1981.0119 Brooch, Mourning brooch or pin, view 1
  • 1981.0119 Brooch, Mourning brooch or pin, view 1
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Brooch (Mourning brooch or pin)

  • Category:

    Jewelry

  • Place of Origin:

    England or United States, United Kingdom or United States, Europe or North America

  • Date:

    1780-1800

  • Materials:

    Gold; Ivory; Glass; Hair (human); Pearls; Foil; Wire

  • Museum Object Number:

    1981.0119


  • Complete Details



Object Number

1981.0119

Object Name

Brooch (Mourning brooch or pin)

Category

Jewelry

Credit Line/Donor

Gift of Roland E. Jester in memory of Margo Jester

Place of Origin

England or United States, United Kingdom or United States, Europe or North America

Date

1780-1800

Subjects

Mourning imagery; Death; Classical; Architecture

Materials

Gold; Ivory; Glass; Hair (human); Pearls; Foil; Wire

Dimensions (inches)

1.37 (H) , 0.87 (W)

Dimensions (centimeters)

3.49 (H) , 2.22 (W)

Object Description

Web - 05/01/20222

Mourning jewelry as a category encompasses small-scale, wearable objects that commemorated a deceased friend or relative. This mourning brooch features a man in late eighteenth-century dress leaning against a heavily embellished obelisk. His hunched posture and the handkerchief held to his face indicate that he is weeping for a loved one. The scene is framed by a tree whose branches curl over the top, directing the viewer to the brightly-colored monument.

The man and the tree are painted in shades of black, white, and sepia and he stands on a three-dimensional ground made of chopped human hair, possibly from the deceased, mixed with adhesive. The obelisk is fashioned from a second layer of painted ivory. The pink color may allude to the red sandstone often used for gravestones in Britain and America. Gold wires border the edges of the obelisk and base, some of which have come loose inside the case. Rose-gold foil strips and two rows of seed pearls form the top and bottom plinths of the obelisk’s base.

Obelisks, elongated pyramidal structures set atop a cube base, grew in popularity over the course of the eighteenth century, as part of the greater fascination with ancient Egyptian and Roman forms. As early as 1600s they were common architectural features in designed landscapes of French chateaus and British country estates. Owing to their links with ancient Egyptian funerary customs, obelisks were used as memorials. Designs for obelisks circulated in garden and architectural treatises, as well as specialized pattern books for jewelers and painters. Plate 6 of Garnet Terry’s 1795 publication of “Hair Work Devices” reproduces a similar scene of a man beside an obelisk. Such heavily embellished obelisks, such as the one depicted in this brooch, were a popular motif used in European and American mourning jewelry from the 1780s to the early 1800s.

Bibliography and Bibliographic Notes

[Book] Fales, Martha Gandy. 1995 Jewelry in America, 1600-1800.
Similar objects; pp. 93, 101, 104
[Book] DeLorme, Maureen. 2004 Mourning Art & Jewelry. 256 p.
Similar objects: pp. 72, 73, 75, 79