Mourning Rings

A mourning ring is a finger ring worn in memory of someone who has died. It often bears the name and date of death of the person, and possibly an image of them, or a motto. They were usually paid for by the person commemorated, or their heirs, and often specified, along with the list of intended recipients, in wills.

. . .

The use of mourning rings date back to at least the 14th century although its only in the 17th century that they clearly separated from more general Memento mori rings. By the mid 18th century jewelers had started to advertise the speed with which such rings could be made. The style largely settled upon was a single small stone with the deceased’s particulars recorded in enamel on the hoop. In the latter half of the 19th century the style shifted towards mass produced rings featuring a photograph mounted on the bezel before the use of mourning rings largely ceased towards the end of the century.

Wikipedia also reports that mourning rings had a bit of a comeback in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s.

So the “aet: 14” in the Sotheby’s listing is short for the Latin aetatis which means “of or at the age of” in English, indicating that the ring was meant as a memorial for a child who died at the age of 14.

According to an article from Historic New England, a museum dedicated to preserving New England history,

By the turn of the century the prevalence of cheap and easily manufactured imitation materials such as glass and plastic diluted the mourning jewelry market. People were also tired of drab mourning fashions, and the practice of rigorous mourning codes along with the use of mourning jewelry was largely abandoned in the early years of the twentieth century.