Mourning jewellery
Mourning jewellery is jewellery made or worn to commemorate a deceased person. Rings, brooches, lockets and pendants may carry a name, death date, memorial phrase, hair, portrait or symbols such as an urn and weeping willow. Black enamel and jet are common, but black colour alone does not prove a mourning purpose.
Materials and appearance
The V&A explains that jet became especially fashionable in Victorian mourning and that levels of polish could correspond to stages of mourning. The Metropolitan Museum of Art also documents memorial jewels made with gold, enamel, glass and hair. Materials therefore vary widely.
Evidence
Look for engraving, inscriptions, a hair compartment, portrait and documented ownership. Hair was also exchanged between friends and lovers. Hair alone does not make a jewel a mourning piece. Distinguish a documented memorial function from a later interpretation.
Sources
Victoria and Albert Museum, An A to Z of gemstones; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mourning Ring.
