A Tribute Or ?

[belinda]

I found these completely by accident. I linked the one to Lis but there is one for each of them

http://www.etsy.com/listing/47914533/jack-the-ripper-elizabeth-stride

[Simon Wood]

Oh yeucch!

Regards,

Simon

[Jane Coram]

Hi,

Double yeucch. That is disturbing on so many levels, it beggars belief.

Jane

xxxxx

[belinda]

Hi,

Double yeucch. That is disturbing on so many levels, it beggars belief.

Jane

xxxxx

Yes very disturbing.There is one for Elizabeth Short too

[Phil Carter]

Hello Jane,

Some people will try and make money out of anything. Like your good self, Belinda and Simon above, I find this disturbingly distasteful.

best wishes

Phil

[The Grave Maurice]

I have no idea what this is, Belinda; but, given the reactions of Simon and Jane, I'm not going to click on the link. It's almost suppertime here.

[belinda]

It's safe to look but you might want to let dinner settle

[Archaic]

Mourning Jewelry

Hi Belinda, Jane and all.

I like real 18th and 19th C. Mourning Jewelry; it's almost always beautiful, tasteful and sentimental.

I have a few pieces of carved Whitby Jet and find them very intriguing because they were worked by hand as a gesture of love and remembrance. Some of my ancestors came from Whitby; maybe I get it from them.
I especially like the polished jet or enamel pieces set with tiny pearls; seed pearls represented tears.

And Victorian hairwork is always interesting. Today people usually find hairwork lockets, brooches, bracelets & watch-chains "ghoulish", but our forebears saw them as tokens of love and intimacy, especially in the days before photography was widely available. I found a c.1860 hairwork brooch in London with intricately braided hair set under bevelled crystal, a gilt body, a black enamel border, and the words "Memento Mori" inscribed in gold Gothic script. On the back were scratched intitals and a date. I thought it was really cool, like a time-machine. It made me think about those long gone to whom it had been so precious.

Unfortunately these modern commercial pieces strike me as utterly tasteless, tacky and exploitative... though I suppose it's possible that the person meant well.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Rubyretro]

Hey Archaic -I would like real mourning jewellery too.

The person making these is targetting 'goths' and 'steampunks' and I expect she has some interest in real victorian mourning jewellery too. Quite apart from the fact that it is in extreme bad taste to wear pictures of the murder victims of a serial killer in the morturary, these are also so badly done with such cheap materials...triple yuk

Can you imagine the sort of people that you'd attract, whilst wearing this ?
Probably all members of 'Casebook'....

[claire]

Ooooooo-kay. Why? And who told this person they could draw?

But just, why?

[Hamrammr]

Absolutely horrendous. No talent or taste. It does make me wonder though, perhaps there are photos of the victims while they were alive currently trapped inside lockets somewhere. I wonder if anyone has trawled Victorian jewellery collections for photos of the victims. Not for ghoulish reasons, just to try and get pictures of them that don't come from a mortuary.

[Jane Coram]

Hi,

I totally agree about mourning jewellery in most instances. I think it's really touching that a loved one wants to have something of the person to remember them by. I certainly don't find it at all disasteful - except maybe those diamond rings that are made from the person's ashes - I could do without that, but each to their own.

When my nan died, I found a hairbrush that still had some of her hair in it, and I put it in a little pill box and treasure it along with a couple of letters from her and other odds and ends of hers. I think that's a natural reaction to the death of a loved one.

But these pendants are just yukk. The artwork is horrendous, the sentiment disturbing, and the intent mercenary. I just loved that they ask what colour ribbon you would like. That's going to make all the difference!

Much love

Janie

xxxxx

[protohistorian]

I just checked out the pendant at the beginning of this thread, and all I have to say is that is an excellent way to get yourself haunted. Dave

[j.r-ahde]

Hello you all!

I found a suitable metaphor for this kind of "tribute"; this is a real rip-off!

All the best
Jukka

[Jane Coram]

Hi,

Had to smile at that one Prohistorian.

Hammrammr (had to do a double take to spell that one. Lol)

I think the problem would be the same as it would be with any possible photographs of the victims -- how could you possibly tell if it was them or not, unless the provenance was established beyond the shadow of a doubt?

Even if the locket or whatever had their name and details engraved on them, it could be that the photograph had been replaced, that it was a different Liz Stride, that it was a fraud -- well the list can go on ad infinitum. There would just be no way of proving it was them.

It would be really great though to have more images of the victims in life, and it's possible there are some out there with a provenance that's impeccable, like the ones of Annie Chapman and her two little girls. You never know.

Hugs

Jane

xxxx