Name: Victorian 14 Karat Hand Engraved Locket Portrait Miniature Watch Key
Brand: Unknown
Rating: 5 (52 reviews)

Victorian 14 Karat Hand Engraved Locket Portrait Miniature Watch Key

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About the Item

Truly charming Early Victorian 14kt yellow gold watch key. The outside of the watch key is hand engraved on the front. It's also hand engraved with the initials "CCC" on the reverse. Upon opening the locket, you will discover the hand painted portrait of a woman. Watch keys were generally worn by men to wind their pocket watches when pocket watches were worn attached to their waist coat. This one is all the more special given the locket style- a rarity as opposed to the purely utilitarian watch keys usually in style at the time. Men were generally in public more often than women and while they owned portraits of their wives and family (the only way to get an image of your family prior to the advent of photography) those portraits were usually left at home. The fact that this one is concealed inside a locket meant that the original owner of this watch key wanted to keep his wife with him all the time- sort of like a little secret that he had. This watch key symbolizes love in it's all it's forms. The sitters dress and hairstyle date this watch key to the 1840's to 1850's. Daggerreotypes were developed in 1839 and by the 1850's, photography had almost completely replaced hand painted portrait miniatures. This miniature portrait seems to have been painted in a time before photography had completely eliminated the art form of hand painted miniatures altogether. By this, we can surmise a couple of things about man who commissioned this; One- he most likely was more wealthy than the average man. It was by far less expensive to have a photograph taken than it was to pay a painter to paint his wife's portrait. Two- this man most likely valued established traditions. He chose to continue a centuries old practice rather than switch to a modern technology no matter how much money he'd save by doing so. This leads us to the third thing we can surmise from this: he loved his wife so much that no expense was spared so he could carry her image around with him whenever he was away from her. This watch key measures 1.75 inches long by .75 inches wide.

Metal:
14k Gold
Dimensions:
Width: 0.75 in (19.05 mm)Length: 1.75 in (44.45 mm)
Style:
Early Victorian
Period:
1850-1859
Date of Manufacture:
Circa 1850's
Condition:
Repaired: The watch key would not close when this was purchased. The rivet was lovingly rebuilt so this locket would once again close the way it was intended to do originally. Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Towson, MD
Reference Number:
Seller: MF# 435-11stDibs: LU1895211059182

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