The Anglo-American tradition of jewelry to mourn and remember a deceased loved one began to proliferate after the execution of Charles I in 1649, when royalists wore rings or small lockets with portraits of the king secreted beneath their clothes. After the Restoration of the English monarchy in 1660, the production of mourning jewelry gained ground primarily due to the increase in wealth across a larger segment of society. Rings, the most common type of mourning jewel, were usually distributed at funerals, and the typical late-seventeenth-century mourning ring was a plain gold band embossed with a winged skull and crossbones. The name, date of death, and age of the deceased were engraved inside the band, but by the eighteenth century, rings were often enameled black with the dedication in gold letters on the outside. By the mid-eighteenth century, bands took on a scrolling form as the rococo style emerged, and central crystals with hair or tiny paper skulls underneath also became common. Other common styles included ribbon slides, lockets and portrait miniatures, often with a panel of hairwork on the reverse.
