Candice Hern | Romance Author

A lady's blue eye painted in miniature on ivory, set in gold and surrounded by white sapphires.
Late 18th century.

LOVERS EYES

Portrait miniatures mounted as brooches, pendants, or lockets were very popular items of jewelry during the 18th century. Toward the end of the century, an unusual variation became fashionable: the eye brooch, or lover's eye. These were miniature portraits of the eye of a loved one. There is a great deal of controversy and confusion over how this fashion trend began, though almost all versions of the story involve the Prince of Wales (later George IV) and Mrs. Fitzherbert, his morganatic wife.

Some sources report the style was initiated when the famous miniaturist Richard Cosway painted the right eye of the Prince for a locket given to Mrs. Fitzherbert in 1785. Other sources say the lover's eye originated in the 1790s when both the Prince and Mrs. Fitzherbert exchanged eye miniatures set into rings, painted by another artist, possibly George Engelheart.

Earlier in 1785, however, Lady Eleanor Butler recorded in her diary the arrival of a young man who'd recently completed his Grand Tour, and who brought with him "an Eye, done in Paris and set in a ring -- a true French idea."

A lady's blue eye painted in
miniature on ivory, in a gold
eye-shaped setting.
Early 19th century.

So whether the trend originated with the Prince at the time of his marriage to Mrs. Fitzherbert, or earlier in Paris, Prinny certainly was the first to popularize the trend in London. In any case, the intent was to keep the lover's identity a bit of a secret by not revealing the whole face. Since the Prince was a leader of fashion, the brooches became very popular in the late 18th century through the early decades of the 19th century.

It is also likely that some eye brooches were simply another variation of sentimental or mourning jewelry and had nothing to do with secret lovers. This would explain, for example, female eyes mounted in very feminine settings. Those eye brooches that have come down from the Victorian era were certainly sentimental or mourning pieces. Queen Victoria is said to have commissioned several as gifts, even though the notion of eye brooches was by that time very old-fashioned. In Dickens' Dombey and Son , published in 1848, the impoverished, aging spinster, Miss Tox, is described as wearing "round her neck the barrenest of lockets, representing a fishy old eye."

A gentleman's brown eye painted in miniature on ivory, set in gold
with black enamel and seed
pearls. The combination of a black border and seed pearls (which
often symbolize tears) marks this as a mourning brooch.
Early 19th century.

A gentleman's brown eye painted in miniature on ivory,
set in gold with garnets and seed pearls.
Early 19th century.

There is not much written about eye brooches, but the following sources were helpful in putting together this article:

J. Anderson Black, The Story of Jewelry, William Morrow and Co., 1974.

Shirley Bury, Jewellery, the International Era, Volume I: 1789-1861, Antique Collectors Club, 1991.

Shirley Bury, Sentimental Jewellery, Stemmer House, 1985.

Ann Louise Luthi, Sentimental Jewellery, Shire Publiations, 1998.

Claire Phillips, Jewels and Jewellery, Victoria and Albert Publications, 2000.

Diana Scarisbrick, Jewellery in Britain 1066-1837, Michael Russel Ltd, 1994.

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