Another inherited item.
I don;t know if family history is correct. My Mom always said it was my Great-Great Aunt’s Mourning Bracelet for her husband. He died in a sawmill accident in 1892. He was 32 yeears old.
I think the photo in the charm looks more like one of my Aunts Brothers or her Brother in Law (My Great Grandpa).
If anyone can help me decipher this mystery, I would appreciate it.
I took photos of the locket closed, enlarged them and did not see any information on them.
If anyone has hints on how to photograph this, I would appreciate it. The glass is pretty thick, say almost 1/8".
Also, any thoughts on if this is a gold bracelet, plated, some other metal, etc. anything on the manufacturer.
If you need more photos, I can try.
Sometimes, I do not know if having inherited so many items is a blessing, curse, or a little of both.
thank you everyone.
I don’t think this is a bracelet. I believe it is a watch fob.
Lack of gold stamps probably indicate that it is gold filled. The color difference on the clasp and other connecting parts shows that the gold plating is partially worn off.
Appreciate you comments.
I can see it as a watch fob.
My family stories with many things have been interesting, for sure.
I do know my Aunt Nellie had very tiny bones. Her waist was 18". A bracelet I have of hers is about 5.5" long.
The strange thing is that she was fairly tall, for the time. I am estimating about 5’6". My Mom was 5’6" and I am 5’5" with tiny bones. My Mom had large bones.
Even though I am in my 60’s now, I am of very small stature. 22" waiste and wear 6" bracelets.
Many jewelry and coin/precious metal stores have portable hand-held XRF (X-ray Fluorescence) analyzers. It takes a couple of seconds to do the test. [Some places may do it for free.]
This equipment is very accurate in determining the chemical (atomic) composition for most elements in the periodic table. The manufactures of these analyzers recommend periodic maintenance and calibration.
XRF analysis was discovered over 100 years ago; it required fairly large equipment. Portable hand-held XRF analyzers were invented in ~2008, and that was a big breakthrough for much broader use. XRF is used for analyzing: 1) precious metals [including part per million detection of platinum, palladium, iridium, rhodium, etc. during gold jewelry reprocessing], 2) Diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires (vs. CZs), 3) geology and mining (including a few rock hunters;-), 4) Industrial metal fabrication, 5) Environmental, etc.
Here’s several links that you may find informative:
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1901/speedread/. “On a dark November evening in 1895, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was perplexed by a fluorescent screen in his laboratory that was glowing for no apparent reason. Röntgen’s experiment on how cathode-ray tubes emit light appeared to be affecting something that was not part of the study. It took weeks spent eating and sleeping in his lab to identify the cause of this mysterious glow – a discovery with which Röntgen’s name is linked for all time, and which earned him the very first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.”
Definitely a men’s late Victorian gold filled watch Fob. The photo was likely added by your grandmother and used as a bracelet.
Look at the closeups of the eBay listing and you can see obvious wear since the panels are likely 10k rolled gold plate and not solid 10k gold.
The surface of rolled gold plate will test the karat of the plate used. That is why jewelers would file away the surface to verify solid gold or plate. A person can easily be fooled by this.
