Antique Victorian Mourning French Vulcanite M Silver Plate Pendant Locket
Just over 1 1/4 (excluding bail). Tests for sterling silver, vulcanite. Grief is a universal human experience that has been expressed in various ways across cultures and time periods. During the Victorian era, women often wore sentimental jewelry to honor and remember loved ones who had passed away.
This antique mourning locket, made from vulcanite, showcases a subtly textural surface and a double-sided design. Crafted in silver plate, the front bears the letter "M" in Old English font, while the back features an intricate foliate motif with a blank shield cartouche awaiting a new owner's initials. With its puffy silhouette and generous size, the roomy cache is perfect for guarding a favorite memory or slim memento.
Bright patina with minimal surface wear to the setting. Fresh sheen, light surface wear, and no chipping on the vulcanite. The original frame holds your photo tightly in place with a glass panel. Closes firmly with a satisfying snap.
Mourning jewelry from the Georgian and Victorian eras were special, custom pieces designed in the memory of a deceased loved one. While many mourning pieces used dark materials like natural onyx or jet to convey grief, they were often surprisingly hopeful, as the majority of the western world believed they would one day be reunited with their loved one in the afterlife. Pieces incorporated symbols that represented this hope or the characteristics of their loved one, as well as locks of hair or small portraits. Today, collecting and wearing antique mourning jewelry is to honor the memory of a real person and appreciate the sentimentality of a bygone era. A young Queen Victoria assumed her role in 1837 and her taste in jewelry quickly became culturally influential, within England and beyond. Her relationship to jewelry was enmeshed with her husband, Prince Albert, who gifted the Queen for their engagement, a snake ring, embedded with an emerald (her birthstone) in its head. Continuing from the Georgian era and intensified by Queen Victoria. Taste, sentimental and figural jewelry was a major trend throughout the Victorian era. When certain ideas and words were deemed too forward or improper to be spoken, jewelry and symbolic meaning was used to communicate what was left unsaid._gsrx_vers_1678 GS 9.8.2 (1678).