Accession Number

983.313.002

Description

One gold locket. There is no decoration on the locket except for the scrolled name on the front: "Alec". The movable link for the hook is attached to a fixed gold link. The locket is hinged to reveal inside a place to put a picture. Inside both halves "IV" is scratched. There is no photograph in this locket.

Narrative

This locket's long-term use by the Dunsmuir family makes it an important object in Craigdarroch's collection. 

The identity of "Alec", whose name is engraved on this locket, is not known. It could refer to Alexander Dunsmuir, the second son of Hon. Robert and Joan Dunsmuir. His name appears in the Hopper vs. Dunsmuir Will Case transcript five different times in modified form. People giving testimony refer to him either as "Alexander" or "Alec" or "Aleck". Hon. James Dunsmuir testified:

"I knew that Alec was afraid to marry Mrs. Wallace, on account of mother; I will say that; that is true".¹

1.British Columbia Archives GR-2731 Hopper vs. Dunsmuir case file 12/92 Transcript from Victoria (Hon. Justice Drake) Victoria, December 3, 1903. page 2494

History of Use

This locket was among a number of pieces of jewelry given to Craigdarroch Castle Historical Museum Society by the three daughters of Joan Olive Bryden and Alastair Douglas Macdonald in the late 1960s or early 1970s. The sisters told Castle Society founder James K. Nesbitt that the pieces, including this locket, were owned by their grandmother, Elizabeth Hamilton Dunsmuir (1848-1901), also known as Mrs. John Cowper Bryden.

Date

circa 1880

Dimensions

3 x 3 cm

Material

Metal, gold

Technique

Engraved

Inscription

Alec (on the front)
IX  IX  (and a series of lines possibly test marks inside the locket)