This image has been released as “CCBY” by Auckland Museum.
Do you have a locket you like to wear? Perhaps because it’s pretty. Perhaps because it holds the picture of a loved one. Maybe a grandchild or a sweetheart. I remember loving the idea of having a locket when I was a young girl. The idea of secreting a photo inside it and then wearing it close to my heart was appealing even before I was old enough to have a special sweetheart.
I knew of or was told about older people who had lockets with strands of hair tucked inside. This was often a lock of hair clipped from a loved one’s head after he or she had passed away. A way to remember.
I found two different ideas of the source for the word locket. One source thought it most likely derived from the Frankish word loc or the Norse lok, meaning “lock” or “bolt” and first appeared in the 17th century. Another source said the little cases weren’t named for the hair locks many contained, but instead got the name from the Old French loquet, “door-handle” or “latch,” for the way their covers move on a hinge and closed securely, like a door. Perhaps the French word came from the Frankish word.
However the word came to be, lockets evolved from ancient amulets to mementos that became increasingly popular by the 19th Century. In the beginning, European designed pendants, dating back to the 16th Century, were worn to ward off evil spirits. These may have held something the wearer considered a good luck charm. A more practical use may have been the lockets containing pefume soaked fabric squares to sniff while in public to ward off the unpleasant odors around them.
When the lockets became popular as a way to remember loved ones and before photography allowed a locket wearer to clip out a bit of a picture to put inside it, artists painted the loved one’s portrait on the inner surface of the lockets. Then something perhaps of interest to mystery writers, sometimes that pretty little locket held a smidgen of poison.
Mourning jewelry became hugely popular in the 19th Century. That’s when those snips of hair or sometimes tiny braids of hair were kept in the lockets that were often heart shaped and sometimes clear to show the insert. The locket became a way to say “I loved” and in some small way keep their loved one close to their heart.
According to jewelry historian Monica McLauhlin jewelry is something that has evolved through the centuries and studying the styles of a particular age is a great way to learn more about the people of that time. She says, “Over time, jewelry has served as a form of talisman or a personal item of reflection, as a way to support one’s country in a war effort, or as an outlet for people—rich or poor—to memorialize their loved ones or proclaim their latest enthusiasms. It really is a tiny, exquisite little window into history.”
In my new story, When the Meadow Blooms, my character, Anneliese, had a locket that had once belonged to her grandmother and held the memory of one of the grandmother’s daughters who died when a baby. Anneliese treasured that locket not only because it was her grandmother’s but also because it seemed to represent how love never died.
In When the Meadow Blooms, the grandmother’s locket is important in the story and plays a part in the end. While I was working on the story, I looked at dozens of lockets to find the perfect one that I could describe for my readers. I didn’t pick the one at the top of the post since I only found that photo this evening. Instead I found some for sale on various internet sites and imagined Anneliese’s locket something like this. 
Have you ever had a treasured locket or know of one in your family that tells a story?
Comments 15
Oh, I forgot to mention, it’s Rebecca again, I have an older sister who lives in Hawaii who has a necklace too that has the ashes of her mother, who was killed in a car accident. She wears it every day. I feel jealous of her a little because hers is in the shape of a heart, and my guardians don’t want me wearing a locket full of ashes around my neck. I am doing it anyway. My dad suggested that I use a valve core from a byclicle to represent my great grandmother, instead of a locket. I am going to Hawaii over winter break when schools are closed. My sister in gonna come and get me and then we’ll go from here. I think the valve core idea is really wrong and inapropriate. No one would think of doing that.
This Is Rebecca, I am 15 years old. I have a locket that has the ashes of my great grandmother in it and I wear it everywhere that I go. She was 93, and she died in her sleep in the middle of July of this year. I have a best friend that has the ashes of her grandfather.
I thought this was very interesting and how you researched it for your story. I do not have a locket, but, I do have a ring that was my sunts. She designed it from 2 earrings and her engagement ring from jewelry her deceased uncle gave to her. My grandmother was given it when aunt Mabel died because grandma loved it. I received it after my grandmother passed away as I knew my aunts story about the ring and I wear it now. I am to pass it down to someone in my family. I have not yet decided who will receive it yet.
Author
I hope you’ll find someone in your family who will appreciate the family history of the ring and treasure it as you do and your grandmother and aunt did, Rory. I love items that have the extra love of memories. I’m glad you enjoyed reading about lockets.
I have a locket. Has my two oldest neices in it. One is in 50s now.
Author
What a sweet memory locket with your nieces’ pictures in it, Jane. Sounds as if you’ve treasured it for a while.
What a sweet idea, Jane Squires. I have a best friend at my school that has the ashes of her grandfather in it and we walk out to the buses together, and talk a lot, and when we talk we look at each other’s lockets that have the ashes of our loved ones. I know this may seem weird, but I didn’t know my great grandmother very well when she died. The first funeral that I went to was hers, and they had a viewing of her and I was surprised that they had her cremated because that’s not something that one would normally do is to have a viewing and then cremate, but that is a personal decision. I am closer to her son then I was to her. Planning on wearing my grandfather around my neck when he dies. He is healthy so not expecting this anytime soon. He will be 70 pretty soon. Her ashes are not only in a box on top of my beauro, but they are in a locket, around my neck, close to my heart. I feel close to her when I wear it.
I have the locket someone in my family bought me when I was a baby, it still has the teeth marks on it I put there as a little girl. Someday I will pass it on to my great granddaughter but right now she is too much of a tomboy for it. It is one of my treasures.
Author
Fun that you have the locket you had as a little girl and one that’s marked with your teeth, Donna Jean. Somebody commented on this link on my FB page and they said something the same – that they had a childhood locket with their teeth marks. I guess the locket made an easy chew opportunity.
We don’t have any lockets in our family that I know of. It would be interesting if we did. I have a few pieces of jewelry from my mom and dad, but that’s all.
Author
I have some interesting keepsake jewelry pieces too, Connie, but no lockets. That didn’t keep me from giving Anneliese one in my story. 🙂
I had a locket that held a hard substance that had a pleasing smell, I would take my finger and rub over it then rub it on my wrists. I had totally forgotten. Looking forward to your new book.
Author
Glad my post brought up a fun memory for you, Loretta. Maybe that was one of those lockets to wear to avoid the unpleasant odors you might encounter at times.
This was so interesting. Thank you for sharing, Ann. I have my mom’s locket and yes I clipped her hair and placed it inside. Blessings
Author
Then you have a true memory locket, Lucy. I’m sure you treasure it. I’m glad you liked reading about lockets.