What is Mourning Jewelry?

by Barb Musselman

memorial jewelry pendant from the 1700's

Mourning jewelry is a little-known symbol from funeral history. First used as a remembrance and later as proper fashion etiquette, mourning jewelry, or memorial jewelry, has been used since ancient times. Pre-literate societies wore mourning mementos made of the deceased's bones, skull, teeth, or hair. In Roman and Medieval times, mementos were fashioned using a motif and an inscription such as " In memory of..." But memorial jewelry became most popular in the Victorian era. Use of this jewelry was common in America too. Americans have worn clothing and accessories to express grief and respect for their dead since the 17th century.

Mourning jewelry served three basic functions. First, it was a souvenir of the deceased and was worn to remember that loved one. Secondly, it was worn as a reminder to the living of the inevitability of death. Christian mourning jewelry additionally signified the wearer's hope of being reunited with a husband, wife, or children after his-her own death. And finally, the jewelry served as a status symbol. For example, a widow wore the jewelry to communicate her status of being in mourning and in need of protection. Mourning jewelry also conveyed economic status, i.e. the more memorial rings distributed at a funeral, the wealthier the deceased.

Mourning dress and jewelry came into practice in the Victorian era largely due to the high mortality rate of the time. Throughout history, medicine was primitive at best. Death was a harsh reality and mourning was a way of life with complex rules. Widows and widowers bore the heaviest mourning requirements. Full mourning, also known as First mourning or Deep mourning, lasted from six months to a year plus a day. (A day was added because it would be improper to go into the Second mourning on the anniversary of death.) Second mourning was another nine months followed by Third or Ordinary mourning and then Half or Slight mourning. The length of each stage varied and mourning dress requirements relaxed slightly after the Full mourning period.With infant mortality particularly high, some women wore mourning dress and jewelry most of their married lives.

Hair Jewelry

examples of woven hair jewelry

One of the two most common materials used to fashion mourning jewelry was hair from the deceased. Hair was used as a token of love and affection and a symbol of life. Since hair does not decomposed after death, it was an obvious and tangible souvenir of the deceased in many cultures.

Making memorial jewelry made of hair began in the 17th century. Mourning rings were made containing the deceased's hair. Style, motif and inscription distinguished memorial jewelry. Locks of hair were placed inside lockets, rings and pendants with motifs under glass. Typical motifs were done in the neo classical style of the day featuring tombstones, weeping, classically draped women, or swooning maidens. Occasionally, a weeping tree was made with leaves fashioned from the loved one's hair.

Eventually, almost all mourning jewelry included a small compartment in which to enshrine a lock of hair. A likeness of the deceased could also be mounted into the lockets, pendants and watches and inscribed with mottos such as, "Not lost but gone before" or "Heaven has in store what thou has lost."

By the mid 19th century, hair was no longer used to form pleasing designs under glass, but instead was used to make entire pieces of jewelry. It was boiled, weighted, glued and strengthened with horsehair. It was braised, spun, woven, plaited, knitted, and crocheted. It was tasseled and secured with gold findings. It could be spun into serpents and embellished with garnets and rubies. Earrings were long, dramatic and lightweight. Bracelets were crafted with gold clasps and watch chains were coiled and decorated with charms shaped into hearts, anchors and crosses.

Hair working firms were established. An advertisement for one firm promoted its products in these terms: "Hair is at once the most delicate and lasting of our materials and survives us, like love. It is so light, so gentle, so escaping from the idea of death that with a lock of hair belonging to a child of friend, we may almost look up to heaven... and say ' I have a piece of thee here, not unworthy of thy being now'."

Unfortunately, there were many unscrupulous hairworkers known to discard the hair of a loved one in favor of pretreated hair already in their possession. As a result, women began to make their own hair jewelry. The craft was not easy, and some of the artistry was lost.

Jet Jewelry

carved jet necklace and pin

The second major material used to make mourning jewelry was jet. Jet is a fossilized wood and is categorized as a gem. It is hard, black, smooth, lightweight and porous. It has been used for thousands of years to make small objects of adornment. It has been used since medieval time to make religious jewelry such as rosaries, rings and crosses. Jet's blackness is so intense that the expression "as black as jet" has been part of our language since the 12th century.

Jet can be found all over the world, but the best source in the Victorian era was in Whitby, England, a small town on the Yorkshire coast. The gem had been cared by knife and file, but in 1800, the lathe was introduced and enabled craftsmen to produce a better produce at a faster rate. This started the Whitby jet industry and in the 1830's the town began to mine jet from the cliffs. Powerful-looking pendants, lockets, brooches, and bracelets were produced along with large but lightweight earrings, beaded necklaces and chains. The jewelry came into prominence at a world exhibition in 1851.

When Prince Albert met his untimely death in 1861, the inconsolable Queen Victoria entered into a long period of severe mourning. During this time, only jet jewelry was permitted at court. The nation grieved along with their queen and the people followed court fashion and the etiquette of Victorian mourning.

Coinciding with the death of Prince Albert was the American Civil War and as casualties mounted, so did the appearance of jet jewelry. As the Victorian era progressed, the design of mourning jewelry became more elaborate and heavy. The Whitby jet industry grew from two shops employing 25 people in 1832 to two hundred shops employing 1,500 in 1872. Jet was by far the most popular mourning stone and replaced hair jewelry as an accessory to the mourning dress.

Mourning jewelry came in two finished: matte and bright. It was possible to buy the same design in both finishes because matte finish was for Deepest mourning and the bright finish was for later stages of mourning. If a shiny, faceted black jewel was worn in Deepest mourning rather than one with amatte finish, it could be as socially disastrous as coming out of mourning too early.

Other mourning jewelry materials appeared in the later stages of mourning. Tortoise shell and tortoise shell pique' (from the underside of a turtle were lighter in color and could be inlaid with gold or silver. Also used for later mourning periods was studded gun metal from iron or any metal with a distinctive matte black color and smooth, silky finish.

When demand outstripped supply for jet, cheaper substitutes were used. Bog oak, a dark brown fossilized material from the peatbogs of Ireland, could be carved like the hard jet of Whitby. Gutta-percha or vulcanite, an early form of hardened rubber, was molded and mass-produced. Another substitute was black glass beads or "French jet". These cheap imitations tended to crack and gave jet jewelry a bad reputation.

In 1887, Queen Victoria celebrated her Silver Jubilee and finally agreed to relax her strict mourning. The nation happily complied and turned to lighter and gayer colors in the 1890's. Mourning jewelry gradually faded in popularity over the years along with mourning dress as society moved further away from the subject of death.

From bones and hair to artistic pieces of jewelry, mourning or memorial jewelry was a useful symbol to past generations and is valued for its artistry by collectors today.

memorial rings