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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Locket</span></span>
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</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">For the cough drops, see <a href="Lockets" title="Lockets">Lockets</a>. For other uses, see <a href="Locket_(disambiguation)" class="mw-disambig" title="Locket (disambiguation)">Locket (disambiguation)</a> and <a href="The_Locket_(disambiguation)" class="mw-redirect mw-disambig" title="The Locket (disambiguation)">The Locket (disambiguation)</a>.</div>
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<p>A <b>locket</b> is a <a href="Pendant" title="Pendant">pendant</a> that opens to reveal a space used for storing a <a href="Photograph" title="Photograph">photograph</a> or other small item such as a lock of hair. Lockets are usually given to loved ones on holidays such as <a href="Valentine's_Day" title="Valentine's Day">Valentine's Day</a> and occasions such as <a href="Infant_baptism" title="Infant baptism">christenings</a>, <a href="Wedding" title="Wedding">weddings</a> and, most noticeably during the <a href="Victorian_Age" class="mw-redirect" title="Victorian Age">Victorian Age</a>, <a href="Funeral" title="Funeral">funerals</a>. Historically, they often opened to reveal a <a href="Portrait_miniature" title="Portrait miniature">portrait miniature</a>.
</p><p>Lockets are generally worn on chains around the neck and often hold a photo of the person who gave the locket, or they could form part of a charm bracelet. They come in many shapes such as ovals, hearts, prisms and circles and are usually made of precious metals such as gold or silver befitting their status as decorative jewellery.
</p><p>Lockets usually hold only one or two photographs, but some specially made lockets can hold up to eight. Some lockets have been fashioned as 'spinner' lockets, where the <a href="Bail_(jewelry)" title="Bail (jewelry)">bail</a> that attaches to the necklace chain is attached but not fixed to the locket itself which is free to spin. This was a common style in the <a href="Victorian_Age" class="mw-redirect" title="Victorian Age">Victorian Age</a>. Around 1860 memento lockets started to replace <a href="Mourning_ring" title="Mourning ring">mourning rings</a> as the preferred style of mourning jewellery.<sup id="cite_ref-Barton_1-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Barton-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>Keepsake lockets can also be made with a glass pane at the front so that what is inside can be seen without opening the locket. Such lockets are generally used for items like locks of hair which could fall out and become lost if the locket were repeatedly opened, whereas photograph lockets are generally enclosed on all sides and the photographs are secured by pieces of clear plastic.
</p><p>Another kind of locket still made was in a <a href="Filigree" title="Filigree">filigree</a> style with a small cushion in the centre to which a few drops of perfume should be added. Perfume lockets were popular in eras when personal hygiene was restricted and sweet smelling perfume was used to mask the odour of a person or their companions.
</p><p>Very rare <a href="World_War_I" title="World War I">World War I</a>- and <a href="World_War_II" title="World War II">World War II</a>-era <a href="United_Kingdom" title="United Kingdom">British</a> and <a href="United_States" title="United States">American</a> military uniform locket <a href="Button" title="Button">buttons</a> exist, containing miniature working <a href="Compass" title="Compass">compasses</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2></div>
<ul><li><a href="Coin_locket" class="mw-redirect" title="Coin locket">Coin locket</a></li>
<li><a href="Stanhope_(optical_bijou)" title="Stanhope (optical bijou)">Stanhope (optical bijou)</a></li></ul>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>
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<div class="side-box-text plainlist">Wikimedia Commons has media related to <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lockets" class="extiw external" title="commons:Category:Lockets">Lockets</a></span>.</div></div>
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<li id="cite_note-Barton-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Barton_1-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">
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</style><cite id="CITEREFBarton2013" class="citation web cs1">Barton, Caroline (31 October 2013). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150402162649/http://blog.britishmuseum.org/2013/10/31/mourning-rings-portable-and-poignant-souvenirs/">"Mourning rings: portable and poignant souvenirs"</a>. <i>britishmuseum.org</i>. British Museum. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://blog.britishmuseum.org/2013/10/31/mourning-rings-portable-and-poignant-souvenirs/">the original</a> on 2 April 2015<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">31 March</span> 2015</span>.</cite></span>
</li>
<li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFLuscomb2003" class="citation book cs1">Luscomb, Sally C. (2003). <i>The Collector's Encyclopedia of Buttons, p.126</i>. Atglen, PA: Schiffer. p. 242. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-7643-1815-2</bdi>. <a href="LCCN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="LCCN (identifier)">LCCN</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://lccn.loc.gov/2003101645">2003101645</a>.</cite></span>
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