Jewellery’s evolution in the 1800s highlights many of the economic and moral changes that transformed British society during the Queen’s 63-year reign. Jewellery is a private, yet paradoxically the most visible, sign of these social shifts. The growth of personal autonomy meant it was worn on the body, exchanged in love and carried into mourning — yet its evolution was based on the large-scale trends of imperial expansion and technological advance.
From Tudor exclusivity to Victorian ubiquity
By the nineteenth century, jewellery had evolved from the Tudor era, when it had been the preserve of monarchs and nobles. In the 1600s, sumptuary laws tightly controlled who could wear what as clothing or decoration. (Read more about them here).
But these were swept away (or just ignored) in the Stuart and Georgian periods, when rulers became as interested in taxing things as controlling them. By the late eighteenth century, jewellers like Rundell and Bridge had begun to supply the rising professional and mercantile classes. And so, by Victoria’s reign, jewellery was no longer confined to palaces and noble houses. New industrial technologies combined with both expanding global trade and rising consumer demand had begun to democratise jewellery.
The Romantic Period (1837–1860): Sentimentality vs. mass production
In Victoria’s early decades, known as the Romantic Period, sentimentality and symbolism dominated fashions and trends, with motifs such as flowers, hearts, clasped hands and lover’s knots. Coral, ivory and tortoiseshell reflected a fascination with more natural forms.
Even though jewellery was now much more affordable, gold or gems were still seen to signify class, with middle-class women only wearing more modest lockets and brooches. But the quantity and quality of those pieces in portraits of the time showed their spread.
Crucially, this was when new technologies had begun to reshape production. Gas and steam power meant workshops could drive rolling mills and presses which, combined with electroplating, produced a flood of gold-on-base-metal pieces that glittered like the real thing. This built on Georgian paste jewellery (glass imitating gems) and meant ‘fine costume’ jewellery was within easy reach of clerks and shopkeepers.
Mortality was still high, and hair jewellery became widespread, with locks of loved ones incorporated into brooches or rings (the mourning ring with Charlotte Brontë’s hair is a famous example). This was a further shift in society’s attitude, with jewellery and grief shifting to something profoundly personal.
Image copyright Antique Ring Boutique.
The engagement of Queen Victoria further popularised this sentimentality. When Prince Albert gave her a serpent-shaped engagement ring with her birthstone, an emerald, it kick-started a fashion for symbolic and gemstone-laden rings (there was a craze for acrostic rings where the first letter of each gem spelled out an emotion or name).
The Grand Period (1860–1880): Mourning and growing consumerism
When Prince Albert died in 1861, Victoria’s deep mourning established a fashion that spread across class boundaries. She wore black for the remaining 40 years of her life. As a result, jet and black enamel became prominent in memorial jewellery. Jet from Whitby in Yorkshire was highly desirable and turned the small seaside town into an international jewellery hub.
These pieces were not just emotional tokens but very commercial products, mass-produced and marketed across Britain. Mourning itself could now be bought and sold for all that the actual materials used continued to signal and differentiate class.
Improvements in gem cutting, particularly new diamond-saw technology, increased the availability of faceted stones, replacing the cabochon polished dome approach. These innovations lowered prices and increased supply, with the new styles having much greater brilliance and symmetry, which fuelled demand for sparkling gems. The middle class market was also less constrained by tradition. Department stores like Liberty, and catalogues selling by mail order, embedded mourning into the routines of modern shopping.
Simultaneously, Britain’s expanding empire provided access to new materials, particularly the opening of South African diamond mines in the 1870s, but also opals and turquoise.
Despite — or perhaps because of — these rapid changes, the Grand Period saw a revival of fascination with the past. Archaeological discoveries led to revivals of Etruscan, Roman, and Egyptian styles such as scarabs, granulation and coin pendants. Such pieces signalled cultural sophistication.
The Aesthetic Period (1880–1901): Nature and elegance
Despite Victoria mourning still, the century’s final decades saw jewellery shift toward lighter forms. The Aesthetic Period emphasised naturalism, foreshadowing the art nouveau era. Flowers and delicate gold leaves were used in preference to heavy lockets and rope chains. Floral sprays were popular made of seed pearls combined with amethyst and turquoise.
In these decades, middle-class women in particular could participate in fashionable trends without needing to spend large sums on gems. Pearls and small diamonds were in demand and jewellery signified status through taste more than size, with technology continuing to shape what was available.
Image copyright Antique Ring Boutique.
Conclusion: jewellery reflecting culture
The Victorian era saw a lot of change, and fell into three distinct periods. They all saw society having to navigate a tension between public and private realms, between tradition and innovation and between status and sentiment. Jewellery was a cultural barometer of these struggles.
Samuel Mee is the founder of The Antique Ring Boutique and has a number of guides on his website to buying rings from different historical periods. He has a guide to buying Victorian-era rings here.