Tuesday 22 October 2013

The mystery photograph

I was looking at an old brooch this morning that belongs to my mother. I noticed something round and blurry on the reverse. It turns out to be a photograph of a man under a hinged piece of glass. I wonder if these brooches - round enamel with a pearl cluster centre  on the front and a hidden photo compartment in the back, were commonplace. More importantly I wonder who the man is as I do not recognise him.

I am hoping it might be a photograph of my grandfather. Nobody knows what he looks like as we can find no photograph of him. He died when my mother was 7 from the after effects of being in the trenches in the First World War. My mother only remembers him being shut away, in bed, suffering from what I think was kidney failure. On good days he painted posters for Boots the chemist and did his doctor's book keeping in exchange for treatment (no NHS in those days.)

The man in the photograph has wavy thick light coloured hair and a nice, quite handsome face. It's such a tiny photograph. It must have been treasured once for the wearer to want to have it pinned close to her heart.

5 comments:

Fibre frenzi said...

what a lovely story x

Chrissy said...

Maybe you should send a photograph of it to the V and A conservation department to see if they can tell you anything more about this type of brooch. It does seem an incredibly romantic thing to do...maybe current makers could use this story as inspiration to create something of a similar nature perhaps for Valentines Day?

Anonymous said...

Can you scan the photograph into your computer and enlarge it in Word or a photo edit program?


If you put something like 'pearl antique locket photo gold' into Google images you may see something that approximates to yours - and may get a date from the image.

Christine

the woolly dog said...

If you can get the photo enlarged and have the time, you could research what regiment your grandfather was in and see if there are photos of them with which to compare, this has the makings of a book. x

jenny said...

Thanks for your helpful ideas. I like the thought that it could be the opening of a book! Will let you know if and when I find out more.x