Today I'm writing about mourning jewelry. Don't know what it is? Well, it was very popular during the Regency period in England. When a loved one died, it was customary for women to go into heavy mourning, and often part of their mourning ensemble was a piece of jewelry to wear as a memento. Some of the materials used were jet, ivory, on which was painted a tiny funeral scene, and pearls to signify tears shed over the loss of the loved one. They often used the loved one's hair, and they braided it and encased it under glass, usually in a broach.
Here is an example of a mourning pendant, and an excerpt from The Brat and the Brainiac II: Fear of Commitment, where I mention one of the characters' interest in and passion for mourning jewelry:
“Look
what I found,” says Jason, handing me a pendant on a thin gold chain.
The finely painted miniature on the
pendant was of a lady at a grave under a full moon. I know Miranda, with her interest in mourning
jewelry, will love it and I congratulate him on his find.
“Yep,” I say, handing it back. “This is definitely one of them. You lucked out, man. They’re not that easy to find.”
“But why does she like something so
morbid?”
“Because it’s not morbid to
her. She thinks it’s sweet, that someone
would wear a memento to their loved one.”
He thinks it over, and then he
looks at me with a smile.
“I can see that.”
