mourning jewelry

Mourning Jewelry

Below: Glass/gold/hair mourning brooch, mid-1800s, American, Gift of Miriam W. Coletti, 1993. Public domain, www.metmuseum.org

By Melody Amsel-Arieli   During the Middle Ages, Europeans grieved the passing of loved ones by following a variety of traditional social and religious rituals. Since lives then were marked by disease and high childhood mortality, scores of mourners wore…