Untitled (Case with portraits of a man and woman and hair ornaments)
Unknown Artist
c. 1870s
Medium
Photographs: photographs on enamel, framed in copper alloy metal frames; hair lockets: hair with pen and black and ink on cream-colored backing; case: leather with metal push-clasp and velvet-lined interior
Dimensions
image: 3.5 × 3 cm · case: 9 × 5 × 1 cm
Classification
Photograph
Department
Photography
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John Cook Memorial Fund
Accession Number
2017.9
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The photographs of this man and woman, presumably husband and wife, are juxtaposed with clippings of their hair arranged to form their initials, A and M. In the late 1800s, photographic portraits and hair clippings combined in jewelry or frames served as mementos or memorials for loved ones. For permanence, the portraits here were vitrified on enamel, a process now used primarily for funerary monuments.