nd ed., 2004, pp. 256-257, reports on the distribution of locks of hair after her sister's death on 18th July 1817: 'Before the coffin was finally closed, Cassandra cut off several locks of Jane's hair for mementoes, as was then the usual practice;. Cassandra wrote on 29th July 1817 to her niece Fanny Knight that she had found a note by Jane Austen instructing that a lock of hair should be set for Fanny, and asked whether she preferred a brooch or a ring (ibid. p. 348). 'Fanny's choice was for the hair to be set in an oval brooch, bearing simply Jane's name and the date of her death' (I do not know what happened to this brooch). Cassandra herself had a lock set in pearls and made into a ring; this went at her death in 1845 to her niece Cassandra Esten Austen (1808-1897), daughter of Charles Austen by his first wife Fanny Palmer. Another lock of hair went to Jane Austen's friend Anne Sharp (?1776-1853) who had been Fanny Knight's governess at Godmersham between 1804 and 1806; again, its fate is unknown. Deirdre Le Faye suggests that further locks would have gone to Jane Austen's brothers James, Henry, Francis, Edward and Charles, but, if so, their whereabouts are unknown (and did men at that time wear memorial jewellery with the hair of the deceased?).

The only lock of Jane Austen's hair whose ownership can be traced to the present day is that currently on display at Jane Austen's House, Chawton. This would appear to have been given by Cassandra Austen to Harriet Palmer, who at the time of the novelist's death was looking after the orphaned children of her brother Charles, whose first wife, Fanny Palmer, Harriet's sister, had died in 1814. Harriet married Charles in 1820 as his second wife, and their son Charles John (1821-1867) had a family including two daughters, Jane (1849-1928) and Emma Florence (1851-1939); Harriet's lock of hair would have descended to them, and was sold by them, probably in 1924; it later came up for auction as Lot 266 at Sotheby's on 3rd May 1948; as the property of Frederick R. Lovering of St. Austell, Cornwall, and was bought by Alberta Hirshheimer Burke of Baltimore (Mrs. Henry Burke), 1906-1975, by whom it was presented to Jane Austen's House at the Jane Austen Society's annual general meeting in 1949.

Lot 266 on 3rd May 1948 consisted of five items, including a lock of Rev. George Austen's hair, in a wrapper labelled in Jane Austen's hand 'My Father's Hair', and another lock with its paper wrapper labelled, apparently in Cassandra's hand, 'Miss Jane Austen's Hair - Miss Palmer'. Both locks of hair were given to Jane Austen's House in 1949 (see Mrs. Burke's letter to The Times Literary Supplement , 9 November 1962). An account of the sale appears in Jo Modert, Jane Austen's Manuscript Letters in Facsimile, 1990, pp. 31-32), where it is revealed that Lot 266, including the two locks of hair and three manuscript items, was sold for £80.

The lock of hair was at some unknown date framed between two pieces of glass in a circular gilt frame topped with a bow. A long period of exposure to light made it lose its glossy brownness and become straw-coloured. In about 1972 the lock was examined by the Unilever Research Laboratory and dyed to resemble its original colour; the scientists had concluded from their examination of the hair that 'within the last three years of her life Jane Austen did little to tend her hair and that brushing, combing and handling were minimal' (J. Alan Swift, A scanning electron microscope study of JaneAusten's hair', Nature 238, No.5360, 21 July 1972, pp. 161-162 (Gilson M1563)). A report in The Times of 22 April 1972 had stated that the hair colouring firm Elida had been employed to restore the original colour of the hair.

Auction date Wednesday 18th June, Estimate £3,000 - £5,000