Half Mourning Pins

Here are some unassuming Victorian pins that I’ve picked up at the St. Lawrence Market. The are generally described as mourning jewellery. Life was hard in the 1800s, what with the Civil War in the states and various pandemics across the world. People seemed to be in a perpetual state of mourning and elaborate dress codes grew up around the Victorians fascination with death. These codes also extended to jewellery. For example, during the first year of mourning, a widow could only wear black crepe without trimmings. After the first year of mourning, a woman was allowed to wear more ornamentation such as jewellery made from jet, a lusterless black coal, and tortoiseshell.

The tortoisehell pique brooch pictured above and the French Jet (glass) pin pictured below are the kind that would have been used to help fasten a piece of lace or hold a handkerchief.