There are two different kinds of Victorian hairwork. One is where small designs are made on an artist’s palette. This is referred to as “palette” work. Here, the hair is placed within a crystal. Sometime only a curl was used. Other times elaborate designs or pictures were fashioned out of the hair. The favorite motifs of these palette designs were Prince of Wales feathers, landscapes, basket-weave patters, weeping willows and departing ships. The finest of these Victorian “palette” hair brooches ever produced were made in the 1840’s and 1850’s in England.
(Tiim)