The eye is recognisable to the wearer and anonymous to everyone else. A full portrait would have identified the sitter at once - an eye keeps the secret. Lovers' eyes were frequently tokens of forbidden or socially delicate relationships (clandestine love, affairs, the early period of widowhood).

What part does George IV play?

A decisive one. From about 1785 the future king wore a painted image of the eye of Maria Fitzherbert, the Catholic woman he had secretly married and who was never publicly acknowledged as his wife. The fashion became respectable out of this royal scandal - anyone wearing a lover's eye signalled an attachment that could not be made public.

Are lovers' eyes always love tokens?

No. About a third of the surviving pieces are mourning jewellery - the eye of a recently deceased person, often with small pearl-set tears along the lower edge. In these cases sentimental and mourning jewellery merge - an overlap typical of the period.

How many originals survive?

Estimates range between 800 and 1,200 worldwide. The largest collection (more than 200 pieces) is held by the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama. Originals are highly sought after by collectors today; well-preserved pieces fetch four- to five-figure prices at auction.

Lovers' Eye

A lover's eye is a painted miniature of an eye on ivory, set into a brooch or pendant - an English special form of sentimental jewellery in which the identifying face is absent and only the eye remains.

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