Mourning jewel for Alexander I with miniature after François Gérard’s 1814-1815 portrait and woven hairwork in a gilded mount, 1825 or after

The portrait in gouache on ivory

Inv. no. ab_7427

This rare mourning jewel for Emperor Alexander I (1777-1825) commemorates his memory by combining the finely painted portrait miniature with woven hairwork, which in the early 19th century was mostly the purview of emperors, kings, and the nobility. It had been an important part of mourning or sentimental jewelry since the 17th century. (It would become more accessible to the middle classes in the Victorian period.) The portrait celebrates the emperor as a hero of the Napoleonic Wars and is based on an impressive full-length image painted by François Gérard (1770-1837) and presented to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) in 1817.

It is very likely that it belonged to his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna (1759-1828). Alexander died three years before her, which deeply pained the Dowager Empress, who outlived several of her children. Maria was particularly fond of hairwork jewelry, undoubtedly finding comfort in the precious relics of her lost loved ones. The great importance of this sort of mourning jewelry is made clear in the Dowager Empress’s will in which she wrote: “I would like each of my children to have a ring made with my hair [under a cover] engraved with the date of my death and I want them to wear these rings every day without fail in memory of their loving mother.” This miniature has not been framed for display on a gold box or in a small frame but mounted as a pendant one could imagine Maria or one of Alexander’s sisters or sisters-in-law wearing to honor his memory.