Sweet Victorian Pinchbeck Locket with Squirrel and Nut

The Victorians loved nature and symbolism and this is a very unusual piece with a cute little squirrel holding a nut. Surprisingly you may find that the Squirrel sometimes appeared on Victorian Memorials and Gravestones as it was seen as symbolic of religious meditation or striving for spirituality so this could have been a mourning pendant. However the traits of the squirrel were also seen as ideal traits of womanhood in the Victorian era, the squirrel is industrious, a homemaker thrifty as it hoards things for the hard times in the winter all this would have been important core values for the mother in a Victorian household. Most of all though it is just so cute!!