Accessories
Memorial jewellery accessories are quite numerous, due to the popular and personal nature of the style and also because of the tremendous amount of money to be made in its popularity.
Popular fashion over the course of the 17th to 19th Centuries guided the memorial industry to produce a wide variety of memorial and sentimental items, ranging from snuffboxes to household items. Certainly, ‘Mourning Warehouses’ which cater to every aspect of the funeral and its surrounding miscellany are a tribute to this.
Pieces were created to commemorate the passing of famous people and events, or to reflect personal preference. While many items may be prolific, others may reflect the personal tastes of the person for whom it was commissioned.
In jewellery, accessories are the items associated with a particular form of fashion. Be they mourning sets, earrings, stick pins or cufflinks, there are a multitude of periphery items which are associated with a particular time, function and fashion.
| Courtesy: |
Sarah Nehama |
| Country: |
France |
| Year: |
1790 |
| Dedication: |
“Le Plus Loin Le Plus Serre” (the further apart, the tighter the bond) |
Maureen DeLorme’s ‘Mourning Art and Jewelry’ has a fine description for this piece of page 106:
“An extraordinary example of a husband’s memorial watch fob in memory of his wife. This fob is actually in the form of a “watch,” and is full of memorial symbolism. In the scene we see a severed weeping willow tree trunk with two branches growing from it, symbolizing that although the marital union has been broken in death, it still grows and lives eternally. This is literally true of the willow itself, which will grow from severed branches. Two birds overhead form a lover’s knot with a ribbon, also signifying marital union and love. The inscription reads “The further away the closer together,” typifying the romantic belief in love existing after death in the “life to come”. The fob swivels by pressing the nob at the top, and reverses to show the plaited hair of the man’s wife. 2.5”x1”
This pair of earrings from 1892 (and earlier) can still be found in catalogues of the time and according to US dollars of the time, were a generous $6. As it spawned so many imitations, jet earrings do not specifically denote mourning, as jet was a popular material in late 19th Century jewellery, but earrings were popular to complete a full mourning set.
| Year: |
April 7, 1881 |
| Dedication: |
"My Dear Mother" Anna Schrarn |
Very Edwardian in style, these earrings show delicate forget-me-nots with pearls, resting on onyx. Onyx became a popular feature, taking the place of black enamel by the turn of the century. It was used along the continent in memorial pieces during the 19th Century, but it was by the Edwardian period where the line between fashion and mourning began to blur. Rings with onyx shields, earrings and brooches can be considered fashionable rather than for mourning unless indicated on the piece or with significant symbolism.
19th Century French and German mourning sets are still available and complete today (if one looks hard enough) and consist of bracelet, necklace, brooch and earrings. These predominately feature onyx rather than black enamel. English pieces in the same style were also created, but due to the greater use of onyx on the Continent, they are harder to find.
Hairwork earrings are also popular in sentimental jewellery, many being produced in the USA and England. Different weaves and different gold fittings denote the different times and sears of construction for hairwork earrings. Examples of these can be found in the Collector's Encyclopedia of Hairwork Jewelry and also on this site.
Earrings with glass compartments for hair mementos were also used, but are harder to find.
Gentlemen's accessories with mourning and sentimental motifs are common in relation to their use. In the section of necklaces and chains, there are examples of fob chains made from hair and with mourning symbolism. Less commonly found, however, are pieces like the above cufflinks.
Originally, these monogram cufflinks with glass and hair would have been separate pieces, but over time they have been turned into a brooch. Restoration is now underway to return them to their former glory. Accessories for gentlemen range from rings to fob chains and lockets and even vinaigrettes, but cufflinks are more difficult to find than most other pieces.
Cufflinks, stickpins and rings are the predominantly male utilised fashion accessories for the 19th century, as the costume of mourning was relegated to arm bands over day suits. These particular pieces show a strong sentimental connection between two people, and would have been worn within the context of a love sentiment. The use of silver gained momentum in the latter 19th century, and silver bracelets (with traditional enamelwork motifs) as well as other accessories grew in popularity in England and Australia.
| Maker: |
Thomas White, London |
| Year: |
c. 1780 |
Watches and clocks with the memento mori motifs were not uncommon, dating from the mid 17th Century to the 1930s. This early Verge silver skull pivots at the top of the cranium, whereas others pivot from the jaw. There are others created that fold open at the top of the head with enamel and diamonds, but pieces like these are extremely rare and command a high price. Examples exist from Switzerland, France, Germany and England. As written by the Taft Museum:
"The skull and watch are part of the standard subject matter of 17th-century vanitas still lifes. Vanitas is from the Latin for “emptiness” or “untruth,” from which comes the English word “vanity.” Such pictures depict objects that have an underlying moral message—usually about the fleeting nature of physical reality. Therefore, it is not surprising that the skull and watch, two reminders of the passage of time, should merge in a single object. The use of the skeleton hand, however, is unusual.1"
Stick pins can be dated to the latter half of the 17th Century and were a common accessory, but are hard to find today. Gold wire cipher, hair and silk with the common symbols of the late 17th century (skulls, cherubs, crossbones) under a Stuart crystal evolved with the times, as their use rarely strayed from fashion. Victorian pins with black enamel were common for their time, often with 'In Memory Of' written on them.
Mourning snuffboxes were also popular memorial accessories. The tabatiére de deuil (mourning box) was used for the loss of a loved one. The grand pleureuse ("lots of crying") snuffbox was common for first stage mourning, or intense mourning. For distant mourning (extended family and friends), the snuffbox used was the demi-pleureuse ("half crying").2
As outlined by DeLorme, the late Victorian era saw a revival of symbolism not commonly used since the popularity of memento mori. A revival of the medieval ars moriendi (art of dying) produced gentlemen's accessories with skull and crossbones motifs, such as the above walking stick. This can also be found in vesta cases, watch fobs, snuff boxes and stick pins1. This was a concept of its time and not an evolution of the form, hence its detail was not carried through to the mainstream jewellery or beyond the period it existed.
