Charlotte Brontë’s hair found in antique ring

Charlotte Brontë’s hair has been found hidden inside an antique ring, according to experts.

The ring was brought to jewellery expert Geoffrey Munn on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow by an unnamed woman who claimed it belonged to her late father-in-law.

The ring contains an inscription inside, which bears the name of the author, and the date of her death- 1855. The excited woman explained: “I’ve got goosebumps now thinking about it. It’s got a hinge on it, and inside there’s plaited hair, I think it may be the hair of Charlotte Brontë!”

Geoffrey Munn told the lucky Antiques Roadshow visitor that he had ‘very little reason to doubt’ the ring’s authenticity.

“It was a convention to make jewellery out of hair in the 19th century. There was a terror of not being able to remember the face and character of the person who had died,” he explained. “It wasn’t an uncommon thing to happen. It opens like a little biscuit tin lid, and amazingly we see this hair work within, very finely worked and plaited hair. It echoes a bracelet Charlotte wore of her two sisters’ hair … So it’s absolutely the focus of the mid- to late 19th century and also the focus of Charlotte Brontë.”

The principal curator at the Brontë Society & Brontë Parsonage Museum, Ann Dinsdale, confirmed that they had no reason to doubt the hair found within the ring was Brontë’s, even though its origin was unknown.

As long as the museum can find the funds the ring would be a “lovely addition” to the museum’s collection. “We already have a considerable collection of Brontë hair at the museum, and there’s usually a sample on display.”

Without the hair, Munn explained how the ring’s value would be around £25; but with the hair and the inscription, it is valued at £20,000.