Mourning Brooch
The mourning brooch is the central women's jewellery form of Victorian mourning wear - a brooch, often the size of a palm, pinned to dress, collar or veil, and today an almost exclusively historical field of collecting.
Written by Dr. Helene Vasall
The mourning brooch was the most important visible piece in Victorian mourning jewellery. While mourning rings sat discreetly on the finger and mourning lockets hung beneath the dress, it was the brooch's task to signal mourning publicly - visible on collar, breast or veil to everyone the wearer met. This function of publicly displaying grief has largely been lost today; accordingly, the mourning brooch has become a historical field of collecting.
Currently available
Occasions
In the Victorian context the mourning brooch belonged to a series of strictly codified mourning occasions:
- The death of a spouse - the most frequent occasion; the brooch was commissioned immediately after the death and became part of the formal mourning dress of the first and second phases of mourning
- The death of a parent or child - a smaller brooch, often with a lock of the deceased person's hair
- The loss of a family member among wider relatives - a half-mourning brooch, often in half-mourning materials such as amethyst and moonstone
- The bequest brooch - like the mourning ring, the brooch too could be distributed by will to named beneficiaries
In modern contexts the mourning brooch is practically dead. Anyone commissioning a mourning piece in the twenty-first century chooses a pendant or a ring - the brooch is no longer part of the standard grammar of mourning jewellery.
Personalisation
The historical mourning brooch was highly personalised. Four paths of personalisation can be identified:
A hollow setting for hair. The most frequent variant. On the reverse of the brooch sits a hollow setting with a rock-crystal cabochon holding a lock of the deceased person's hair. An obligatory element above all during the first phase of mourning (see Hairwork).
An inscription. Initials and a date of death on the reverse or - on larger pieces - integrated into the enamel of the front. Frequent inscription formulae: In memory of …, Not lost but gone before, Sacred to the memory of … (see Engraving and Inscriptions).
A photograph. From the spread of the daguerreotype (mid-nineteenth century) the photograph replaced the hollow setting for hair in many pieces. A small daguerreotype of the deceased person sits beneath rock crystal in the principal view.
Pictorial symbolism. A weeping willow over an urn, an anchor, forget-me-nots - as a painted, engraved or applied element. Above all on a black-enamel ground (see Urn, Weeping Willow).
Modern mourning brooches (rare) transfer these paths of personalisation to contemporary techniques - the laser engraving of a fingerprint instead of a lock of hair, halftone photo-engraving instead of a daguerreotype.
Material
The choice of material for the mourning brooch follows the Victorian order of court mourning. Three phases with three groups of material:
Deep mourning (the first year). Matt black, no lustre:
- Jet (Whitby jet) - the gold standard (see Whitby Jet)
- Vulcanite as the inexpensive variant (see Vulcanite (Ebonite))
- Berlin iron as a distinctly Prussian variant (see Berlin Iron)
- Black enamel on gold as the highest-quality form (see Black Enamel (Schwarzemail))
Second mourning. Glossy black with white accents:
- Onyx as the principal material (see Onyx)
- French jet as mass-produced ware (see French Jet)
- Black pearls
- Gold mounts permitted for the first time
Half-mourning. Pale, muted colours:
- Amethyst (the standard half-mourning material)
- Moonstone
- Matt silver
- Pale pearls
In every phase a gold mount was permitted, but in differing density - minimal in deep mourning, more prominent in half-mourning.
Final formats and design variants
The typical variations:
- The pure material brooch - a centrally cut plate of jet or onyx with a minimal gold mount; the material surface itself carries the meaning
- The brooch with an inscription medallion - a central medallion with a black-enamel ground and applied gold inscription
- The brooch with a hair front - the front shows woven hair mosaic work beneath rock crystal, frequently combined with gold initials
- The brooch with a photograph - a small daguerreotype or albumen print at the centre, framed by black material
- The Berlin iron filigree brooch - finely cast ironwork in the form of a rosette or Gothic tracery, frequently with reliefs in the antique manner (see The Berlin Iron Manufactories)
- The multi-part brooch - larger pieces with a pendant element that can be detached and worn separately as a neck pendant
On especially elaborate mourning brooches, mourning and love symbolism come together in a single composition - an anchor (hope), say, with an ouroboros (eternity) and an inscription bearing a date of death.
Construction and security in wear
Victorian mourning brooches are often heavy (60 to 150 g) and require correspondingly robust pin mechanisms. Standard constructions:
- The C-clasp (early Victorian, until around 1880) - a simple pin engages in an open C-shaped hook; secure, but not lockable
- The T-clasp with a safety cap (late Victorian) - the pin engages in a sprung T-hook
- The trombone clasp (from around 1900) - a cylindrical spring catch; more secure, but less Victorian
- A safety chain - on very heavy pieces, a small gold chain with a second pin point on the garment
The construction of the clasp is an important criterion for dating - C-clasps before 1880, T-clasps thereafter. Trombone clasps mark late pieces or repairs.
The collectors' market
Mourning brooches are today an established field of collecting. Price ranges:
- Vulcanite and French jet pieces: from €50 (simple moulded pieces) to €300 (with an inscription or a hollow setting for hair)
- Whitby jet pieces: €200 to €1,500 (depending on size, quality of craftsmanship and condition)
- Berlin iron pieces: €400 to €3,000 (well-preserved originals with the inscription Gold gab ich für Eisen fetch top prices)
- Black-enamel gold brooches: €800 to €5,000 and above - the most expensive class of mourning brooch
- Pieces with a daguerreotype or a well-preserved hollow setting for hair: often with a substantial premium, because of the documented connection to a specific person
The most important collectors' markets are in England (Whitby itself, London auctions), in the USA (Boston, Philadelphia) and in Germany (Berlin and Munich auction houses).
Conservation
Mourning brooches are often fragile. Care instructions:
- Jet and vulcanite should be protected from UV light - vulcanite discolours to brown, and jet can splinter at the edges
- Berlin iron should be stored dry - the burnished surface reacts to moisture
- Black enamel should not be polished - hairline cracks and flaking are irreversible
- Hollow settings for hair should not be opened - the glass between the rock crystal and the lock has often bonded in place and breaks if disturbed
- Clasp repairs exclusively at specialised workshops
The mourning brooch today
In current jewellery practice the brooch as mourning wear is practically dead. A small conceptual scene still works with the format - for instance in remembrance brooches with a laser-engraved fingerprint, commissioned as a deliberately historicising gesture - but these are individual pieces without any wider practice.
What has remained is the gesture of visible mourning worn on the body. In the twenty-first century the pendant fulfils it: a remembrance pendant on a chain replaces the Victorian brooch. Anyone wishing to remain true to the stylistic canon of the nineteenth century can have a modern mourning brooch made at a specialised workshop - the tradition has not been broken, merely reduced to a niche.
Questions about this entry
- Where was a mourning brooch worn?
Classically in three positions. At the collar (the highest buttonhole position) as the unobtrusive standard placing. Centrally on the breast as the visible principal position in formal mourning. On the mourning veil (pinned at the edge of the veil) as a special widow's variant during the first year of mourning. In half-mourning also at the side of the shoulder or on the hem of a mourning cloak.
- What size is typical?
Larger than brooches usual today. Victorian mourning brooches often measure 4 to 7 cm along their principal axis, with individual display pieces up to 10 cm. Size was part of the logic of visibility - mourning jewellery was meant to be recognisable. Smaller brooches (2–3 cm) are usually half-mourning pieces of the 1880s and 1890s.
- What does a mourning brooch contain on its reverse?
Very frequently a hollow setting for hair, holding a lock of the deceased person's hair beneath rock crystal. Some pieces also have an inscription tablet with initials and a date of death, while others combine the two. Early Victorian brooches additionally carry a safety chain, since the heavy pieces might otherwise fall from the clothing.
- Are mourning brooches still made today?
Practically not. The brooch as a jewellery form is marginal in everyday twenty-first-century wear; as a mourning piece it is all but extinct. Collectors work exclusively with historical pieces. Workshops today make mourning pendants rather than mourning brooches - the gesture has moved from the breast to the chain.
Further reading
- Death Becomes Her - A Century of Mourning Attire - Jessica Regan (2014)
- The Power of Adornment: Personal Mourning Jewellery - Sarah Nehama (2012)
- Mourning Dress: A Costume and Social History - Lou Taylor (2009)
- Victoria and Albert Museum - Mourning Brooches
Related entries
- Core conceptsWidow's Jewellery
Widow's jewellery is the graduated mourning jewellery worn by widows in the 19th century according to a strictly codified plan of court mourning - from deep matte black to half-mourning lilac, each phase with its own materials and its own formal language.
- Core conceptsMourning Jewellery
Mourning jewellery is body adornment that signals a death, binds the memory of a deceased person, or does both at once - since the 17th century a jewellery type in its own right, with a material language of its own.
- Core conceptsMemorial Jewellery
Memorial jewellery is jewellery that deliberately binds itself to one particular person - through an inscription, a photograph, hair, ashes or, the defining medium today, a digitally captured fingerprint.
- Core conceptsSentimental Jewellery
Sentimental jewellery is the jewellery of the age of sensibility between 1760 and 1840 - pieces in which love, friendship and grief share the same imagery, and in which hair, miniature painting and personal inscriptions first become the load-bearing form.
- Jewellery formsMourning Locket
The mourning locket is a pendant worn on a neck chain with an interior compartment - a concealed carrier of hair, photograph or inscription that keeps the memento close to the body and has been, from the eighteenth century to the present, the most important private form of mourning jewellery.
- Jewellery formsMourning Ring (Memorial Ring)
A mourning ring - also called a memorial ring - is a finger ring that carries the memory of a deceased person, usually in the form of an inscription, an image, a lock of hair or a fingerprint.
- MaterialsJet (Gagate)
Jet - German *Gagat* - is a fossil, deep-black material formed from petrified wood which in the nineteenth century became the very epitome of Victorian mourning jewellery.
- MaterialsWhitby Jet
Whitby jet is jet from the North English coastal town of Whitby - by far the most important deposit worldwide in the 19th century and the gold standard of Victorian mourning jewellery.
- MaterialsOnyx
Onyx is a black variety of chalcedony which, in Victorian mourning jewellery of the second stage of mourning, formed the lustrous, polished counterpart to matt jet.
- MaterialsVulcanite (Ebonite)
Vulcanite is hardened, black-dyed natural rubber - an industrial invention of the 1840s which found wide use in Victorian mourning jewellery as an inexpensive alternative to jet.
- MaterialsBerlin Iron
Berlin iron is cast, black-burnished iron jewellery of Prussian manufacture - created in the context of the Wars of Liberation of 1813 and, over the following decades, become an emblem of patriotic mourning culture.
- MaterialsBlack Enamel (Schwarzemail)
Black enamel is a glass frit coloured with manganese oxide and fused in thin layers onto gold or silver - the most expensive variant of Victorian mourning jewellery and the preferred carrier ground for inscriptions.
- Techniques & craftHairwork
Hairwork is the collective term for all techniques in which human hair becomes the carrier material of a piece of jewellery - from a single lock beneath rock crystal to finely plaited hair weaving in the Victorian showpiece manner.
- Techniques & craftSepia Hair Painting
Sepia hair painting combines two sentimental techniques: chopped human hair is worked with sepia ink into a pigment mixture and used as the medium for tiny mourning miniatures set beneath rock crystal.
- Symbols & motifsUrn
The urn is the longest-lived mourning symbol of the European jewellery tradition - an antiquising vessel form that, since the late eighteenth century, has represented the ashes and thus, metonymically, the deceased person themselves.
- Symbols & motifsWeeping Willow
The weeping willow is the most formative botanical mourning symbol of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries - born in the English landscape garden of the Enlightenment, adopted by sentimentalism as an image of silent sorrow, and become in Victorian mourning iconography the dominant mourning scene on pendants, miniatures and grave stelae.
- PeriodsThe Victorian Era (1837–1901)
The Victorian era is the heyday of mourning jewellery - a period of more than sixty years in which court mourning codes, industrial mass production, new materials (jet, vulcanite, Berlin iron) and Queen Victoria's personal widowhood combined to produce a system of public and private mourning visibility without precedent in European history.