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

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Created 21 January 2015

Last modified 28 August 2016