Great differences in style are apparent in mourning jewellery from one generation to the next The macabre jewels which were popular in the seventeenth century, with their skulls or complete skeletons minutely delineated in enamel which can still just be discerned under the scratched crystal which covers them, were replaced by the familiar neo-classic designs of the late eighteenth century containing all the paraphanalia of late Georgian memorial sculpture, broken columns, urns, weeping willows and weeping women; and these were in their turn replaced by the turgid sentimentality of Victorian mourning jewellery. After the death of the Prince Consort, the Queen's example gave a considerable impetus to trade which supplied the already extensive panoply of grief. — Charlotte Gere
Brooches
- White hair and gold brooch
- Cased brooch with painted child’s portrait
- A mid Victorian banded agate memorial brooch
- Memorial brooch with hair of the deceased.
Rings
- Diamond ring with black enamel
- Gold ring with black and white enamel
- Gold ring with black enamel
- Gold ring with black enamel
Miscellaneous
- Black and white enamel on gold locket
- Mourning pendant
- Clasp with sepia mourning scene
- Hairwork Rosary
Related material
Created 21 January 2015
Last modified 28 August 2016