Mourning Brooch
This brooch originally belonged to Martha Washington who passed it down to her granddaughter, Eleanor "Nelly" Parke Custis. Nelly would in turn gift it to her daughter Mary Elizabeth Angela Conrad, the owner of engraved monogram "M.E.A. Conrad" on the back of the brooch. This piece is an example of a more subtle inclusion of hair in mourning jewelry as the hair would have been ground up and mixed with the brown-black paint used to depict the shepherd and his sheep.
This brooch originally belonged to Martha Washington who passed it down to her granddaughter, Eleanor "Nelly" Parke Custis. Nelly would in turn gift it to her daughter Mary Elizabeth Angela Conrad, the owner of engraved monogram "M.E.A. Conrad" on the back of the brooch. This piece is an example of a more subtle inclusion of hair in mourning jewelry as the hair would have been ground up and mixed with the brown-black paint used to depict the shepherd and his sheep.
This brooch originally belonged to Martha Washington who passed it down to her granddaughter, Eleanor "Nelly" Parke Custis. Nelly would in turn gift it to her daughter Mary Elizabeth Angela Conrad, the owner of engraved monogram "M.E.A. Conrad" on the back of the brooch. This piece is an example of a more subtle inclusion of hair in mourning jewelry as the hair would have been ground up and mixed with the brown-black paint used to depict the shepherd and his sheep.