Here is your mourning jewelry fix for the week. This is a ca. 1700 mourning slide. The wearer would have thread a ribbon through the loops on the back and worn this as a bracelet or collar necklace. The materials here are hair, gold foil and enamel, all fitted under rock crystal. The skeleton, presumably of the deceased, is lounging on his/her coffin, which is engraved with the words "I rest." The imagery is stark, but the little angels soften it somehow. I appreciate how realistically the Victorians portrayed death with images. I mean, can you imagine going to a funeral now and seeing a skeleton image on the program? People would think it was in such bad taste. I actually find this piece - skeleton and all - very tender and comforting. What do you think?
3 comments:
The skeleton looks happy actually. This piece is amazing. I wish we commemorated lives we've lost with a touching piece of jewelry rather than the shrines and such I've seen. Great piece!
This such a fantastic piece. I love the skeleton aspect, death used to be so literal in the past, we really don't deal with it much anymore in a physical sense. I was in Westminster yesterday and there was a grave decoration of a weak wife with her husband trying to defend her from the skeletal Death crawling from his prison. It was amazing. You can read about it here: http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/lady-elizabeth-nightingale
I love that the skeleton is smiling. "It's really quite nice here — you'll see!" xoxo
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