Elizabeth Barrett Browning Regency Hairwork Bracelet

Regency Gold Hairwork Bracelet of the Moulton-Barrett Children

England, circa 1819

This exceptional Regency-period gold panel bracelet was commissioned for Mary Moulton-Barrett (1781–1828) and preserves, in gold and hair, the intimate domestic world that gave rise to one of English literature’s most enduring voices—Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Formed of articulated rectangular gold panels, each compartment encloses a carefully arranged lock of hair from one of the Moulton-Barrett children, surmounted by finely engraved initials beneath glass - Elizabeth (b.1806) Edward (b.1807) Henrietta (b.1809) Samuel (b.1812) Arabella (b.1813) Charles John (b.1814) George Goodin (b.1816) Henry (b.1818). The panels are framed by richly chased foliate decoration executed in two-color gold, a hallmark of early 19th-century English goldsmithing, and punctuated at each corner with a turquoise cabochon—a gemstone historically associated with affection, fidelity, and remembrance.

The bracelet contains hair from nine children, including Elizabeth Barrett Browning herself (born 1806), transforming the jewel into a physical archive of family identity, maternal devotion, and legacy. Hairwork of this intimacy—documented, intact, and engraved contemporaneously—is extraordinarily rare, particularly in bracelet form and of this scale.

The provenance is uninterrupted: by descent in the Moulton-Barrett family, accompanied by period portraiture showing the bracelet worn by Amelia Moulton-Barrett, Elizabeth’s sister-in-law, circa 1860, and a watercolor portrait of Mary Moulton-Barrett, the original owner. Such visual corroboration elevates the bracelet from jewel to historical document.

This bracelet belongs to a rare category of Regency sentimental jewels that bridge private love and public history. It stands as a tactile prelude to Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s later poetic meditations on love, devotion, and immortality—most famously expressed in Sonnets from the Portuguese. Here, love is not metaphor but matter: preserved hair, engraved initials, gold made permanent.

Pruchased at auction Somerset, United Kingdom

"How Do I Love Thee?" (Sonnets From the Portuguese 43) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day's

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right.

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

Source: poetryarchive.org