hair receivers

So, I've seen things like this at antique shops in the past, but I never realized until now what they ARE: hair receivers! To quote hairarchives.com:

"During the Victorian Period, the hair receiver was commonly found on a woman’s vanity. After brushing her hair, she would remove the hair from the brush and place it through the opening of the receiver for storage. Once enough hair had accumulated, it could be used to construct rats, or could be woven or plaited and put into lockets, left visible through cut-glass windows of a brooch or even made into watch chains, bracelets or jewelry."

I'm enthralled. And to think we let all that perfectly good old hair go to waste. I certainly could have used a real homemade rat to hold up my hair last halloween.