Antique Mourning Rings: A Collector’s Guide

Mourning rings are some of the most moving jewels we handle. Each one was made to remember a particular person, often with their name and dates engraved inside, and holding one is a direct link to someone who was loved and missed more than two centuries ago.

A long tradition

From the seventeenth century it was common for people to leave money in their wills for mourning rings to be made and given to family and friends at their funeral. Samuel Pepys left money for more than a hundred. The rings were usually gold, enamelled, and inscribed with the name, date of death and often the age of the person remembered.

How mourning rings changed

Georgian rings. Early Georgian rings are often plain gold bands enamelled in black, with the inscription around the outside. Later in the century, rings set with urns, weeping willows and mourning figures became fashionable, often under glass or in sepia paint.

Georgian 18ct Gold & Black Enamel Mourning Ring

Black and white enamel. Black enamel was the usual colour; white enamel was often used when the person being mourned was unmarried or a child, like this Georgian white enamel mourning ring dated 1775.

Victorian rings. After Prince Albert’s death in 1861, Queen Victoria’s long mourning made mourning jewellery hugely popular. Victorian rings are often wide gold bands with black enamel, jet or onyx, and many have hair compartments.

I always read the inside of a mourning ring first. There’s a name and a date, and suddenly it’s not an object any more, it’s a person.
Olly Gerrish, AJC Founder

What we look for

We look for enamel in good condition, clear inscriptions, and hair or glazed compartments that are intact. The inscription is part of the ring’s value and meaning, and it can often be researched further.

Our view

A Georgian mourning ring is one of the most affordable and meaningful ways to own genuine eighteenth-century jewellery. Many people wear them today simply because they are beautiful, and in honour of the person they remember. Read more in the dark beauty of mourning jewellery and our guide to jet jewellery.