Mastery of Design: A Memorial Locket, 1775-1800

Victoria & Albert Museum

In an engraved gold frame, ivory painted in watercolour shows a miniature, embellished with hair and pearls, of a woman by a tomb bearing the initials BEC beneath the inscription, “I Mourn for them I loved.” Knots of plaited hair adorn the back.

This is classic Eighteenth Century memorial jewelry with all of the trappings. From 1760 onward, there was a new vogue for memorial medallions or lockets-- especially in Britain.

This example could not be more ideal.