What distinguishes sentimental jewellery from mourning jewellery?

Sentimental jewellery is not necessarily connected to bereavement - it documents any bond: love, friendship, grief, legacy. A Victorian mourning ring would inevitably be black and refer to a death; a Georgian sentimental ring can be a gift between the living.

Why is hairwork so defining for this era?

In the 18th century the hair of a beloved person was held to be the most intimate carrier of their substance - easy to obtain, durable, individual. From around 1780 entire workshops arise that work hair into sepia miniatures, thread plaitings, or mosaic-like arrangements under rock crystal.

What is a 'lover's eye'?

A painted eye miniature on ivory, set into a brooch or a pendant. The wearer knows whose eye it is - outsiders do not. Lovers' eyes are the most enigmatic pieces of the era and the defining English idiom of sentimental jewellery.

Where does sentimental jewellery live on today?

In the practice of memorial jewellery. The gesture - a piece that carries a specific person without being obtrusive - comes directly out of Georgian sentimentalism. Only material and technique have shifted: from hair to the fingerprint, from the sepia miniature to laser engraving.

Sentimental 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.

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