The History of Mourning Jewellery: Keeping Love Close Through the Ages
6 min Read
For centuries, people have looked for a way to keep someone they love close after they have gone. Long before photographs were commonplace or memories could be stored digitally, jewellery offered something deeply personal: a small, wearable reminder of a life, a relationship and the love that remained.
Mourning jewellery is often associated with the Victorian era, with its black enamel rings, lockets and intricately woven hair designs. Yet its history reaches much further back. At its heart, mourning jewellery has always served the same quiet purpose: to honour a person, preserve their memory and offer a tangible connection through grief.
Key takeaways
- Mourning jewellery has roots in medieval remembrance traditions and became more established in Britain during the seventeenth century.
- Early mourning rings were often engraved with a person’s name, age and date of death.
- Victorian mourning jewellery popularised the use of hair, lockets, symbolic motifs and dark materials such as jet and onyx.
- Modern memorial jewellery continues this tradition in a more personal, individual way.
- There is no “right” time or way to wear a keepsake; its meaning belongs to the person who carries it.
The earliest remembrance rings
The tradition of giving jewellery in remembrance was known in Europe from the Middle Ages. By the seventeenth century, mourning rings had become a more recognisable custom in England. Families would sometimes leave instructions in their wills for rings to be made and given to relatives, friends or funeral attendees.
These early pieces were often crafted in gold, finished with black enamel and engraved with the deceased person’s name and the dates of their life. Their purpose was not simply decorative. They were small, lasting records of a person who had mattered.
Many also included memento mori imagery — Latin for “remember you must die.” Skulls, skeletons, hourglasses and coffins may feel sombre to us now, but they were intended as reminders of life’s fragility and the importance of remembrance. The British Museum notes that remembrance rings were known from the Middle Ages and that engraved, black-enamelled mourning rings became customary by the seventeenth century. British Museum collection notes
Mourning jewellery in the Victorian era
Although mourning jewellery did not begin with Queen Victoria, the Victorian era made it far more visible and culturally familiar.
After the death of Prince Albert in 1861, Queen Victoria entered a long period of mourning and continued to wear black for the rest of her life. Her personal grief helped shape the public image of Victorian mourning, but the tradition itself was already deeply established across British society.
Jewellery became one part of a wider language of mourning, alongside clothing, stationery, funeral customs and memorial art. Rings, brooches, pendants and lockets could be worn close to the body, allowing people to carry a private reminder of the person they missed even while moving through everyday life.
The materials chosen often carried meaning. Black enamel, jet, onyx and dark glass reflected the visual conventions of mourning, while seed pearls were sometimes used to represent tears. Motifs such as weeping willows, urns, clasped hands, angels and forget-me-nots offered gentle visual expressions of love, sorrow and enduring connection. An early nineteenth-century mourning brooch in the Smithsonian collection, for example, features a tomb, urn and weeping willow — motifs widely used at the time. National Museum of American History
Why hair was used in mourning jewellery
One of the most recognisable forms of Victorian mourning jewellery contains a lock of hair from the person being remembered.
Hair was meaningful because it was physical, personal and long-lasting. It could be placed behind glass in a locket, arranged into an intricate design, braided into a watch chain or worked into a ring or brooch. In a time before easy access to photographs, it provided a tangible connection to someone loved.
Hair jewellery was not always associated with death; it could also be exchanged between family members, friends and sweethearts. But in mourning pieces, it became a powerful way to preserve a small part of a person’s presence. During the early to mid-1800s, lockets and brooches containing hair became particularly popular in the United States as tokens of mourning and remembrance. Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Today, this history can feel unfamiliar or even confronting. But the sentiment behind it is instantly recognisable: the wish to hold on to something real when someone important is no longer physically near.
A helpful thought: Mourning jewellery has never been about “moving on” from someone. It is about finding a way to carry their memory forward.
The purpose of mourning jewellery
Mourning jewellery gave grief a physical form. It created a private symbol that could be worn every day, touched in difficult moments or passed down through a family.
For some people, it was an outward sign of bereavement. For others, it held a meaning known only to the wearer. A name engraved inside a ring, a lock of hair hidden beneath glass or a small locket resting close to the heart could hold a whole story without needing to explain it to anyone else.
That is still the purpose of memorial jewellery today. While customs and materials have changed, the emotional intention remains much the same. A keepsake can offer closeness, comfort and a gentle way to honour someone’s place in your life.
Mourning jewellery today
Modern memorial jewellery is more individual than the formal traditions of the past. Rather than following prescribed colours, symbols or periods of mourning, people choose pieces that feel right for their own relationship and remembrance.
Some may choose to preserve cremation ashes within a ring, pendant or charm. Others may hold close a lock of hair, pet fur, dried flowers, fabric or a small amount of breastmilk connected to a cherished chapter of life. Each inclusion tells a different story, but each reflects the same human desire that shaped mourning jewellery centuries ago: to keep a precious connection close.
At Memories of You, each stone is handcrafted with care in our Sunbury studio and can be created using the inclusion that holds meaning for you. There is no single way to remember someone special — only the way that feels most personal to you.
FAQs
Is mourning jewellery only for someone who has died?
Traditionally, mourning jewellery was created after a death. Today, many people also choose keepsake jewellery to honour living connections, meaningful life chapters, beloved pets and family memories.
Is it appropriate to wear memorial jewellery every day?
Yes. Many people choose an everyday piece because its meaning is personal and comforting. Others prefer to wear theirs on significant dates or whenever they feel drawn to it.
What is the difference between mourning jewellery and memorial jewellery?
Mourning jewellery usually refers to the historical tradition of jewellery worn following a death. Memorial jewellery is a broader modern term for pieces created to honour, remember or preserve a meaningful connection.
Can any Memories of You piece hold ashes or another inclusion?
Yes. Any piece in our collection can be created with the inclusion that is meaningful to you, including cremation ashes, hair, fur, dried flowers, breastmilk and more.
Keep their memory close
Mourning jewellery reminds us that remembrance has always been deeply personal. Whether it is worn quietly every day or kept for the moments when it is needed most, a meaningful piece can become a gentle connection to a love that continues.
