Victorian jewellery

The role of jewellery within Victorian culture was important in determining a person’s identity and social status.

Jewels are much sought after due to their association with respectability, class prestige, monetary value and current trends within society.

Consumerism was crucial in prompting the purchasing of different types of jewels, which were able to determine a person’s wealth and social class.

[2] Due to the financial value of jewels, lower classes could not afford to keep up with this fashion trend.

If a woman did not wear jewellery, it was assumed it was because she was unable to afford it due to her position in the working class.

The production of jewellery throughout the Victorian era was distinct, as it marked change and innovative practices through the use of new machinery.

Hair is incorporated into jewellery as a memento, considering it is the only part of the body that does not change or decay after death.

[6] Materials such as pearls, gold, gems and enamels were commonly added to hair jewellery as decoration.

[8] Other than their use as a romantic keepsake and their use at funerals, hair jewellery represented a material object and popular fashion accessory.

[6] Women that successfully produced hair jewellery demonstrated their domestic skills and womanhood within society.

[8] The large demand for making hair jewellery called for a woman's desire to be industrious from the comfort of her own home.

Hair jewellery was often produced within the home environment using tools such as a curling-iron, tweezers, gum, a porcelain pallet and a knife.

[6] An increase in women individually creating their own hair jewellery stemmed from a lack of trust for jewellers.

[6] Hair jewellery associated with Queen Victoria is very collectible - recent pieces going for tens of thousands of pounds at auction.

[3] During this time grievers were not permitted to wear shiny or reflective materials and must be entirely dressed in black, this was inclusive of clothes and jewellery.

[3] In contrast, the second year of mourning permitted grievers to wear more subdued colours such as white or colourless materials, pearls and diamonds.

[3] A mourning ring for the author Charlotte Brontë, for instance, was rediscovered in 2019 - it was inscribed with her name and death date (March 1855), and held a braid of her hair behind a locked panel.

[8] The two main materials used to create mourning jewellery consisted of jet and black onyx jewels.

[8][11] Throughout the mid nineteenth century, jet was a material that was much sought after due to its use in mourning jewellery.

[8] The fossilised material, jet was valued because it was lightweight, intense black in colour, durable, inexpensive and could be easily carved.