Lockets

A hinge along one edge holds the lid to the body, and a catch on the opposite edge holds it shut. On most gold lockets that catch is a sprung lip which rides over a small lug and clicks into place.

To open it, press a thumbnail into the shallow groove opposite the hinge and lift. The lid should rise without resistance once the catch has released, and it does not need to be prised.

Closing means bringing the lid down square on to the rim and pressing near the catch rather than near the hinge. Pressure at the hinge end twists the lid and spreads the knuckle over time.

The aperture is always smaller than the outside of the piece, because the rim, the wall of the body and the frame all take up width. A locket measuring twenty millimetres across typically has an opening nearer fourteen or fifteen.

Listing dimensions describe the outside. The reliable way to establish the opening is to lift the frame out once the locket arrives and measure the aperture directly.

Depth matters as much as width. The cavity is shallow, so a single thin print lies flat while folded paper or a thick card mount will hold the lid off the rim and strain the catch.

Lift the frame out, lay it face down on the print and mark round its outer edge. Cut just inside that line, so the trimmed image ends up a fraction smaller than the frame and a fraction larger than the aperture.

Place the subject where the aperture will fall, not where the frame will. On an oval opening the corners of a square photograph disappear entirely, which shifts the apparent centre of the image.

Photographic paper is the easiest material because it is thin and lies flat. Home-printed card and anything with a laminate springs back and lifts the frame away from the wall.

Only if it is built with two frames, one in the body and one in the lid. A double-frame locket closes on two images facing each other, while a single-frame locket has a plain inner lid and takes one.

The two apertures in a double are the same size, so the images are better trimmed together than one at a time. Small differences in the cut show plainly when the lid is open.

A second frame adds to the overall thickness. Between two lockets of the same face width, the double-frame version is the deeper and the heavier of the two.

A lock of hair is the oldest use and predates photography inside lockets altogether. It is normally bound with thread and laid flat rather than coiled, since a coil holds the lid off the rim.

Small pressed flowers, a fragment of fabric and a folded slip of paper are all common. What they have in common is that they compress to well under a millimetre and stay compressed.

Anything loose or granular is a poor idea. The joint between lid and rim is close but not sealed, and fine material works its way into the hinge and stiffens it.

A locket is made from two shaped skins of metal with a raised rim between them, plus a hinge assembly and a catch. The cavity removes less material than that construction adds.

In practice a locket runs three to four millimetres front to back where a plain disc of the same outline might be under one. The depth is where the weight goes.

The difference is felt at the neck. A locket settles lower and moves less than a light pendant, and it makes contact with buttons and hard surfaces more often.

The front panel is broad, flat and left plain on many designs, which makes it the natural place for a monogram, a date or a short line. It is the surface the object already directs attention to.

A domed or heavily embossed front is a different proposition. The engraver has to follow the curve or work around raised ornament, and that is normally quoted separately.

Depth of cut is the choice that matters. A shallow line softens over years of contact with clothing, while a deeper one keeps its shadow but breaks the polish more visibly.

A catch in good order holds against ordinary movement. What loosens it is age: the sprung lip flattens fractionally each time it rides over the lug, and after enough cycles it stops gripping.

A locket that has begun to fall open in a pocket or under a jumper is telling you the catch needs taking up. A jeweller can re-tension or replace the lip without touching the hinge.

The other cause is a lid that no longer sits square, usually from being opened past its stop. There the fault lies at the hinge and the catch is only the symptom.

Yes. Frames are made to come out, and lifting one at its edge with a fingernail is the intended method. A blade slipped underneath scores the inside wall of the locket.

A frame that has sat in place for decades can be tight. Warming the piece in the hand and working slowly round the edge is usually enough; force bends the frame out of round and it then refuses to seat.

Keep the old print rather than discarding it. Once a new frame is seated there is no record of what was there before unless somebody wrote it down.

Try the catch first, and gently. A hinge that has not been moved in years is stiff rather than broken, and the pin is thin enough that levering the lid is what usually snaps it.

Then look along the closed edge. If light shows between lid and rim at one point, the knuckle has spread and the lid is no longer sitting square on the body.

Finally look at what is inside before anything is disturbed. Inherited lockets often hold unlabelled images, and the arrangement they were left in is itself a piece of information.