“A Curl of Mothers” | Victorian Hair Memento in Tube (Two Locks)
This late 19th to early 20th century tin medical tube, originally distributed by Thos. Leeming & Co. of New York, has been carefully preserved with its original label intact. Handwritten across the paper is the note “a curl of Mother’s hair”, revealing its repurposing as a mourning relic.
Contained within are two distinct locks of hair, one a silvery gray and the other a warm auburn. Such keepsakes were a cherished Victorian practice, serving as physical mementos of loved ones and often kept as tokens of mourning or remembrance.
