19th Century Motif: Branch Coral

I have already written about the prevalence of coral in the Victorian lady's jewelry box, which you can read here. I don't want to repeat all of that information. Instead, I'd like to show off a bit of research to a specific type of coral. TA-DA!

So expect this to be a shorter research post, following the two forms of evidence that I typically collect. I'm not including textual, as that can be found in the previous post.

Photographic Evidence

1850

1850's

Still hunting for link 

There are quite a few more images, but I only chose a few to illustrate the age group of the wearer. Almost all are female, from very young to about pre-teen/teen. Remember that coral signifies good luck, so many children wore it to survive many of the childhood dangers.

Surviving Originals

Mid to late 19th century

1850

There are many surviving originals online, but few that were not on ebay/etsy. I am still looking for sources. From what I have gathered from these two types of evidence, branch coral was popular in the mid to late 19th century, especially for young ladies. I have created a reproduction set:

Click here to learn more

So that was a quick mini-post sharing a tidbit of research...this weekend I am heading to the Ohio Regimental Ball, and finding time to write is difficult! Expect a full report of my shenanigans next week, after a brief time of recovery.

~Kristen