A decorative bouquet crafted from human hair. It's a concept that may initially strike one as macabre, bizarre or even grotesque. But this new acquisition at the Whanganui Regional Museum is an object of exquisitely crafted and delicate beauty. At a quick glance, it's likely you may not even realise the materials from which it is made.
Donated to the museum by Harvey Porteous, it is believed that the hair bouquet was made by either Miss Isabella Gray or her sister Jane who were sisters of Porteous' grandfather John Gray, whose father Robert Gray had a blacksmith's business on Drews Ave. Porteous inherited the bouquet from his late parents, and says rather than being displayed, it had been sitting in a cupboard before finding its new home at the museum.
"When my grandmother died everything went to my mother. And with me being the eldest son of the eldest son, everything came my way," he says.
A lock of hair can retain its colour for centuries. Hair art such as commemorative wreaths and bouquets and hair jewellery - where locks of a loved one's hair were incorporated into items such as bracelets, rings, earrings, watch chains and even riding whips - found popularity in the sentimental Victorian era as a way of commemorating both the living and the dead. As a craft, this became as fashionable a parlour activity with women as crochet, cross stitch and embroidery.
