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Pair of clasps
Unknown - Enlarge image
Pair of clasps
- Place of origin:
England, Great Britain (made)
- Date:
1775-1800 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Enamelled gold with ivory plaques painted in watercolour set with hair and rose cut diamonds
- Museum number:
2196&A-1899
- Gallery location:
Jewellery, room 91 mezzanine, case 81, shelf D, box 4
Memorial jewellery to honour the dead is one of the largest categories of 18th- century jewellery to survive. From 1760 there was a new vogue for memorial medallions or lockets. These became especially popular in Britain, though similar work was produced throughout Europe.
The lockets could be bought ready made, and the designs were standardised. Neo-classical motifs of funerary urns, plinths and obelisks joined the more traditional cherubs, angels and weeping willows. Hair was preserved as curls within the locket or cut up and used to create designs.
Not all sentimental jewellery is associated with death. Some pieces express love, friendship and devotion for the living or act as a visual keepsake.
