Product Description

Decorative art created to memorialize and commemorate death has been a part of Western culture for centuries. Extraordinarily beautiful examples of mourning art and memorial jewelry for members of royalty and the aristocracy date back to the 16th century in England and Europe. Medieval references to commemorative art predate even the extant pieces now in museums. During the Georgian and Victorian eras, outstanding pieces of mourning jewelry and artwork were found in a majority of homes in America, Britain, and Europe. Without being morbid or macabre, this book provides a fascinating text about mourning practices and historical influences that shaped individual and cultural perspectives surrounding death in the 18th and 19th centuries. During these centuries, memorial art reached its zenith in artistic beauty and some of the finest examples from collections in America, England, France, Germany, and Switzerland are featured here. Over 500 color photos display jewelry, portrait miniatures, pottery and glassware, paintings and sculpture, posthumous photographs, hair-work memorials, and more. Current values are provided in the captions. Historians, dealers, and collectors alike will find this book an excellent resource for Victoriana, Georgian and Victorian memorial arts, and antique jewelry, subjects never before treated together in a single volume.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #204218 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 253 pages

Customer Reviews

mourning jewerly
Great book if you wish to know what you are buying when looking at genuine articles from the Era of the Civil War. Many people try to pass off other totally incorrect items as "Civil War" when they are not sure, so YOU must be sure before you spend your hard earned money. This research is key to saving your funds. Fun too because you can also find great buys this way. Many people will sell their inheritance items for very little as they don't think they would ever wear them, and can't understand why they should hang on to Great Great Grandmother's brooch or pendant when to their eyes it is ugly. Different, yes, ugly? No. Victorian jewelry is very chic these days and people are collecting even the costume jewelry made to copy the good pieces that the common people could not afford back then. These items are still affordable and fun to wear and own. You just have to know what to buy and what NOT to buy. This book will help a lot with that.

BEST BOOK WRITTEN ON THIS SUBJECT!!
If you want to read the best book ever written on this subject then this is the book for you!! The Author has researched in detail the history of Mourning and has included photographs that are absolutely beautiful. I saw items in this book that brought tears to my eyes. The reader will learn not only the history of Mourning, they are able to see what people wore, displayed and kept as mementos of their deceased loved ones. This is a complete book of times past. I not only recommend this book for those that study the history of this subject but for those who want to read and see the beauty and sentimentality of those that have gone before! A true experience!

History of mourning jewelry mostly just history
I had hoped this would be more than just a history book of mourning jewelry. More examples, much more, would have been the perfect "history" of what was produced during the "mourning jewelry period". I was dissappointed with this entire book.