Antique Seed Pearl Picture Locket

Ooh, gorgeous. This is such a staple of antique jewellery, and I genuinely think it is such a shame that this tradition has mostly disappeared from modern jewellery.

Luckily, the antique girlies are nothing if not committed to reviving the old favourites.

Nowadays, if you want to carry a photograph in your jewellery, you tend to think of a traditional closed-front locket. The Victorians, however, were big fans of picture lockets like this, where the photograph, portrait or keepsake was actually displayed as part of the jewellery itself.

And I LOVE that.

This one currently holds a little portrait, but you could replace it with whatever feels personal to you. A photograph, a tiny pressed flower, a lock of your dog’s hair, your child’s hair, a miniature note, basically anything flat enough to sit safely behind the glass. I have also seen people commission tiny painted portraits of their pets for these, which is a 10/10 idea. Dog, cat, pet cow. We are not speciesist here. Frankly, a miniature portrait of someone’s beloved cow might be my favourite possible use.

Rebecca, stop rambling.

The back presses off, allowing you to place your chosen image or keepsake behind the glass and turn it into a visible part of your stack.

And this one is particularly delicious because it is not just a simple gold-framed example. The entire border is set with seed pearls, with even the bail given the same treatment. That tiny extra detail is exactly the sort of thing antique jewellery does so well.

Seed pearls were deeply symbolic in Victorian jewellery, often associated with tears, remembrance and mourning, so it is entirely possible that a piece like this could originally have held the portrait of someone loved and lost. Equally, pearls could carry softer associations with purity, affection and sentiment, so they do not automatically make the piece mourning jewellery. Either way, there is something incredibly romantic about them framing a personal image like this.

And the fact that they continued the pearl detailing onto the bail is exactly why antique jewellery slaps so hard. They simply did not know when to stop, and thank God for that.