Feature image: Teeth jewelry via British Dental Journal
Victorian Tooth Jewelry
Mourning jewelry first appeared during the Middle Ages but wasn’t popular until the 19th Century with the Victorians. This kind of jewelry acted as a form of remembrance and memorial for loved ones who had passed on. Mourning jewelry most often incorporated the hair of the deceased person, but there were instances of people using teeth as well. When pieces were made from teeth, they often featured milk teeth due to high infant mortality rates. It was customary that women would mourn for up to two years following the death of a loved one. There were three stages to this mourning practice, but it was only after the first stage that mourning jewelry was allowed to be worn.
The most opulent examples of this practice come from Queen Victoria, who had at least two different jewelry sets made from her children's teeth. Despite the high infant mortality rates, all nine of Queen Victoria’s children lived to adulthood. Her milk teeth jewelry took on new meaning because they were not made out of mourning but rather made to commemorate her children reaching adulthood alive. Jewelry made from the milk teeth of living children was thought to bring luck to the mother. Teeth were used in rings, earrings, brooches, and bracelets.
In 1847, Queen Victoria was given her first jewelry piece, which was made from the tooth of her oldest child, Princess Victoria. The tooth was the first that Princess Victoria lost and was placed into a thistle brooch, the tooth forming the plant's seed head. The brooch itself was made of gold and featured beautiful green-enameled leaves. Princess Victoria lost this tooth while the family was visiting Scotland. The piece commemorated their trip and the beginning stages of their first child’s journey to adulthood.
Victoria’s youngest child, Princess Beatrice, also had three of her milk teeth set into a pendant and a pair of earrings in the form of fuchsia flowers. The pendant has the words “Our Baby’s First Tooth'' written on the purple ribbon. It was thought by some that the choice of the fuchsia flower was picked due to the association that the flower had to ‘taste’ in the Victorian language of flowers, but others believe the choice had more to do with aesthetics to fit the shape of the teeth. The teeth hang down from the inside of the flowers and feature gold accents with purple bows.
There are plenty of other examples of jewelry for teeth, although they tend to be much simpler. For example, this might look like a gold brooch that resembles a safety pin with the milk teeth hanging from the pin, no other adornments or colors are added. There are also examples of adult incisors being held in a simple gold setting. In these situations, the teeth stand out as the central object in the piece.
The animals' hair, teeth, and claws also appeared in jewelry during this period. Prince Albert used to present Queen Victoria with jewelry made from the animals he shot on hunting trips. We have examples of signet rings made from a deer’s tooth and pendants made from the teeth of a boar.
While this tradition may seem macabre to many today, these pieces are symbols of love. They commemorated the lives of the deceased and the lives of children who reached adulthood. The practice largely fell out of favor with the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and ended entirely by the end of WWI as cultural attitudes around death changed.
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