Page 28 - joa oct 22
P. 28
Victorian Mourning
by Maxine Carter-Lome,
publisher
Warehouses
One-Stop
Mourning
“MOURNING—Court, Family, and It also created consumer demand for one-stop mourning
Complimentary—The Proprietors of the London shopping, resulting in a booming ready-to-wear
industry and the rise of huge department stores in
General Mourning Warehouse, Nos. 247 and 249 both London and in America known as mourning
Regent-street, beg respectfully to remind families warehouses.
whose bereavements compel them to adopt Mourning warehouses provided everything one
needed to put forth a socially appropriate display of
mourning attire, that every article (of the mourning. This not only included mourning
very best description) requisite for a complete garments and accessories for all sizes and phases of
outfit of mourning may be had at their mourning, and fabric with which to drape a home,
but also gravestones, coffins, and the ability to rent a
establishment at a moment’s notice.” hearse and the appropriate horses to draw it. Thanks
– Advertisement in The Illustrated London News, to the railway and developing technology that allowed
August 31, 1844 for the ready-to-wear mass production of mourning
clothing, mourning warehouses were also able to supply
hen Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert customers with proper clothing within a day at rates
died in 1861, the world joined the distraught Readymade Gentleman’s much cheaper than one’s local tailor or dressmaker.
WQueen in her mourning. Average citizens of all Mourning Attire Companies such as Jay’s London General Mourning
classes, both here and throughout Western Europe, Warehouse and Peter Robinson’s Mourning
Warehouse, both located on Regent Street in London,
looked to emulate her piety, dress, and mourning Title image: Regent Street from the
conventions not only as a way to show her their respect Circus Oxford Street view of Jay’s and in America, Jackson’s Mourning Warehouse in
but to publicly display their own wealth and refinement Mourning Warehouse New York City, and Besson & Son of Philadelphia,
in the mourning of their own loved sprung up to meet the needs of
ones in a way once reserved only for “sudden” mourners by supplying
royalty and aristocrats. everything individuals and families
Prince Albert’s death escalated needed “to carry out the requirements
an already elaborate set of strict of Modern Mourning Orders.”
protocols that dominated mourning
rituals for royalty and commoners Jay’s London General
alike through the Victorian Era and Mourning Warehouse
into the pre-war decades of the
20th century. These requirements One of the largest and most
were shared with the general public renowned of the Victorian Era
through articles in fashion magazines, mourning warehouses was Jay’s
mail order catalogs, and etiquette London General Mourning
handbooks that dictated everything Warehouse, which opened on
from the various stages of mourning fashionable Regent Street in 1841.
to be followed to what one was to An entrepreneur and marketer
wear during each phase and for how by nature, William Chickhall (W.C.)
long based on the relationship Jay recognized a business opportunity
between mourner and the deceased. in the link between grief and clothes,
Illustration of Jay’s Mourning Warehouse, Regent Street, W. in London
and the public’s need for guidance
26 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles
