Locket

This locket may have once been an amulet containing prayers and talismans or a container for perfume or other cosmetic items. At the center, a young woman stands between two groupings of large red flowers. The connections between women and nature have ancient precedents in India, often communicating auspicious fertility. Luxury enamels like this were the hallmark of 18th-century Jaipur goldsmiths and jewelry makers.

This locket was given to the museum by the Twentieth Century Club, a women’s community group founded in the early 1900s with satellites across the United States.