The Victorians made much of the ceremonial element of death. It was Victoria herself - the middle-class embodiment of Christian widowhood who fanned the cult of mourning. Following the premature death of her husband Albert in December 1861, she ordered that his dressing-room at Windsor Castle be kept exactly as he left it. His clothes were laid out every night and hot water prepared for the evenings ablutions. The Queen slept with a photograph of the head and shoulders of Albert taken as he lay dead, fixed about her head, and for years afterwards, all family photographs included a life size marble bust of Albert situated in the centre of the group. She further required that everyone at court wear mourning attire on social occasions until the end of 1864. She herself remained a semi-recluse and attired solely in black for the remainder of her life.

Mourning jewellery served three basic functions; primarily acting as a souvenir of the deceased and in some cultures as an outward manifestation to the departed that he or she had not been forgotten. Secondly, mourning jewellery was created as a 'Memento Mori' - a reminder to the living of the inevitability of death. The third function, subtly unstated in mourning etiquette was that of status symbol dressing. Devotional jewellery has existed throughout the long history of the Christian church Episcopal rings given at the consecration of Bishops when celebrating Mass. By tradition, a bishop was buried wearing this ring, exemplified in the large 14th century ring, set with sapphire, discovered in the tomb of William Wytlesey, Archbishop of Canterbury and now housed in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Decade rings were used by the pious, as an alternative to rosaries (their hoops are ribbed and knobbed), and the highly prized rings were actually threaded onto rosaries when not being worn. This practise can still be seen quite commonly in South American cathedrals as offerings to revered saint's image in times of sickness and death. In fact the souvenirs of living loves and those departed have frequently looked alike, often relying on the same symbolic forms. However, closer inspection often reveals an inscription which often conveys amatory rather than religious intent.

The passion for fashionable mourning dress and jewellery both flourished and slid down the social ladder, permeating the behaviour of the middle classes until, by the time that twentieth century dawned, it had reached the poorer levels of society. Presentation at court and access to the court society was the dream of every socially ambitious family. With this attainable goal denied to them, the middle class made do with copying the minutae of court behaviour within their own circles.

During the period between 1850-90, mourning became such a cult that very few dared to defy it. Mourning wear was considered so essential that very few upper class women were ever without.

The pervasive spread of mourning dress was helped along considerably by one very important new development in the latter nineteenth century, that of the publication of fashion magazines, printed in increasingly numbers of biweekly or month editions. Many of these magazines featured both fashion advice and illustrations of the latest costume and jewellery styles. If one could not afford the luxury of a court or private dressmaker, then the newly established mourning warehouses catered for one's needs. Upon the death of Princess Charlotte, the magazines issued special mourning on November 7, 1817, stating precisely what men and women should wear, right down to black swords and buckles. Nothing was to shine or gleam in respect to this purpose.

Mourning dress became increasingly synonymous with fashionable clothing so that by 1897, '"the Draper World" declared to its readers - "Have you noticed how smart mourning is these days?" Costume collectors have much reason to be grateful for the rules governing Victorian mourning due to the prolific examples of dress surviving the passing years in trunks packed carefully away, unworn whilst the owners were in a constant state of mourning!

People moved from 'full mourning' into 'half mourning' after the passing of specially delegated periods of time relating to the closeness of the departed to those who grieved. Half mourning consisted largely of the fashions of the day, but specially made up in specific colours, including a range of soft mauves variously called; violet, pansy, scabious and heliotrope. Advertisements stressed the elegance, smartness and style. A fashion writer for the 'Ladies Field' observed in 1898 that, "Almost, I think, under these conditions mourning is a phase to be courted."(!) The last really grand display of general mourning took place in 1910, after the death of Edward VII. Once again, the "Illustrated London News' described the May 14th rush to the mourning wear stores - "The shops were literally besieged from morning to night".

The earliest known English example of a mourning ring, dating back to the 15th century was decorated with skulls, a worm and a name, 'Iohes Godefroy'. The Death's Head motif was still much used in the 17th century. It appears on a ring with an Intaglio portrait of Charles I, following his execution at the hands of the parliamentarians. The skull is engraved on a coronet and above a crown on the reverse side. Inside the hoop in Latin are the words, "The glory of England has Departed." Charles II and his Queen Catherine of Braganza, were also commemorated with special rings, one set with plaited hair below faced rock crystal.

Hair (a symbol of life) has associations with death and funerals in many cultures. The dishevelling or cutting of hair was (and still is in some cultures), a common sign of grief. In Mexico, Indian women kept their hair combings in a special jar which was buried with their bodies so that the soul would not exhaust itself looking for missing parts and delay its passage to the other world. In England during the period 1790-1840, a great number of objects displaying hair were made for the trade in mourning jewellery. This early style was neo-classical and romantic in nature, pieces were often bordered with seed pearls and coloured stones surrounding the words, "In Memorium' and a panel of simple, twisted hair. Occasionally, brilliant cut diamonds, turquoises, corals and garnets were used but it must be presumed that these would not be worn in the deepest mourning period.

The popularity of this kind of jewellery was explained to American readers of 'Godey's Ladies Book' in 1850.

"Hair is at once the most delicate and last of our materials and survives us like love. It is so light so gentle, so escaping from the idea of death, that, with a lock of hair belonging to a child or friend we may almost look up to heaven and compare notes with angelic nature, may almost say: I have a piece of thee here, not unworthy of thy being now"

Hair jewellery was not always popular.

In the 1830s several fashion magazines went so far as to disclaim the practise as being in the most appalling of tastes. But whilst the craze lasted, it was seen in a multiplicity of shapes: fine rings, long spyglass chains, thick plaited bracelets up to two inches wide finished with gold buckles and set with a cabochon garnet or turquoises' bracelets in the form of coiled tubes of open basket-weave and pendant earrings tipped with gold. The practice was not exclusively the domain of women: men also wore bracelets made from the hair of lost loves. From a much earlier period (1572-1631), the poet John Donne evokes a potent image of decay in his poem, "The Relique' in which he envisages the excavation of his own grave ..." And he that digs it, spies... a bracelet of bright hair about the bone."

A widower might wear a watch chain consisting of a triple rope of his wife's hair in Victorian times without anyone thinking him 'strange'... quite the reverse in fact - nets for hair even made of hair, a strange kind of sympathetic magic!

In 1872, Alexanna Speight, a London hairdresser who claimed to be 'on the side of the angels', was moved to publish a manual which enabled amateurs to make their own curls and compositions. Mrs. Speight also used the book to advertise her own mounts. Some hair artists extended their efforts from jewellery to huge pictures composed entirely of hair. In terms of the symbolism used in Victorian hair jewellery, the most frequently occurring images are; tombs, figures of weeping women, cypresses and yew trees denoting death and immortality; lilies for purity and ivy also for immortality. Rosemary, forget-me-nots and pansies were symbols of remembrance and myrtle, bay and laurel leaves signified love and victory. It was a mixture of over -popularity and changing taste that 'killed off' the hair mourning jewellery market - possibly not before time!

With some styles of mourning costume came the fashion edict - 'Only to be worn with jet jewellery'. the Venerable Bede (AD 673-735) had echoed in his writings the ancient belief that jet, a substance made from the fossilised driftwood of monkey puzzle trees, had magic powers: "Britain has much excellent jet which is black and sparkling, glittering at the fire and when heated drives away serpents." Jet has two qualities to which its magical powers can be attributed: firstly, its shiny surface was brilliant enough to deflect the 'evil eye' away from the person wearing it and secondly, it was sufficiently fragile to break quite easily, thus symbolically taking upon itself an injury which could otherwise threaten the bearer. The use of jet had spanned centuries; known to the Greeks as far back as 200 B.C., it was also used by the Romans.

During the Middle Ages in Europe, jet not only retained its magical value but also took on the Christian significance. From the late 14th century until well into the 20th century, jet carvings were produced in large numbers and sold to pilgrams at holy sites in Spain. It is therefore not surprising that this substance became one of the most utilised in Victorian mourning jewellery.

By 1870, the lightness and geometry of earlier periods gave way to ponderous large pieces including necklaces, bracelets, pendants, rings and earrings as well as ornaments for hats and bonnets in the form of birds, insects, butterflies, sprays and clasps. Mourning hat pins were made for crepe bonnets and aigrettes in jet were created for the hair. By the 1880s, due to a shortage of hard jet, a whole range of imitation jet had appeared.

Imitations of jet were legion and included dyed horn, early plastics such as parkesine and vulcanite (also known as ebonite), an American invention made from sulphurised rubber. Vulcanite articles are distinguished from genuine jet as the artificial materials turns from black to dark brown upon exposure to the light. Celluloid was produced from 1873 and in its turn was used in the creation of mourning jewellery. The Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, U.S.A., has a charming mourning comb from 1880, in the shape of a butterfly and made from finely wired jet and celluloid. The Glossary of Mineralogy of 1861 noted that, "Artificial jet is made of black glass, which is either cut into facets or blown into heads and blackness is produced by means of the black wax with which they are filled, or which fastens them to the iron backs on which they are mounted."

Black glass jewellery was produced in the United States from 1893 when the Libbey Glass company was founded in Ohio. The U.S. also manufactured ' English Crape Stone' made essentially from onyx, which was then 'abraded with acids to produce a line effect', then coloured to produce a dull black finish. Mourning jewellery in this finish was exported to England, France, Belgium and Austro-Hungary.

Enamel jewellery was popular for as long as mourning dress traditions survived. It was made in black or white and was used for rings, pendants, brooches and earrings. The Newark Museum in New Jersey has an elegant mourning hat pin in its collection created by Tiffany's in 1909. It is fifteen centimetres long with a simple black enamel flower head centred with a tiny pearl.

Precious stones could be worn during the latter half of the half-mourning period and the third period of mourning. In the court of Queen Victoria, ladies were finally allowed to wear 'pearls, diamonds or plain gold and silver ornaments'. The 'Ladies Field' magazine carried a full page advertisement in 1901 for 'Pearls and Diamonds for Mourning Wear". This included hair combs, choker necklaces, bracelets and ropes of pearls with love knot and iris motifs that were very fashionable at the time. When Queen Alexandra took part in her husband's coronation, she was photographed dressed in the second stage of mourning which included some magnificent jewellery; a great stranded rope of pearls which hung almost to the floor, diamond bows as well as a diamond crown. Of all the precious stones, diamonds and pearls were the only ones acceptable for mourning jewellery worn at court.

The sixty-four years of Queen Victoria's reign had seen a period of extensive experimentation and development during which the industrial changes of the late 18th century had come to fruition, the wealth of European governments had been augmented by the expansion of their colonial powers and an enlarged middle class was richer and more powerful than ever. Within the decorative arts, a sense of challenge combined with other factors to produce a plethora of styles and objects with which the materialistic Victorians could decorate both their houses and their persons. At no time is it possible to consider one style to be definitive of its time. jewellery, in particular mourning jewellery, in common with other items of intrinsic value such as silver, tended to change slowly and would overlap from one stage in the next. Within the form and symbolism of the jewellery was a plurality of style and a mass of conflicting ideologies. Major innovative art movements co-existed with revivals of earlier styles and certain ever -present popular themes. Gothic visions jostled intense romanticism and although mass production was hailed as one of the greatest achievements of the age, most Victorians could not resist the charms of craftsmanship.

As the century progressed, commercial as well as elite firms selected, modified and adapted with a bewildering disregard for context derived from the wealth of thematic material inherited from previous generations. It is something of a paradox that the mass trade in mourning jewellery came to an end with the holocaust of the First World War.