Archive for Mourning Jewellery
Bog Oak, ancient wood jewellery
Posted by: | CommentsAbout Bog Oak Jewellery
Bog oak is a jewellery material widely used during the Victorian era in mourning jewellery. Today you will normally find that jewellery made of bog oak is antique jewellery over 100 years old. Bog oak is fossilized wood and is also sometimes known as bog wood. Most bog wood is made of oak trees which have been preserved in the peat bogs of Ireland for thousands of years. As it is from Ireland it is most commonly found with Irish motifs such as Shamrocks and harps.
Bog oak was cheap and plentiful during the Victorian era, it was easily carved and due to its dark black colour was popular in mourning jewellery. The bog oak can also be found set with tiny pearls or gold detail as in this brooch:
Bog oak brooch
Today bog oak jewellery is collected alongside other Victorian black mourning Jewellery and would normally be cheaper than an equivalent Jet brooch.
Identifying Bog Oak jewellery:
You can tell Bog Oak from other Victorian mourning Jewellery materials by looking at the structure of the material. Bog oak is Matt not shiny and on careful examination you can see the wood grain.
Care of Bog oak Jewellery:
The surface of bog oak jewellery can get dusty so I suggest that you remove the dust with a soft brush, a large clean make up blusher brush is ideal for this. Do not try and polish bog oak jewellery as it is meant to be matt.
Buy antique jewellery made from Bog Oak:
AntiquesAvenue.co.uk will normally have one or two pieces of Antique Victorian bog oak jewellery available in the antique jewellery department.
Victorian bog oak
Bog Oak – more black Victorian Jewellery
Posted by: | CommentsA bit about Bog Oak
From my postbag:
How about Bog Oak? I have a brooch that I think is. I’m not sure. Can you tell me a little about it? And maybe how to tell if bog oak is the material?
My Reply:
Bog Oak Jewellery
Bog Oak was popular in Victorian Antique Jewellery especially for a mourning piece. It was easier to find and work than Jet but cannot be polished as highly and the shapes achieved are much simpler. So Bog Oak jewas cheaper as the finished article. Bog oak jewellery remains cheaper than jet jewellery today. Bog Oak is the wood of Oak Trees that has long since fallen into peat bogs in Ireland and been preserved and become black in colour. You will often see it carved with Shamrock patterns and occasionally set with pearls.
How can you tell if it is bog oak? It is matt in appearance ( unlike jet which tens to be highly polished) and you can see a wood grain if you look carefully. None of the other materials popular in Victorian Mourning jewellery has the wood grain. Please take care not to get this material wet – just clean with a soft dry brush.
Vintage brooches – Collecting Mourning Jewellery
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- Georgian mourning brooch
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- mourning brooch
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- mourning pin
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- mourning locket brooch
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- mourning locket stick pin
In the Georgian and Victorian eras death at a relatively young age was much more common than it is nowadays and it was the fashion to remember departed loved ones by holding a lock of their hair in either a locket worn arround the neck or pinned to clothing as a brooch. These lockets were usually made of heavy gold filled construction. When they were worn as a brooch the loved ones hair was held in a central compartement which could be decorated around the edge with seed pearls, black enamel or the name of the person and something sentimental written.
Particulary sought after are mourining brooches which have information about the name and date of death of the loved ones. nowadays I regularly get asked for these lockets as the potential new owners want to replace the original hair with that of a beloved pet.
Here are a few genuine antique mourning brooches for you to see:
Victorian Gothic mourning locket gold filled hinged
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Here is a very special and unusual piece of Victorian Gothic mouring jewellery.Find out more or buy this Victorian locket from AntiquesAvenue
