There is a particular anxiety around skull jewellery, and it usually comes down to one worry: that it will read as a costume rather than a piece of jewellery. I understand the instinct. A skull ring can tip, in the wrong hands, into fancy dress. But Attilio Codognato built an entire sixty-year career on proving the opposite, dressing Elizabeth Taylor and Coco Chanel in exactly this territory without either woman looking as though she'd wandered in from a Halloween party. The trick, as with most maximalist jewellery, is less about the motif itself and more about what you put it next to.
Here are six ways in, across six very different price points and six very different registers.
The entry point: McQueen's Embellished Skull Ring
Alexander McQueen's embellished skull ring, in brass set with crystals and faux pearls, is the house's most recognisable signature and, at £320, the least committal way to test whether this territory suits you at all. It is not an antique and doesn't pretend to be one; it is a fashion house's take on the motif, unapologetically maximalist, built for a single hand rather than a full stack.
How to wear it: alone, and on a hand doing nothing else. This is not a ring you stack with your engagement ring or a signet; give it the whole hand and keep everything else, watch included, quiet that day.
The everyday antique: the 1830 William IV Mourning Ring
For something with real weight behind it, Antique Jewellers' 1830 William IV mourning ring is a genuine period piece at £1,069, black enamel banded in 18ct gold with a woven-hair panel and a dedication to a named man, Robert Mayhew, who died in the year the ring was made. This is memento mori at its most restrained: no skull, no crossbones, just enamel and hair and a hallmark from 1831.
How to wear it: this is the piece for someone who wants the meaning without the imagery. It reads, to most people who see it, simply as an elegant antique band, which is rather the point of mourning jewellery in the first place, historically worn as an everyday, unremarkable-looking object that only revealed its full weight on close inspection.
The conversation piece: the Georgian-style diamond skull locket ring
Laurelle's Georgian-style memento mori locket ring, currently £1,772.25 down from £2,085, is the piece to buy if you want the drama held in reserve rather than worn on the surface. From the front it reads as an unremarkable 15ct gold signet. Only when the hinged hatch is opened does the skull and crossbones inside, set with diamond eyes, reveal itself. It is, structurally, exactly the kind of piece Codognato specialised in: entirely private until the wearer chooses otherwise.
How to wear it: on its own, worn plainly, and let the reveal do the work in conversation rather than at a glance. This is not a ring you need to dress around; its whole appeal is that nobody else needs to know what it is until you show them.
The rare find: the 17th-century gold thread cherub ring
Antique Jewellers' gold thread cherub ring, at £7,099, is a properly singular object: dating to between 1680 and 1720, it was recovered by a metal detectorist in 2019 and processed through the UK's Treasure Act before reaching sale, registered with the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Beneath its faceted rock-crystal bezel sits a gold-wire monogram, likely the initials of the deceased, crowned and held aloft by carved cherubs, with black enamel scrollwork on the shoulders. There is no second one of these; whatever era of skull jewellery it sits in, it is a piece with a genuine, documented history behind it before it ever reaches a finger.
How to wear it: treat it as you would any other conversation-starting signet, on its own, and be ready to explain the crystal and the crown, since most people will ask. The scale is modest enough to wear daily rather than saved for occasions.
The heirloom pendant: the Victorian Etruscan-style mourning locket
Pragnell's Victorian Etruscan-style mourning locket, in 18ct yellow gold, has its surface worked in the archaeological revival style that swept Victorian jewellery after the Etruscan tomb excavations of the 1860s, with an angel and lyre motif and a hair compartment beneath the glass. This is a piece with proper provenance and craftsmanship behind it, and closer in spirit and quality to the kind of object Codognato himself might have carried.
How to wear it: as a pendant, alone, on a plain chain long enough that the locket sits with room to be looked at rather than crowded by other necklaces. This is not a layering piece. Let it be the only thing at the throat.
The serious collector's piece: the Post-Medieval enamel skull ring
At the top of this range sits Berganza's Post-Medieval enamel skull ring, a one-of-a-kind Stuart-era piece dating to the latter half of the 17th century. A black-and-white enamel skull sits on a flat circular plaque, its D-shaped shank engraved in period italic script with the words "Death seperateth friends," picked out in black enamel, alongside a maker's mark reading MD that specialists have been unable to trace to a named goldsmith. This is memento mori jewellery in its most unfiltered, original form, made for exactly the purpose the phrase describes, worn by someone actually grieving a specific person, centuries before the motif became decorative shorthand.
How to wear it: sparingly, and with the history in mind. A piece this direct about its original purpose doesn't need styling so much as respect; wear it alone, and let its age carry the weight rather than dressing around it.
The general rule
Across all six of these, the same principle holds: memento mori jewellery wants space around it, not company. Wear one piece from this list, not three. Keep the rest of the hand, wrist, or neck deliberately plain, and let the single dramatic piece carry the whole look. The Victorians, who wore this jewellery daily and without any sense of costume, rarely wore more than one mourning piece at a time; the meaning was in the wearing, not in the volume.
In Brief: Skull and mourning jewellery reads as elegant rather than costume-like when worn singly, with everything else kept plain — from McQueen's £320 entry-level skull ring to a Stuart-era enamel skull ring dating to the 1600s, the common rule across every price point is the same one Codognato's own clients followed: one piece, and let it do the work.
Affiliate disclosure: some links in this article may earn The Gem a small commission at no extra cost to you.
