Gold Lockets: How They Open, and What Fits Inside

Gold Lockets

A locket is a pendant built as a container. Behind the decorated face there is a shallow cavity, closed by a lid on a hinge and held shut by a small catch at the opposite edge. That single mechanical difference governs everything else about the piece: its thickness, its weight, the way the edge is finished, and the fact that it is bought as much for what will go inside it as for what is visible outside. The listings give the outer dimensions and the metal for each design.

How a Locket Works

Most of what distinguishes one locket from another is invisible while it is closed. The depth of the cavity, the type of catch, the number of frames and the way the rim is finished all decide how the piece behaves in daily use and how easily it will open in thirty years' time. What follows describes the mechanism, and the kind of object that mechanism makes.

The three parts that make a locket open

The hinge takes the strain of every opening and is the part that wears first. Its barrels are small, the pin through them is thinner than a dressmaking pin, and repeatedly swinging the lid past its natural stop spreads the knuckle until the lid no longer sits square. The catch fails differently: the sprung lip flattens with age and stops gripping the lug, so the piece falls open on its own. Neither fault is difficult for a bench jeweller to take up, but the two are diagnosed separately and repaired separately.

Cutting a picture down to the frame

A frame holds an image by its perimeter, so a trimmed picture has to be slightly larger than the aperture and no larger than the frame. The usual method is to lift the frame out, lay it face down on the print, mark round it and cut just inside the mark. Oval apertures are the awkward ones, because a face centred in a rectangle rarely stays centred once the corners come off. Ordinary photographic paper is thin enough to lie flat; card and laminated stock tend to bow inside the cavity.

Single frame, double frame

A single-frame locket puts one image where the eye lands when the lid opens and leaves the inside of the lid plain, which some owners use for an engraved line instead. A double frame gives two apertures that close on to each other, and the convention there is to pair rather than to sequence: two people, or one person at two ages. The second frame adds a little to the body, so a double-frame piece of a given face width is deeper and heavier than its single-frame equivalent.

Why a locket weighs more than its face suggests

Two skins of metal, a raised rim, a hinge assembly and a catch all add mass that a solid disc of the same outline does not carry, and the hollow between them removes less than people expect. The result is a piece that feels denser than it looks and that settles lower on the chest, because the weight stops it riding up as the wearer moves. Judged from a photograph a locket and a disc of the same width look interchangeable; in the hand they do not.

Marking a face that is already the point

Because the front is the piece's whole visual event, anything cut into it competes with nothing else. That makes placement straightforward and depth the only real decision: a shallow line catches light and softens over decades of contact against clothing, while a deeper cut holds its shadow but interrupts the polished surface more obviously. A domed or embossed front is a separate job, since the tool has to follow a curve or work around raised ornament, and engravers normally quote that work on its own terms.

An object that later owners open

A locket is one of the few pieces of jewelry that carries information, and the information is what tends to survive a change of owner. Pictures found inside inherited lockets are frequently unlabelled, which is why some owners write a name and a year in pencil on the reverse of a print before fitting it. An old catch should be tried gently. A hinge that has not moved in years is stiff rather than seized, and forcing the lid is what shears the pin.

Locket Questions

How does a locket open and close?

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.

What size picture fits inside a locket?

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.

How do I trim a picture to fit the frame?

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.

Can a locket hold two pictures at once?

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.

What besides a picture is put inside a locket?

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.

Why does a locket weigh more than a flat pendant of the same width?

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.

Can the front of a locket be engraved?

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.

Will a locket come open while it is being worn?

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.

Can the picture inside be changed later?

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.

What should be checked on an old locket that has been passed 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.

Lockets