Victorian Mourning Jewelry

Although mourning jewelry has been produced for nearly two thousand years, it reached its peak in Victorian England at the later half of the 19th Century. The height in American popularity came during the Civil War.
The material most associated with Victorian mourning is Jet. Queen Victoria popularized this “black amber” after the death of her beloved Prince Albert. Jet is a variety of fossilized coal. The most prized and expensive is from Whitby, England where it has been washing up on shore since prehistoric times. Jet has an appearance similar to black glass which is used as a modern substitute. In first mourning Jet jewelry was the only ornamentation women were allowed.
By second and half mourning jewelry made from gutta-percha, gold, pinchbeck, and human hair were incorporated into the wardrobe. Gutta-percha is natural latex obtained from evergreen trees in East Asia. It was the first plastic material used for costume jewelry. It is a Jet imitator that was quite a bit less expensive. Today gutta-percha can be found, amongst other uses, covering golf balls. Pinchbeck is a false gold used for inexpensive jewelry during the 19th Century.
Hair art became popular in the Victorian age. What started as a simple way to keep a loved one near became an elaborate art practiced by many. Taking a lock of hair and weaving it into knot designs for use in a broach was the most popular form of Victorian mourning jewelry. Rings, bracelets, earrings, watch fobs and necklaces all became quite common in the later portion of the century. Today this art is prized by collectors and family historians alike.
The End of an Era
In 1901, the Edwardian period followed the death of Queen Victoria. In part, the world came out of mourning with her passing. Fashion changed and women were no longer so rigidly dictated to by the strict Victorian code of etiquette.
In America, the change in mourning had been brewing long before Victoria’s death. The Civil War helped to instigate this change. The war lasted from 1861 to 1865, and approximately 618,000 soldiers died. Twice as many Southern soldiers died than Northern and practically the whole population of the South was in mourning. The depression that all the women in black caused added to an already grieving nation. At one point the governor of Mississippi actually tried to pass a law banning Victorian mourning garb because of the low morale of the people. War changed America’s rigid mourning rules out of neccessity.
As the world was changing at the dawn of the 20th century, so were the societies’ values. Sexual repression, via an uptight civilization, was no longer the norm. In today’s society, death has become a private affair as sex has become the public affair. Sex was an unmentionable in Victorian society yet death held no mystery at all. Wakes of great length were held where flowers were employed to mask the stench. Today many people are afraid even to look into an open casket. Mourning clothing allowed Victorian women to publicly deal with their grief. It forced them to acknowledge the tragedy. Today one can easily ignore death for any period of time. As Freud pointed out society is defined by its repressions.
The Victorian ideal of mourning filtered out of the American conscience as cities grew. Modes of transportation quickened, large scale tragedy brought women into the workplace and gave them better things to do than dress in mourning. Industry had taken over and people lived in a more modern and efficient society. The romantic cordiality, that so appeals to the Goths, was all but gone.