Why does the Georgian era matter so much for mourning jewellery?

Because it invented or codified the most important sentimental techniques of personalisation. Sepia hair painting, the lover's eye and the miniature portrait referring to a specific deceased person are Georgian inventions, and they are what made the Victorian system of mourning jewellery possible in the first place. Sensibility as a cultural disposition - grief as an expressive, visible, personalised gesture - is a Georgian achievement.

What distinguishes Georgian from Victorian mourning jewellery?

Four central differences. Material: the Georgian works primarily in gold and ivory, the Victorian in jet and onyx. Personalisation: the Georgian works through a pictorial medium (painting), the Victorian through a material one (hair, photograph). Code: in the Georgian years the order of court mourning is still taking shape; in the Victorian it is enforced in full severity. Mood: the Georgian is sensibility, the Victorian stasis.

Which modern workshops work in the Georgian style today?

In England (London, Edinburgh) and the United States (Boston, Philadelphia) above all, there is a small scene of workshops reconstructing Georgian sentimental technique - sepia hair painting on ivory substitutes, lover's eyes in watercolour on imitation ivory, posy rings engraved by hand with a graver. Individual workshops in German-speaking countries also take commissions for lover's eyes and miniatures.

The Georgian Era (1714–1837)

The Georgian era spans the reigns of the four kings George I to George IV and of William IV in Britain. In mourning jewellery it is the epoch in which sentimental jewellery was invented - sepia hair painting, the lover's eye, the miniature portrait on ivory, and the posy ring in transition to the memento mori ring.

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