Victorian Braided Necklace - Advice Appreciated

[sierra_rose]

Hello everyone. First post here I have come into a few Victorian and other pieces of jewellery, one of which is this pretty braided necklace. I know that hair was often used to make mourning jewellery, but this definitely has metal content and I wondered if anyone had any information they could share to help me with some history, identification etc. It's pretty well made, no tarnish, and solid, heavy. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated, thank you very much.

 

[MariMeow]

Congratulations on your new pieces! Finding out where/when they're from and looking for clues is part of the fun of antique pieces, so this one will give you lots to research and learn! So exciting!!!

Looking at it, the rope or braid is super elaborate but the clasp... not so much. I would say the clasp is a later addition or part of a conversion, so the rope was originally longer or maybe part of something else. I would look at the braiding pattern for clues. Could it have ties to naval officers? Or could it have been part of a ceremonial uniform? Shoulder rope?

I'm sure you know much more about the origin of the jewelry than me, but I started looking and found this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aiguillette

Looking at the pictures, the tips of an aiguillette are indeed different, so I would bet the clasp was added when someone wanted to convert this, part of a military uniform, into jewelry. Nice homage to the officer it could have belonged to. It's gold so we're talking about a high-ranking commander.

Back to looking at the rope pattern for clues! It might have ties or a certain symbolism to a specific country or military branch. It would be very possible for you to to find that exact rope pattern in someone's uniform, if you look through pictures of people in uniform from that era.

Happy researching! Do get back to us if you find anything on it!!!