Mourning Stickpin
The mourning stickpin is a small pin worn on the lapel or at the knot of a tie which belonged in the nineteenth century to a gentleman's formal mourning toilette - today a discreet remembrance lapel pin with a symbol, initials or a fingerprint element.
Written by Dr. Helene Vasall
The mourning stickpin is the male counterpart to the Mourning Brooch - a small jewellery pin worn on the lapel or at the knot of the tie, and in the nineteenth century a fixed component of the bourgeois man's formal mourning toilette. Unlike women, whose mourning toilette was coded in manifold ways (see The Middle Classes and Mourning Jewellery in the Nineteenth Century), male mourning jewellery was confined to a few discreet pieces: a mourning ring, a mourning stickpin and, where applicable, mourning cufflinks. Today the mourning stickpin exists as a reduced modern remembrance lapel pin - usually with a discreet symbol, initials or a fine fingerprint detail.
Currently available
Occasions
Mourning and remembrance lapel pins are chosen in several contexts:
- A funeral - as a discreetly formal sign of mourning for men in a dark suit
- A memorial service or commemorative service - as a small, visible gesture
- An anniversary - as a deliberately worn, personal keepsake
- A family set - as a shared way of wearing for the sons, brothers or male relatives of a deceased person
- Club and professional mourning - in the case of a collective loss (a club member, a colleague) as a shared symbol of remembrance
Personalisation
Three paths of personalisation dominate in modern remembrance lapel pins:
A choice of symbol. Classical symbols of mourning and remembrance are integrated into the small pin head - cross, anchor, weeping willow, sword, hourglass, angel's wing (see Hourglass, Angels and Putti). The pin head is small (5–12 mm), which calls for a reduced, iconographically clear rendering.
Initials or a monogram. An engraving with the initials or monogram of the deceased person. On very small pin heads the lettering must be extremely reduced - often only a single letter or a two-letter monogram.
A fingerprint detail. A modern variant: a tiny, micro-stamped fingerprint element is integrated into the pin head. Technically demanding, but visually very discreet and personal (see Fingerprint Pendant).
Material
- Historical: a gold pin with a head of onyx, jet (see Jet (Gagate)) or pearl, a sterling-silver pin with a black-enamel head, vulcanite (see Vulcanite (Ebonite)) with a silver pin
- Modern: sterling silver, gold 750/585, stainless steel, titanium; heads of onyx, black spinel, freshwater pearl, lapis lazuli or engraved in solid material
- Fastening: a pin shaft with a safety cap (classic) or a magnetic fastening (the modern variant, requiring no puncture of the fabric)
History
Mourning stickpins emerge as a distinct form in the first half of the nineteenth century. With the rise of bourgeois men's fashion - frock coat, waistcoat, necktie (in place of the earlier neckcloths) - a need arises for small, functional yet decorative pieces of jewellery to accentuate tie and lapel. In a mourning context these pieces become black, muted and furnished with mourning symbolism.
In the 1860s and 1870s - the height of Victorian mourning culture under the impression of Queen Victoria's lifelong widowhood (see Queen Victoria (1819–1901)) - the mourning stickpin establishes itself as a fixed element of the male mourning toilette. Whitby (see Whitby - Jet Workshops on the Yorkshire Coast) and Paris produce large quantities of black pin heads in this period; Vienna and Berlin follow with their own, often somewhat more restrained variants (see The Middle Classes and Mourning Jewellery in the Nineteenth Century).
With the Edwardian period (see The Edwardian Era (1901–1910/1914)) and the shift in fashion after 1918 the mourning stickpin largely disappears from the public jewellery repertoire. Lapel pins in general continue to be worn into the 1960s, then lose their significance. Only since the 2010s have they enjoyed a quiet comeback as personalised keepsakes.
The mourning stickpin today
Three modern variants dominate the market:
Classically formal. A discreet gold pin with a head of onyx or black spinel, worn on the lapel of a dark suit at a funeral or memorial service. Prices: €80–400. Popular in conservative funerary contexts.
Personalised. A lapel pin with an engraved monogram, initials or an element of a family crest. Frequently given as a gift to sons after the loss of a father, or as a shared set for several male family members. Prices: €200–800.
With a fingerprint detail. A technically very demanding variant with a micro-stamped fingerprint element in the pin head. Only a few workshops worldwide make this form. Prices: €400–1,500.
Wear and care
Mourning stickpins are classically worn on the lapel of a suit, on a waistcoat or at the knot of a tie. In more modern ways of wearing, they are also fastened to the shirt collar or the turn-back of a jacket.
Care instructions depend on the material:
- Gold pin with a stone head: occasional cleaning with a jewellery cloth, remove before applying lotion or perfume
- Silver pin: regular cleaning against tarnish
- Antique jet or vulcanite heads: store dry, no water, no ultrasonic cleaning
Because mourning stickpins are small and light, they are easily lost - for valuable pieces an additional securing chain or a magnetic variant requiring no puncture of the fabric is advisable. On historical pins with a fine onyx or glass head, particular care is needed when fastening, since the head can break under pressure.
Questions about this entry
- Was the mourning stickpin men's jewellery?
Yes, predominantly. Within the strict Victorian gendered dress code (see The Middle Classes and Mourning Jewellery in the Nineteenth Century) men wore very few pieces of jewellery during a period of mourning - a mourning stickpin on the lapel, a mourning ring (see Mourning Ring (Memorial Ring)), occasionally mourning cufflinks (see Mourning Cufflinks) and a pocket watch on a mourning chain. Women rarely wore the mourning stickpin, choosing the mourning brooch instead (see Mourning Brooch).
- Where was the pin worn?
Three positions of wear are documented. The lapel of the frock coat or waistcoat - as a visible but discreet gesture. The knot of the tie - as a functional and decorative element that held the tie against the shirt. The hat - on mourning hats, as a slender hatband pin with a small mourning symbol. What survives today is above all the lapel variant, as a discreet remembrance lapel pin.
- Are mourning stickpins still worn today?
Rarely - and usually not in the Victorian sense. Modern lapel pins are often generic (the symbol of a club, a profession or a commemoration) and are worn only on particular occasions - a funeral, a memorial service, a family anniversary. Popular are lapel pins with a birthstone, initials or a tiny mourning symbol. A sub-group of its own consists of modern fingerprint lapel pins with a micro-relief impression (see Fingerprint Pendant).
Further reading
- Mourning Dress - A Costume and Social History - Lou Taylor (1983)
- Sentimental Jewellery - Shire Library - Ann Louise Luthi (2007)
- Whitby Jet through the Years - Helen Muller (1985)
Related entries
- 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.
- Jewellery formsMourning 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.
- 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.
- Jewellery formsMourning Cufflinks
Mourning cufflinks are discreet, soberly mounted cufflinks in black, onyx or matt gold which belonged in the nineteenth century to a gentleman's formal mourning toilette, and which live on today as a personalised remembrance set with an inscription, symbol or fingerprint.
- 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.
- 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.
- People & cultural historyThe Middle Classes and Mourning Jewellery in the Nineteenth Century
The rising middle classes of the nineteenth century were the principal bearers and principal consumers of the era's mourning and memorial jewellery - a social stratum that took over the aristocratic model of court mourning, gave it symbols and materials of its own, and in the course of industrialisation turned it into a mass market.
- People & cultural historyMourning Rituals in the German-Speaking World
German-speaking mourning rituals differ perceptibly from the English court-mourning tradition - shaped by confessional division (Catholic / Protestant), middle-class sensibility, Biedermeier domesticity and an independent culture of memorial jewellery which carried different emphases in Vienna, Berlin and Munich according to region.