Lock of Florence Nightingale’s hair sells at auction
A lock of nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale’s hair has been sold for just under £3,000 at auction earlier this month, it has been announced.
The hair, which is thought to have been cut in 1883 when she was 63 years old, was auctioned at sale organised by Tennants Auctioneers’ on 13 July.
It was sold for £2,800 alongside an example of her signature on a clipped piece of paper, a leather-bound copy of the ‘Order for the Burial of the Dead’ published for her funeral in 1910.
Another item included was a miniature copy of The Book of Job, from the Old Testament, which is inscribed “Harry Verney from Wm Nightingale [Florence’s father] Embley April 1862” .
The items had descended through the Verney family from Sir Harry Verney (1801-94), who married Florence Nightingale’s sister Frances Parthenope in 1858.
