Flowers, chocolates, poetic ditties. When it comes to romantic gestures, there are no shortage of options to embrace. But perhaps nothing says “I love you” quite like embroidering a bedsheet with a message in human hair.
Set to feature in an exhibition this autumn at the Museum of London Docklands, the unusual, if macabre, token of affection is a 300-year-old memento of a story replete with romance, tragedy and insurrection.