The Importance of Memento Mori & Jewellery

Memento mori, or ‘remember you will die’ is an important personal value to identity in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. As the mourning industry grew into a sustainable industry in its own right, the message only grew as it was imprinted upon fashionable accessories and artefacts that people wore. The skull and the crossbones… Continue reading The Importance of Memento Mori & Jewellery

Mourning Shoe Buckles and Fashion

This mourning buckle contains panels of woven hair, decorated with an elaborate inscription in gold thread and a small enamelled skull, all set behind rock crystal. The inscription, partly in latin, tells us that the piece commemorates Elizabeth Harman who died on 11 April 1698, aged 27.

As with any piece of fashion accessory, if it could be introduced into the mourning industry, it would be. The industry that had grown as an autonomously driven entity from the 1680s had developed enough reason to exist through court edict that it was popular enough to cascade through society and be fashionable. When there… Continue reading Mourning Shoe Buckles and Fashion