Lockets: what actually goes inside, and why the catch fails

A locket was never meant to be only looked at. In Georgian and Victorian times, when lockets first became popular, they were designed with hidden compartments, and what went into them was portraits, love notes and a space for a lock of hair. That is Beth Bernstein, writing in The Jewellery Editor on 10 September 2015. Every other piece of jewellery you own has a front and a back. A locket is the only one with an inside.

I am Anna Lou. I have made jewellery by hand in London for 22 years, from a stall on Portobello Road to counters at Liberty, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Harrods. Lockets come back to my bench more often than anything else I make, and almost never because of the gold.

The inside is measured in millimetres, not in photographs

The commonest disappointment with a locket is nothing to do with the locket. A compartment is a shallow bezel a few millimetres across, so a photograph has to be cropped to that bezel shape and printed at that size, not printed normally and trimmed down.

Bernstein also records 2 compartments on many antique lockets, one of them holding glass and hair, which is why an inherited locket so often has a face on one side and something unexplained on the other.

The catch and the hinge are what actually fails

A locket is the only pendant a person opens and shuts. Every other pendant is put on and taken off. So the 2 smallest parts of a locket, the hinge knuckle and the sprung tongue of the catch, do work that nothing else in a jewellery box is asked to do, sometimes for a hundred years. That is why so many old lockets either will not open or will not stay closed. Neither is the end of the piece. A hinge can be rebuilt and a catch re-tensioned or replaced at the bench.

A locket hangs lower than its chain length suggests

A locket is hollow, but with a front, a back and a rim it is heavier than a flat disc of the same width. It also sits lower than the label says, because a chain length never includes the pendant. My Chain Guide puts the average pendant at 0.75in to 2in, so a locket on a 16in chain can finish where a plain 18in would. Decide where you want it to sit, then count the locket in.

Decide now whether it will ever be opened

If it is going to be opened, the bezel size, the hinge and the catch matter more than the motif on the front. If it is going to be worn closed, with the meaning on the outside where you can see it, an engraved disc does the same job for less and sits flatter under a shirt.

The one I would put a photograph in is the Monogram Locket, £150 in sterling silver and £175 in 18kt gold plated or rose gold plated sterling silver. The pendant is 25mm by 27mm and 2.5mm thick, it comes on a sterling silver rollo chain in 5 lengths from 14in to 22in, and it takes up to 3 engraved initials on the front while still opening for a photograph inside. Outside and inside both carrying something, which is the whole idea.

Most of the lockets I am asked about were not bought. They were inherited, and they arrive in 3 states. Some open on a face everybody still recognises, and those want leaving exactly as they are. Some open on a photograph nobody left alive can name. Some will not open at all. Bernstein notes that after Prince Albert died and Queen Victoria went into mourning, lockets were designed in remembrance, chased and engraved with names and dates standing for births, marriages and deaths. So on a Victorian locket the engraving is the record, and should never be polished out to tidy the piece up. If yours is in the second or third state, send me a photograph. Second Life is where I lift the stones and gold out of pieces nobody wears and remake them by hand in the studio. The estimate is free and there is no obligation. A locket too far gone to shut can still give its stones and its engraved plate to something worn every day, and sending in gold you have no use for earns a £20 voucher.

If the meaning belongs on the outside, the Name Disc Necklace is £60 in sterling silver, gold vermeil or rose gold vermeil, a 15mm disc on a cable chain engraved with a name of up to 7 characters. If it belongs inside, the Plain Heart Locket is £300, and Bernstein writes that some of the most collectable antique gold lockets are heart padlocks. The Round Diamond Locket is £480, set with a diamond at the centre.

Buy a locket for the inside. The front is the part other people see, and it is the least important part. The second life is the real one.

Everything engraved in the workshop is in Engraved Jewellery, and the pieces I would give this year are in the Christmas Gift Guide. If what you have is an old locket rather than a new one, send me a photograph through Second Life and I will tell you what it could become, and what it would cost.

Questions I get asked

What size photograph fits inside a locket?

Smaller than almost everyone expects. The compartment is a shallow bezel a few millimetres across, so crop the picture to the bezel shape first and print it at that size, rather than printing it normally and trimming it down. Print 2, keep the spare, and choose matte, which sits flatter under the glass.

Can an old locket that will not stay shut be mended?

Usually, yes. The catch tongue loses its spring and the hinge knuckle wears, and both can be re-tensioned, rebuilt or replaced at the bench without touching the engraving or the body of the locket. If the locket is worn through rather than just loose, its stones, gold and engraved plate can go into something you will actually wear, which is what Second Life is for.

What chain length suits a locket?

Count the locket, then pick the length. Because a chain length never includes the pendant, and a locket is a deep pendant, a 16in chain will sit one around the collarbone while an 18in drops it to the upper chest. The Chain Guide walks through measuring with a piece of string, which is the method that never lies to you.