Love After Life: Public Lecture with Hayden Peters

What happens when love is made into an object? From rings exchanged between lovers to jewels worn in memory of the dead, jewellery has long given physical form to relationships that are otherwise intangible. Across centuries, objects worn against the body have carried affection, loyalty, identity, grief and remembrance — sometimes surviving long after the people and relationships for which they were made. Join the Edgar Wind Society for a public lecture by Hayden Peters, jewellery historian, collector and founder of Art of Mourning, exploring mourning and sentimental jewellery as a remarkable form of material and social history. Drawing on objects spanning several centuries, Hayden will consider how jewellery has been used to express and preserve love in its many forms: courtship and marriage, friendship and family, bereavement and memory. Along the way, the lecture will explore the changing symbols, materials and conventions through which deeply personal emotions became objects that could be made, given, worn, inherited and treasured. Hayden’s approach places jewellery within the wider histories of society, religion, politics, fashion and the body, asking not simply what these objects look like, but what they meant to the people who made, gave and wore them. This lecture opens the Edgar Wind Society’s Michaelmas programme, Love, Actually, a term exploring love, desire and attachment through art and material culture. No prior knowledge of jewellery or decorative arts is required. Students and members of the public are warmly welcome. Hayden will also lead a small public handling session at Pusey House on Wednesday 11 November at 7.30pm, offering the opportunity to examine examples from his own collection at close quarters. Places for the handling session are strictly limited and must be booked separately.