Jewellery – social status in victorian times

Throughout the ages, jewellery has been a strong cultural and social indicator. Just like clothes, make-up and fashion, jewellery can reveal a lot about a culture and the wearer’s identity. Jewellery has a strong place in museums as items of value and pieces of art. But it’s the social aspects of owning, wearing and displaying jewellery that is perhaps the most fascinating.
 

Rattle your Jewellery

John Lennon during one of his concerts famously said those in the cheap seats could clap their hands, and the rest could rattle their jewellery. Social status and wealth are intricately tied up with jewellery and have been for centuries. And the importance of jewellery hasn’t changed; the connotations of wealth and success are flaunted by pop stars known for their ‘bling’ as if the more jewellery you wear, the more successful you are.
 

Jewellery in Victorian Times

In Victorian Britain, jewellery was clearly about status and wealth too. There was a symbolic weight attached to jewellery, and jewellery permeated all walks of life in the nineteenth century. Jewellery was more than simple ornamentation. Jewellery, perhaps more than anything else, reflected the owner’s aspirations.
 

The Cultural and Social Significance of Jewellery

Of course, the class system was much more pronounced and eagerly felt then it is today. With grinding poverty at one end of the scale and elegant country piles at the other, jewellery was an important indicator in this highly segregated society. Jewellery was used as an expression of etiquette and good manners, proving that you were of a certain social status. Jewellery was never frivolous in the way it can be today, it would hold substantial meaning to the owner and send out messages to the rest of society.
 

Jewellery and Status

In the Victorian era, men and women used jewellery to signify their status. Queen Victoria herself popularised this notion. Some examples of Victorian jewellery include:

• Mourning Jewellery – in the shape of brooches, rings and bracelets, mourning jewellery was used to reflect a person’s grief. When Prince Albert died, Queen Victoria would not receive anybody who wore general jewellery – they had to be wearing mourning jewellery that respectfully reflected her grief. In brooches, black enamel was used to represent death.
  
• Jewellery was also used by lovers who could not express their emotions through the strict rules of courtship. The forget-me-not ring shows a hand holding the flower and is a way of saying their sweetheart is forever in their thoughts.
  
• Queen Victoria had engagement and wedding rings that used the image of a snake. Snakes were thought to indicate eternal love as well as represent the cycle of eternal life. Two snakes entwined would signify two lovers in an eternal tryst.

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