The highly sentimental period of the Civil War Victorians saw much jewelry given and worn as a token of affection, love, loyalty to a cause, religious commitment and mourning. The Victorian distinction between mourning jewelry is often blurred. A broach containing hair might be to honor a living relative or sweetheart or to memorialize the memory of the departed.
Typically, American images of women in the period of the Civil War show a woman wearing a rounded broach at her neckline.¹ Most broaches of the Civil War period were from 1.5 to 2.5 inches in diameter. The three forms of pins which were the most popular² were the locket pin³, cameo and mosaic.
Broaches
The locket broach consists of a small picture frame under glass with a plain or decorative bezel. This broach would often have an image of one’s loved one in the frame, sometimes with a lock of their hair on the reverse, also under glass. Gold was the most common metal for the piece and the frame would be fairly plain in most cases. A twisted ribbon of gold around the frame may be used for decoration and to hold the piece together. The Greek key design was also a popular decorative motif. It is also common to see a broach containing braided hair or even two colors of hair without an image. Hair jewelry constructed entirely of woven hair without a frame was likely popular toward the end of the War or the late sixties and seventies.
Cameos
The fifties to early sixties cameo pin would be cared out of either a hard stone, shell or lava.4 The most common form is a shell cameo with a light foreground and a darker brown background. Lava cameos may vary in color from white to clay to chocolate brown, depending on the site from which the material was obtained.5 The discovery of classical crafts and jewelry in the ruins of Pompeii, Ninevah and Egypt created a demand in Victorian society to wear copies of these originals. Thus, the images in cameos of the Civil War period are primarily of a classical figure or of biblical scenes. Twentieth century cameos seldom look like cameos of the Civil War period, since they are reproduced from a later style of cameo from the turn of the century.6 The cameo habillies which depict the cameo image wearing jewelry were generally of a later invention than the Civil War period. Wedgewood was a “fake” cameo of a white figure glued to a colored background. Wedgewood cameos were popular even before the War, endured through the conflict and are produced even today.
Mosaics
Mosaics worn were typically micro mosaics made out of tiny pieces of glass to form a scene. A grand tour of Europe often included the purchase of a souvenir mosaic broach in Italy of the art treasures or ruins they had seen. In keeping with the Victorian love of glitter, the micro mosaic might also be backed with a bright coppery-gold color (goldstone) which is composed of melted glass with copper crystals mixed in. Another form of mosaic was the Pietra Dura or Florentine mosaic. This image, on a black marble or onyx background, was made up of small pieces of precious stones’, such as lapis or malachite, most frequently arranged in a floral motif. The European mosaic might be purchased unmounted so the traveler could return home and have their own goldsmith create a mount for their souvenir.7
Earrings
Earrings may or may not be worn (if earrings were worn, they would have been fastened with a hook-type device as post and screw-on earrings were later invention. Hoop earrings would fasten through the ear with a small hook that fastened on the other side.) Many very dressed-up women do not appear to be wearing earrings in images of the Civil War period.
Rings
The next most common jewelry worn is a ring (or two or three). The wedding band was typically a plain gold band. While diamond engagement rings were not unknown, they would not have been as common as now since the African Diamond mines had not been developed during the Civil War. One interesting type of ring in Georgian (pre-Victorian) and Victorian period are sentimental rings.
”Regard” or “Dearest” rings and broaches
These were popular in the early nineteenth century. A “regard” broach would have a ruby, emerald, garnet, amethyst, ruby and diamond in the correct order. The first letter of the name of the colored stone would spell out the desired word of endearment or the name of the loved one. Resources indicate jewelers occasionally had to resort to old names for jewels (i.e. vermeil for garnet) in order to make up a word. Sometimes messages have been ruined by subsequent jewelry repairs which unwittingly replaced missing stones with others which destroyed the word.
A necklace in choker length of dark beads is commonly seen in images of the period. A large round locket is seldom seen on grown women, but frequently appears in images of small girls.
Watches
Another type of jewelry worn was a watch. A watch or watch chain appears on about a quarter of the images studied. The images typically show a watch worn at the waist band, but a very long chain (50 to 60 inches) worn around the neck with the watch tucked back into the waistband was an early style and is still seen in some Civil War images. Gold was the most commonly worn material for watches as well as other jewelry for two reasons. First, silver tarnished more easily than gold and second, silver mines were discovered in the West after the Civil War.
Other Material
Other jewelry materials were hair, thermo-plastic, jet, horn, cut steel, agate, coral, lave, stone(cameos), shell(somewhat cheaper cameos), turquoise(commonly used with gold), lapis, pearls and amethyst. These semi-precious materials were commonly made up in rather plain twisted gold bezel around the stones (or shell cameos) to keep them in place or a plain frame around a locket broach for hair or an image of a loved one.
The material of the jewelry is often an indication of whether it was intended as a mourning piece or to honor a living individual. When made out of jet or bordered in black enamel, a piece would be for mourning, a similar piece might also be worked in gold, enamel, turquoise or lapis for a love token. The bright colors indicated the loved one was alive.
Symbols of Sentiment
Other combinations of symbols indicate the sentiment intended by the giver or wearer. The combination of the heart, cross and anchor represent love, faith and hope. A lover’s true knot signifies devotion. Another popular emblem was that of the serpent biting its own tail, signifying eternity. Queen Victoria’s engagement ring was in this form. She was apparently fond of this design as she owned several serpent pieces including a bracelet which she wore at her first council meeting.
Commonly seen…but incorrect
Some commonly seen jewelry, but incorrect for the Civil War period, are Indian silver and turquoise, crepe stone.8 Ornate modern jewelry “trying to look old fashioned” often does not and should usually be avoided by the reenactor. The brand of jewelry with pink plastic roses glued around the sides of a central large rose is wrong. So are the matching post earrings. This is commonly seen at reenactments but should be avoided. Cameos are always surrounded by a frame; the “fake” cameos or Wedgewood pieces that are sold which do not have bezels, are wrong for the period...
Bar pins should not be worn with a Civil War impression. Sash pins of the 1920s and 1930s are also wrong; although they may not have a safety clasp (the “C” portion of the clasp is thicker than a pin clasp of the Civil War). These sash pins usually contain a colored “gem” stone or be hand painted porcelain with a spray of flowers. There are lovely, but not period correct.
While a case can be made for almost any type of piece being worn in the Civil War, taste being what it is, the most typical broach shape was rounded, oval or square. Few good reproductions pieces are being made today for living historians to wear at events. The best source for a cabochon or not-faced jewel in a bezel, popular during the Civil War is museum catalogues10 and gift shops. These pieces with have safety clasps, which were also an invention inspired by the need to secure one’s jewelry in a more fast-paced life style at the end of the century. But the safety clasp can be removed by a jeweler. 11
The earrings with hook fasteners in most reproduction earrings with hooks have a small ball and spring just above the ring that connects the decorative part of the earring. This ball and spring feature is not correct for the Civil War period and should be gently removed with a pair of needle-nosed pliers by the reenactor seeking a more correct impression.
The writer suggests careful wearing of inexpensive original pieces in living history event for the most correct impression. This runs the risk of loss and the reenactor electing this course of action should either prepare herself for the possible loss or insure the piece for its replacement value.
Notes
1. Typically surviving dresses have no fasteners at the very top of the dress, indicating most women wore pins at the neckline to complete the dress.
2. Based on the author’s study of approximately 2,000 CDV’s and 300 hard images of the period in private collections.
3. We typically associate the term “locket” with a necklace, but the cased broach containing hair or a picture of a loved on was more common in the Civil War period.
4. Other hard stones were also carved into cameos, but are much less common.
5. White lava was sometimes dyed unnatural shades of bright blue or purple.
6. Most of the female figures in these later cameos are a romanticized slim woman with a small up-turned nose.
7. Thus, the Italian mosaic may be combined with an American mount. Traditional Home, Memories in Mosaic,, Jill Gerston, March 1993.
8. Yes, crepe stone looks like it should have been associated with the heavy mourning customs of the Civil War era, but it was actually a method of cutting onyx, not popular until the 1870’s.
9. The author remembers wearing polished peach pits as a necklace in her adolescent years.
10. For example, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, (800)225-3883. Beware the phrases “adapted from” or “inspired by” which often indicate the jewelry was not made as a copy of an old piece of jewelry, but was taken from some detail of something that inspired the artist to create a piece of contemporary jewelry. The earrings will also likely have fasteners and the broaches safety clasps that are adapted to modern tastes in jewelry.
11. The jeweler will think you are crazy and try to talk you out of such a course of action. Since many female reenactors are quite active and trek through fields and woods, this renovation should be carefully weighed.
References :
This article was written by Ms. Byassee for the Lady Reenactor. She is an avid collector of women’s images and jewelry of the Civil War era. She is an attorney practicing commercial law in Nashville, TN, and a member of the Ladies’ Soldier’s Friends Society and has been reenacting for ten years.
