Article, Available Online
This article explores the popularity of coral jewelry during the Victorian Era, and why women wore it specifically during this time in England. Anderson links the demand for coral to a growing scientific interest in foreign, tropical areas within Pacific Islands during this time. Naturalists within the scientific community were studying these areas and publishing works about them. The educated upper and leisure classes took interest in the new scientific discoveries, and coral jewelry became a way to signal an interest in the sciences and natural world.
Viking Identities: Scandinavian Jewellery in England
Book, Available Online
ISBN: 9780191646409
This book follows the influence of Scandinavian culture on England during the Medieval and Renaissance Periods, roughly from 500 to 1500 CE. Specifically, Kershaw focuses on women's jewelry from these periods. One of the jewelry pieces Scandinavian women brought to England was the brooch. Kershaw looks at how the English brooch came to resemble the Scandinavian brooch, and the motifs and designs that were borrowed from Scandinavians. She also explores how Scandinavian-inspired jewelry became a symbol of elite status among the English.
Rings from the Forbidden Forest: the function and meaning of Roman trinket rings.
Kiernan, P., & Henz, K.-P. (2023).
Article, Available Online
This article looks at a group of medieval Roman rings found in a forest, and seeks to find their importance in Roman society a the time they were made. These rings, based on their size, were likely worn by women. Kiernan finds these rings unique in that they are made of low quality materials yet mimic expensive styles. He deduces that because jewelry, like rings, represented aspects of Roman identity such as marriage status, literacy, and wealth, these rings were created in an effort to emulate a desired lifestyle which the wearers could not afford.
The National Jewelry of Bashkir Women: Tradition and Modernity
ZuguraYaganurovna, R., & Ravilovna, K. G. (2022).
Article, Available Online
This article looks at women in traditional and modern Bashkir culture and their use of jewelry to express their form of femininity in society. While Bashkirs are indigenous to Russia, they have communities throughout Turkey and Central Asia as well. The various communities jewelry that differs from one another, but retains the main characteristics. For example, bibs adorned with shells, beads, metals, coins, and other precious materials. The usages and purposes of certain jewelry materials are reflected in traditional folklore, and continue to influence jewelry choices today.
The Dead Still Among Us: Victorian Secular Relics, Hair Jewelry, and Death Culture.
Article, Available Online
This article analyzes the prevalence of hair jewelry within Victorian English culture, and how cultural and religious beliefs about death influenced the creation of hair jewelry. Hair jewelry was jewelry made from the hair of a deceased person, usually women. When death occurred, the body was cared for and treated in the home by the family before burial. Lutz argues that hair jewelry arose from a societal closeness to death which was moved away from after the Victorian era and into the twentieth century. She states that the jewelry gave mourning family a piece of their loved one to carry and remember them by, and became an important part of the mourning process.