What distinguishes mourning jewellery from memorial jewellery?

Mourning jewellery announces outwardly that the wearer is currently in mourning - in the 19th century it formed part of a strictly codified mourning wardrobe. Memorial jewellery, by contrast, is tied to one specific person and is often worn for decades after the death. In practice the two terms overlap frequently.

Which materials count as typical?

Deep matte black was obligatory: jet from Whitby, onyx, black agate, black enamel on gold, and in Prussia cast Berlin iron. Alongside these came hair - as a lock, a plait or a painting medium - and, from around 1900, increasingly gold with set photographs.

Is mourning jewellery still worn today?

Formal court mourning is over, but the idea of deliberately putting on a piece of jewellery after a death is very much alive - today usually personalised: a fingerprint in gold, an inscription, a lock of hair under rock crystal, a portion of ashes or a memorial diamond. Black is no longer a requirement.

Which era shapes our image of it most strongly?

The Victorian 19th century. Queen Victoria's forty years of mourning for Prince Albert did not invent black jewellery, but it turned it into a visible mass practice - with its own manufactories, trade routes and stylistic canon.

Does mourning jewellery exist only in Europe?

No. In Mexico personalised jewellery belongs to the cult of Día de los Muertos; in West Africa beads bearing inscriptions form part of burial tradition; in East Asia locks of hair are worn in bento pendants. The European variant is the best documented, but not the only one.

Mourning 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.

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