Section
11 articles
Mourning & Sentimental
What hair jewellery is, how table-work and palette-work hairwork were made, the hairworkers and manuals behind the craft, and why it served sentimental as well as mourning purposes.
Mourning & Sentimental
How the engagement ring moved from posy and gimmel rings through Georgian regard rings to the diamond solitaire - Kimberley, the Tiffany setting and De Beers' 1947 slogan.
Mourning & Sentimental
The plain gold band as the Western wedding ring: the Book of Common Prayer, the vena amoris tradition, 22ct Victorian bands, men's rings and wartime Utility rings in Britain.
Mourning & Sentimental
What lover's eye jewellery is, the Prince of Wales, Maria Fitzherbert and Richard Cosway story behind it, how eye miniatures were painted and mounted c.1785-1830, and why they are rare.
Mourning & Sentimental
What memento mori jewellery is - skull rings, coffin pendants and Stuart crystal slides - and how it gave way to the more personalised Georgian and Victorian mourning-jewellery tradition.
Mourning & Sentimental
What a memorial brooch is, how its design changed from Georgian sepia-and-hair brooches to Victorian black-enamel and photographic brooches, and how it differs from general mourning jewellery.
Mourning & Sentimental
What a Mizpah brooch is, the Genesis 31:49 verse behind the word, its mass production in Birmingham c.1880-1915, and why it was a token of parting rather than a mourning piece.
Mourning & Sentimental
What mourning jewellery is, how it developed from Stuart and Georgian memorial rings, why it peaked in Victorian Britain after Prince Albert's death in 1861, and the etiquette and materials behind it.
Mourning & Sentimental
What a mourning ring is, the custom of bequeathing them in wills from Shakespeare to Pepys, enamelled name-and-date inscriptions, and how their design changed from 1650 to the Victorian period.
Mourning & Sentimental
What acrostic jewellery is, how REGARD and DEAREST rings spell words in gemstones, the Paris jewellers who popularised it, and why it is sentimental rather than mourning jewellery.
