A VICTORIAN OVAL BOG-OAK MOURNING LOCKET, with carved lyre ...

Hammer

€200

A VICTORIAN OVAL BOG-OAK MOURNING LOCKET, with carved lyre and floral swag appliqué, with engraved dove motif to interior and containing a lock of blonde hair and a photograph of a young Victorian gentleman; together with a profusely carved brooch encompassing the heraldic emblems of Shamrock, Rose and Thistle; together with a throat ornament mount featuring the same carved emblems with recumbent Irish wolfhound to centre; together with two carved Latin crucifix pendants (one damaged); together with 57 spherical beads ; and with a Victorian photograph of the owner Mrs Giffney wearing the items above. Presented with typed correspondence on the subject dating to 1951 from Mr Anthony T. Lucas (1911-1986), former President of The Royal Irish Society of Antiquaries and Director of the National Museum of Ireland. Since Classical Antiquity, humans have endeavoured to impress the inevitability of death and therefore the importance of living. The Latin trope ‘Memento Mori’ (Remember That You Must Die) is expressed through the world’s art, funerary architecture, and jewellery. Motifs such as the skull, the skeleton, the rat, the coffin and the earthworm have been employed throughout Classical history and later to impart a universal understanding of the term. Mourning Jewellery deviates from the former in that it commemorates the death of a specific person, usually by marking their death dates or even utilising their hair, skin or teeth in the fabrication of the piece. The execution of King Charles I in 1649 was arguably the first example of popular ‘Mourning Jewellery.’ Despite the grievances aired during his reign, culminating in the Second English Civil War and the dissolution of the Monarchy, Charles I had many sympathisers to the Royalist cause. After his execution, many of his supporters commissioned jewellery bearing his image and dates secretly engraved on the inside of the ring band or behind a concealed locket. This implied that these nobles had remained faithful to the Royals even during the period of the Commonwealth (1649-1653) and later the Protectorate (1653-1659) up until the Monarchy’s restoration in 1660, whereupon the wearer would hope to be rewarded for their loyalty to the Crown. Later in the 19th century, the untimely death of Prince Albert (1819–1861) provoked the reigning monarch, Queen Victoria into a lifelong state of mourning. The remaining forty years of her reign saw the macabre motifs associated with mourning jewellery evolve into decidedly more romantic imagery of roses, doves, angels, willows and urns. Typically, the piece was set with enamels and other complementary precious stones and ornamentation such as pearls, to symbolise tears, and jet for grief. The blackened wood of the bog oak became an excellent Irish alternative to the more widely recognised Jet used in Victorian jewellery. As a result, the bog oak ornaments, became the ideal transfer for the nationalistic motifs of a country on the precipice of independence. Imagery was favoured which further promoted the national identity of Ireland as an established state with its own identifiable customs and symbols. The most common motifs include round towers, shamrocks, abbeys, Irish wolfhounds and harps, all which serve to perpetuate a national identity for Ireland’s fledgling tourist industry. The use of Bog Oak for decorative purposes was not a novel concept as it had been chosen as the primary material for the Downhill Harp, crafted by Cormac O’Kelly in 1702. However, Mr Patrick McGuirk is generally credited with escalating the demand from what had previously been considered a cottage industry craft. Supposedly, in 1821 McGuirk presented King George IV and The Duchess of Richmond with a carved cane on their visit to Dublin. The Duchess commented that it would be preferable to carve in the native wood of the country. Taking this to heart, McGuirk attempted to carve on bog oak he acquired and finding it quite suitable, he commenced what would become a robust trade nationwide for the next 100 years or so. Joseph Johnson of 22. Suffolk Street, Dublin is credited with patenting a high-pressure moulding mechanism for high relief detail using heat and steel dies. This enabled the production of ornaments to increase, and it became a highly profitable business on a larger industrial scale. Other important names in the trade include John Neate (1796-1838) of Kerry, Cornelius McGoggin (fl.1850-1914) of Kerry and Dublin and William Gibson of Belfast and many more otherwise. Stephanie Brennan August 2024