Mortality And Jewelry During The Victorian Era

Mortality is something all humans must come to terms with. Many people come to terms with their own mortality by experiencing the loss of people they care about. Throughout history, many cultures have handled death and mourning for a loved one differently. Some say funerals aren’t really for the dead but instead they exist as a part of the healing process for the living. This seems to ring true because the way someone memorializes the loss of someone that was near and dear to them, may be an attempt for them to remember and honor that person while healing themselves. Some cultures have had tombs to remember those who have passed on, other cultures do wakes: celebrations of a person’s life, and some commemorate people with headstones. The Victorian culture mourned their losses with jewelry, and their mourning rituals were strict. Victorian mourning jewelry was a status symbol, a fashion statement, a way to remember a loved one, and a reminder of one’s own mortality. Death happened rapidly during the Victorian era due to diseases, war, harsh living environment, and many issues during childbirth. Many people died at a young age during this era. Due to such
high mortality rates, death was a big part of life. Living on, surrounded by all of this death and tragedy led to people trying to find ways to commemorate and memorialize the loss of loved ones. Since cameras and photography weren’t around back then people had to be creative in finding a way to do so, which lead to mourning jewelry.
Mourning jewelry started in the 1600’s.
The first known piece of mourning jewelry is a ring with a skull and a worm, and inscribed with the name "Iohes Godefray". The skull or “Death Head” was a symbol used commonly in mourning jewelry until about the 18th century. During the 17th and 18th centuries, mourning jewelry was a status symbol. Many people had mourning jewelry budgeted into their wills to be handed out to friends and family after their death. The mourning jewelry was usually handed out at the funeral. The deceased would also have instructions in their will as to how they wanted the jewelry to be made. In the 18th century the motifs of the jewelry changed. It consisted of imagery like serpents, coffins, and urns. Mourning jewelry peaked in popularity in the 19th century after the death of Prince
Albert.
In 1861 when Prince Albert died, Queen Victoria had been married to him for over 20 years. Their love was considered to be quite romantic and pure considering the constraints of the time period. She loved him so much that, even though she was considered to be a control freak, she eventually allowed him some power and to almost rule alongside her. When he passed she was utterly distraught and spent the rest of her life in mourning, which added up to more than 40 years of mourning. After Albert’s passing, Queen Victoria stated “When Albert died, not only did the normal physical and emotional love that passes between spouses vanish with him, but so did the one person over whom this queen did not want to reign.” She wore the mourning ring she had created in his memory until she herself died.
Queen Victoria inspired many trends and fashion statements during her rule because of her status, her mourning was no different. She made her country mourn with her. She wore black for the remainder of her life, and only black mourning jewelry. Queen Victoria also required that black mourning jewelry was the only jewelry worn in her court. This was known as The Cult of Mourning. She preferred her jewelry be made of Jet, which caused an extreme rise in the Jet industry in the 1800’s. After Prince Albert died over 200 Jet shops opened in the surrounding area.
Jet, also known as Gagates Lapiz, was very expensive to buy during this time period because it was limited in supply and hard to work with. Jet is essentially is fossilized coal. It comes from wood of trees that have been growing for over 135 million years. The best Jet was said to come from Whitby in Yorkshire, England. The Jet in Yorkshire dates back to the Jurassic period. Jet was hard to carve without breaking because it was a fragile material so it required skilled jewelers to create jewelry made of Jet. It is now illegal to mine for Jet there because the only Jet left is found in the cracks of caves, and to mine it would collapse the whole town. It’s similar to amber; they both create static electricity when rubbed. Jet was originally used as fuel, medicine, and to paint pottery in the Roman Empire. It wasn’t used as often as an adornment until the Victorian era.
The Victorians capitalized on the use of Jet in jewelry. Jet not only became a symbol of mourning because of its stark black color associated with death, but it also became a symbol of wealth due to it being rare and expensive because it cost a lot of money for jewelers to carve. If someone was wearing a real Jet piece of mourning jewelry, one may recognize that are not only in mourning but that they are wealthy as well. It was in bad taste to wear polished Jet in the first stages of mourning though. Due to a shortage of Jet and the fact that some people couldn’t afford it many imitations were made.
The United States began producing Jet imitations. One of the most common imitations is French Jet. French Jet is made of black glass, and weighed more than Jet. It was used to create mostly small items for jewelry, such as beads. It produced in 1893 by the Libbey Glass Company in Ohio and was exported to England, Belgium, France, and Austria. The United States also exported English Crape Stone to all of these countries. English Crape Stone was made from onyx that after being exposed to acid it turned to a matte finish. Vulcanite was also produced in the United States. It was made from rubber that was exposed to sulfuric acid. There were many other imitations such as dyed plastics and animal horns. Paris also made imitations of Jet. The best known imitation from Paris is Gutta Percha which became very popular during the mid 1800’s. Gutta Percha is made from the sap of the Malayan tree, which is then transformed into a hard rubber-like material. Human hair also became a popular material used in Victorian mourning jewelry.
Hair work in jewelry is thought to have begun in Sweden. The story goes that a woman in the town of Vamhus, Dalarna was so gifted with making jewelry out of hair that she taught over 300 people in her town the skill. These people then traveled to Europe, taking the jewelry made of hair with them, in order to supplement an income for the impoverished town. After that hair jewelry became very popular in England.
In England many jewelers picked up the craft of hair work. Jewelers would weave hair into intricate patterns and place it under glass in a broach of on a ring. They would also make rosettes out of human hair. It then became popular to make acorn shapes out of hair and incorporate it into mourning jewelry because of acorns being a symbol of England. Some jewelers would paint tiny landscapes onto jewelry and use human hair to create the line work of these paintings. Another way to incorporate human air into mourning jewelry was to weave the part of the bracelet in which would be considered the chain completely out of human hair. Sometimes a mourner would have more hair weaved into their jewelry after more loved ones passed on. Jewelers would boil the hair and add gum to it to help the strands stick together and to make it more pliable for weaving. Hair jewelry also became popular in the United States. During the time of the Civil War Soldiers would leave a lock of hair behind with their family. If the soldier died that lock of hair was usually turned into mourning jewelry. A mourner had to be careful with who was making the hair jewelry because many jewelers would dupe customers by using horse hair and other random materials instead of the hair of their loved one. Many magazines during this time period began publishing craft sections with detailed direction as how to make one’s own hair jewelry at home to avoid being duped and because it was more affordable. In the magazine Godey's Lady's Book it describes why hair was such a precious material for mourning jewelry. In the issue from 1850 it states