Lock of Charlotte Bronte's hair values $26000
Jewelry expert Geoffrey Munn said that he would value the ring about $32 however an inscription of B
(Web Desk) - Charlotte Bronte, a romantic novelist, who wrote famous books like ‘Jane Eyre’ left a lock of her hair in a ring which appeared on a recent episode of the ‘Antiques Roadshow’.
Jewelry expert Geoffrey Munn said that he would value the ring about $32 however an inscription of Bronte’s name and her death year raised the value of ring to an estimated $26,000.
The owner found the ring in the attic of her late father-in-law.
A section of the ring comes unhinged to reveal a thin strand of hair inside—but did it really belong to one of the famous Bronte sisters? Munn seems to think so, explaining that it was not uncommon for hair to be incorporated into jewelry in the 19th century.
#AntiquesRoadshow expert @GeoffreyMunn1 believes this ring contains the hair of Charlotte Bronte and ‘as a relic of one of the greatest romantic novelists of the 19th century’, he values this ‘tiny, tiny little thing’ at £20,000’. pic.twitter.com/ZA00kDk23H
— Antiques Roadshow (@BBC_ARoadshow) April 14, 2019
“There was a terror of not being able to remember the face and character of the person who had died,” he said. “Hair wreaths” and other pieces of "hair work" were popular ways of paying tribute to deceased loved ones in England and America from the 17th century to the early 20th century.
In this case, the hair inside the ring was finely braided. Munn went on to add, “It echoes a bracelet Charlotte wore of her two sisters’ hair … So it’s absolutely the focus of the mid- to late 19th century and also the focus of Charlotte Bronte.”
The Bronte Society & Bronte Parsonage Museum, which has locks of Bronte’s hair in its collection, said that it had no reason to doubt the authenticity of the ring.
