Looking after a locket

Perfume, hairspray, and lotion eat at a plated finish. Put the locket on after those, and take it off before a shower, a swim, or sleep. Water inside a locket marks a photograph and can leave a tide line on the metal.

Wipe it with a soft, dry cloth when you take it off. That is the whole daily routine. Skip dips, pastes, and toothbrushes. They are for solid metal, and they will strip a finish.

Open a locket from the catch, not by levering the rim. Close it until it clicks, then stop. Forcing a stiff hinge bends it, and a bent hinge will not keep the photograph in.

If it starts to feel gritty, there is usually dust or a fibre from paper in the catch. A dry, soft brush is enough. Do not oil it. Oil migrates onto the photograph.

Store it closed, in a pouch or a box of its own. Loose in a dish with chains, the wings, the rim, and the hinge scratch each other. Hang it if you can, so the chain does not knot.

Heat and a damp bathroom are the two places a photograph ages fastest. A bedroom drawer is better than a hook by the shower.

A photograph that has stuck, a catch that will not hold, or a finish that has worn through at the edge: don't prise it open with a knife. A dry cloth and a gentle hand will do less harm than forcing the hinge.