The Secret Language of Victorian Jewellery

While researching my next historical novel, The Runaway Heiress, I’ve been spending a lot of time with Marianne, the heroine of the story.

Marianne is the daughter of a London goldsmith, and as I’ve been building her world I’ve discovered something fascinating: jewellery played a far larger role in Victorian social life than it does today.

I realised this while leafing through a beautiful coffee-table book on Victorian jewellery. What struck me most was that these pieces weren’t simply decorative ornaments. They carried meaning — sometimes deeply personal, sometimes social, and sometimes even secret.

Victorian jewellery often acted as a language.

A brooch might mark a period of mourning.
A ring could commemorate a lost child or a beloved parent.
Certain gemstones and motifs were chosen deliberately to express loyalty, love, grief, or remembrance.

Victorians understood this language instinctively.

You might not realise how important jewellery was in Victorian society. In the nineteenth century jewellery carried symbolic meaning that people understood instinctively. Rings, brooches, lockets and gemstones could signal love, mourning, loyalty, or remembrance. Today historians often refer to this system as the “language of Victorian jewellery.”

When Royal Fashion Shaped the World

Queen Victoria herself played a role not unlike Princess Diana in our own time. When Victoria chose to wear a particular jeweller’s work or a piece of lace from a particular maker, the whole world noticed.

A royal endorsement could transform a small workshop into the most fashionable name in London.

When Queen Victoria chose Honiton lace for her wedding dress in 1840, demand for the delicate Devon lace soared almost overnight.

Jewellery was no different. Pieces associated with the royal family could become fashionable almost instantly.

One famous example was the snake ring Prince Albert gave Queen Victoria as an engagement gift. In Victorian symbolism the snake represented eternal love, and the Queen’s affection for the piece helped spark a fashion for serpent jewellery across Britain and beyond.

Another was the eagle brooch (designed by the Queen’s fiancée Prince Albert) dotted in turquoise with ruby eyes, and a diamond beak that the Queen gave each of her twelve wedding train bearers. Some of these treasures were still in the possession of the young ladies’ descendants in Woburn Abbey  and Hatfield House seventy years later.

A Goldsmith’s Daughter

For Marianne, growing up in a goldsmith’s household means she understands this language instinctively.

She may not be hammering gold or setting stones herself — although many women quietly worked inside family jewellery businesses — but she understands the trade, the business behind it, and the subtle ways jewellery reflects power and influence.

That knowledge becomes surprisingly useful once she arrives in Sydney under an assumed name.

The deeper I explore Marianne’s world, the more I realise how closely jewellery, wealth, reputation, and social power were intertwined in the nineteenth century.

The Hidden Women Behind the Trade

One of the unexpected pleasures of researching The Runaway Heiress has been discovering just how many remarkable women quietly shaped the worlds around them — even when the history books barely mention their names.

In Victorian Britain, women influenced fashion, patronised designers, and often worked behind the scenes in family firms, though their contributions were rarely recorded.

Historical fiction allows us to imagine those hidden stories.

The Stories Hidden in Jewellery

Research like this is one of the joys of writing historical fiction. A small discovery — a book, a letter, an object — can suddenly open up an entirely new layer of the past.

And sometimes those discoveries find their way directly into a story.

As Marianne’s story unfolds, I’m discovering that even the smallest piece of jewellery can carry a secret — and sometimes those secrets change everything.

(Discover more about the first book in the Runaway series, The Runaway Lady, here.)

A Question for You

Do you have a piece of jewellery in your family with a story behind it?

A ring passed down through generations, perhaps.
A brooch connected to a wedding, a love story, or a family legend.

I’d love to hear about it.

Feel free to share your story in the comments or send me a message.

Discover More Historical Mysteries

If you enjoy historical fiction and mysteries set in nineteenth-century Australia, you might enjoy the Sisters of Barclay Square series.

You can currently explore a wonderful collection of historical fiction in this free reader event until April 4.