Poignant mourning necklace from Titanic goes on display

A black glass necklace that was unknowingly salvaged from the wreck of the Titanic 25 years ago has gone on display at Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition in Orlando, Florida. The fragile bead necklace was hidden inside a concrection, a hardened sediment, corrosion materials, sand, rock and ocean debris fused together by water pressure.

It was recovered by RMS Titanic, Inc. divers in 2000 just as a sample of wreckage fragment. All of the visible artifacts had already been removed at that time. A recent review of the wreckage samples in storage, however, found signs that there might be an artifact within the concretion. The careful micro-excavation of the lump revealed that it contained petite heart-shaped and octagonal black beads. It emerged in sections, strands of beads still strung as well as individual beads broken off of the threads.

Analysis of the material found that it was French jet, an inexpensive imitation of jet that became hugely popular during the Victorian era as mourning jewelry. Jet is a semi-precious stone made from fossilized wood, particularly wood from the monkey puzzle tree. Victoria wore jet jewelry to the funeral of her beloved husband Prince Albert, and then wore it almost exclusively for the rest of her life. Her life-long deep mourning for her husband set the fashion for wearing jet jewelry at every level of society.

The best jet in England was found in Whitby, Yorkshire, whose craftsmen produced jet pieces with a high-gloss polish. With the explosion of demand for the product, by the end of the 19th century Whitby’s finite supply of jet dwindled and jewelers turned to other sources. French jet was just black glass, so it was easy to work with, shiny and cheap.

RMS Titanic, Inc. researchers scoured the records for any reference to the necklace. Whoever owned it was certainly a passenger in mourning, but no further information could be found. No insurance claim was ever filed for it, which doesn’t necessarily mean that its owner survived the catastrophe because the necklace may have never been insured in the first place as it is made of inexpensive glass.

“There was a certain drama and beauty in how sorrow was made visible,” Ray and her colleague Ross Mumford, research and content specialist with RMS Titanic, Inc., explained over email. “This necklace offers a rare, tangible link to that world: it gives us a once-in-a-lifetime glimpse not only into the style and craftsmanship of the time, but also into the emotional landscape of the people aboard Titanic.”

* This article was originally published here