Brooch (Mourning brooch or pin)

Description

Memorial jewelry honoring the dead is one of the largest categories of eighteenth-century jewelry to survive today. This gold navette-shaped brooch was made to memorialize the life of George Cook in 1792. Likely made by a goldsmith in London, a similar brooch extant in a private collection confirms that this was a standard style offered by the maker. The buyer had the option to personalize the object through the engraving on the underside of the brooch: “Geo. Cook A Ob 20 Oct 1792 Aet 79.” The miniature adheres to neoclassical fashion with its use of materials and iconography, but the statement “But there is a Step, Between Me and Death” borrows from the memento mori (remember you must die) phrasing of earlier mourning jewelry. The presence of the skull, clasped by a classical female mourner at the center of the miniature, further emphasizes the wearer’s contemplation of mortality.