'Flowers were used to communicate sentiments too intimate or improper to say out loud': The forgotten Victorian tradition of floriography
Cece Jewellery has created a new jewellery collection inspired by a popular Victorian tradition of giving flowers to convey a certain message.
The Love Language of Flowers jewellery collection by Cece Jewellery transforms the forgotten tradition of floriography into wearable art.
For the uninitiated (and the unromantic among you), floriography is the language of flowers — the act of assigning particular meanings, emotions or messages to different flowers. The word itself comes from 'flori', meaning 'flower', and '-ography', meaning 'writing'.
It became especially fashionable in Victorian Britain, when flowers were used to communicate sentiments that might have been considered too intimate or improper to say out loud. A bouquet could therefore function like a coded letter.
However, the Victorians did not invent the tradition; instead they inherited and enthusiastically expanded it from the French. The pivotal publication was Le langage des fleurs, published in Paris in 1819, under the pseudonym Charlotte de La Tour. The RHS describes it as the first popular book on the subject.
Spanning charms, pendants, necklaces and rings, Cece Jewellery has brought delicate blooms to life with hand-painted champlevé enamel, intricate hand-engraving and diamonds set in 18-carat gold.
Flowers include roses for love, irises representing courage, wild daisies for freedom and wisteria conveying wisdom, each once a declaration of sentiment or celebration of character — although nobody will blame you for gifting or sporting them all.
Jewellery from £2,400. Visit the Cece Jewellery website for more information.
