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Oval gilt-metal memorial pendant of George Washington, the reverse retaining a glazed compartment with carefully arranged locks of hair attributed to George and Martha Washington. The oval pendant, which measures 1.75˝ x 2.25˝, contains an obverse portrait of Washington in Continental Army uniform against a pale sky background, while the reverse displays two distinct coils of hair mounted beneath glass, one notably darker and one lighter in color, consistent with the family attribution to both George and Martha Washington. In fine condition, with wear to the pendant.
According to family history preserved by the consignor, the pendant descended through the family of Major General Benjamin Lincoln (1733–1810), one of George Washington’s most trusted Revolutionary War commanders, who famously accepted the British surrender at Yorktown on Washington’s behalf in October 1781. The pendant was reportedly discovered among materials preserved at the Lincoln family’s ancestral home in Hingham, Massachusetts.
The carefully preserved arrangement of the two locks reflects the period tradition of commemorative hairwork objects associated with prominent historical figures and the culture of relic preservation that surrounded the founding generation during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.
