What does the combination of cross, anchor and heart mean?

It is the iconographic rendering of the three theological virtues from the First Letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 13:13): faith, hope, love. The cross stands for faith (see Cross), the anchor for hope, the heart for love (see Heart). The triad is documented from the Middle Ages onwards, but only became a popular jewellery form in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries - as the faith-hope-charity pendant in English pieces, as the Glaube-Hoffnung-Liebe-Anhänger in German-speaking countries.

Does the anchor in mourning jewellery have a maritime reference?

Rarely as its primary meaning. In general mourning jewellery the anchor is an abstract symbol of hope; a concrete reference to the sea is usually not intended. Sailors' mourning jewellery is different: pieces made for the families of deceased seamen, fishermen or naval officers often carry the anchor as their primary symbol of identification. This sub-genre is documented above all in port cities such as Hamburg, Liverpool, Marseille and Bremerhaven. One distinctive variant is the mourning anchor with a coiled ship's hawser, worn in half-mourning for a relative who died at sea.

In what forms does the anchor appear in Victorian jewellery?

Three principal forms dominate. The classic stock anchor (Admiralty anchor) - a vertical shank, a transverse stock at the top, curved arms with flukes below. This is the most frequent form, especially on mourning pendants and mourning brooches. The patent anchor (Hall's anchor) - more modern, with movable flukes; rather rare in Victorian pieces. The anchor-and-cross combination - the vertical bar of the cross terminates below in an anchor, symbolising faith founded upon hope. A distinctive mourning jewellery form.

Anchor

In mourning and memorial jewellery the anchor is the classic symbol of hope - usually paired with the cross (faith) and the heart (love) as a threefold emblem of the virtues; a constant form in Victorian jewellery, and living on in modern memorial jewellery as a many-layered symbol of steadiness, anchorage and constancy.

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