MELANCHOLY

We sometimes buy antiques with a sorrowful or gloomy theme - our forebears did not shrink from reminding each other and themselves that life was often a vale of tears, so they are not uncommon. At the Lincolnshire Showground antiques fair this week, one of our finds was an early mourning sampler.

A survivor of this depleted family recorded its sad history in the 1830s.

Sometimes a sampler remembers the death of an infant or small child...

...while others proclaim love for dear, departed grandparents.

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This handsome young man's memory was saved in this soulful portrait, mounted in a mourning jewel 

with his hair, still golden and unfaded.

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We sometimes find snuff boxes in the shape of coffins...

...and wonder how well a gift in this form would be received today, perhaps as a nice new lunch box for Dad? I'm sure our good friend John (who has been known to drive a hearse to the seaside for a jolly summer outing) would appreciate one of those.

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I found this small coffin-shaped oak box recently and have been puzzling over its use. Was it fashioned as a final resting place for a favourite hamster? Its lid screws down so perhaps it was a secret hidey hole for a treasure, its shape a warning to "Keep Out"...

...or maybe not.

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