Mourning Jewellery: A History of Grief and Elegance
Mourning jewellery, though now a niche collector’s item, once played a vital role in how people coped with grief and commemorated the dead. These intimate objects—rings, brooches, pendants, and lockets—served both as personal keepsakes and public declarations of loss. Far from being morbid, mourning jewellery is a deeply human tradition blending memory, art, and social ritual.
Origins and Evolution
The tradition of wearing commemorative items for the dead dates back thousands of years. Ancient Egyptians used funerary amulets, while Roman mourners might wear rings carved with the deceased’s image. However, mourning jewellery as we recognise it today took shape in 17th-century Europe, growing in significance throughout the Georgian and especially the Victorian eras.
Following the death of Prince Albert in 1861, Queen Victoria’s extended mourning helped popularise black clothing and jewellery for decades. Her choice to wear jet, black enamel, and memorial lockets made mourning jewellery fashionable and acceptable, even expected, among the middle and upper classes.
Materials and Symbols
Victorian mourning jewellery was often crafted from:
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Jet: A fossilised lignite popular for its deep black sheen.
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Vulcanite and gutta-percha: Cheaper, mouldable alternatives to jet.
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Onyx and enamel: Used for higher-end pieces.
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Gold: Frequently engraved with dedications or dates.
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Hair: The deceased’s hair was intricately woven or encased in glass as a keepsake. Often as with locket pictured the sepia paint was actually made from pigment and ground hair then painted onto material such as porcelaine ivory , and mother of pearl.
Common motifs included:
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Willow trees and urns: Symbols of sorrow and remembrance.
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Skulls and hourglasses: Memento mori (reminders of mortality).
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Clasped hands: Representing unity, even in death.
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Weeping eyes: Often engraved or painted miniatures.
These designs weren’t simply ornamental—they reflected the era’s religious beliefs, social customs, and personal grief.
Rules of Mourning
Strict etiquette governed how and when mourning jewellery could be worn. The Victorian mourning period was divided into deep, second, and half mourning, each with its own dress code. Early mourning allowed only black materials, while half mourning permitted more colour and decorative jewellery.
Widows might mourn for up to two years, wearing black crepe and sombre jewellery throughout. Men, though held to a shorter standard, often wore a black armband or a mourning ring.
Decline and Modern Legacy
By the early 20th century, social attitudes toward death and mourning changed. Two world wars and modern medicine altered how societies dealt with loss, and mourning jewellery fell out of fashion.
Today, mourning jewellery is valued by:
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Collectors, for its craftsmanship and rarity.
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Historians, as a window into 18th–19th-century culture.
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Families, who may still pass down lockets or rings as heirlooms.
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Jewellers, some of whom craft modern memorial pieces using ashes, fingerprints, or hair in a contemporary style.
Conclusion
Mourning jewellery tells us not just about death, but about love, memory, and the ways we strive to hold on. Each piece—however small—is a story of someone remembered, and of the enduring human desire to make our grief visible and our connections permanent.
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