Perhaps not everyone would find a hand-sewn basket filled to overflowing with human hair a tender and special thing--but I certainly do! Perhaps this hair was gathered in advance of making an elaborate Victorian hair wreath, or maybe a hair album--or maybe Clara was just stashing away her own hair in this basket, to have at the ready for friends and family who might to do the same....who can know for sure? Whatever the case, to me there is something rather potent about a pile of someone else's DNA--and an immediacy to it that collapses the distance across 100+ years. And then this sweetly hand-sewn basket itself, constructed of card or board, I believe, with velvet exterior, and a blue velvet blanket embroidered Clara in red over top, seeming as if ready for a pretend picnic! Specifically special.
5 1/4" w x 3 1/4" d x 5" t (at handle). Overall good antique condition--the blue velvet piece embroidered "Clara" is stitched to the basket just at one end and will lift up, as pictured. Stable and sound, and tightly packed with hair, which I have not removed.
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