Inspired by St Erasmus' summer collection which feature these beautiful Butterfly Catcher Earrings and following on from last weeks article about the Victorians love of hummingbirds, I wanted to explore the Edwardian craze for collecting butterflies.
As with the Victorians macabre way of showing their interest in nature (see below) the Edwardian era was no different. Butterfly catching was both a serious business and a recreational past-time. Jewellery which used the iridescent wing of a Red Admiral or the Dotted Blue was highly prized. Either simply framed for it's beauty or used in a 'wing-mosaic' to create a larger picture, butterflies were seen as precious as a jewel.
It's no surprise to see that the Edwardians viewed the activity of butterfly catching important enough for all ages to participate in, with these children of 1901 getting reading for an afternoon of wafting large hooded nets in the air to see what they could land.
It's a strange thought in these endangered times as I wear these beautiful earrings and plant up butterfly loving plants in my window boxes (not at the same time I may add!) that not long ago the fascination for these creatures was inherently in their colour and form rather than in their ability to flit across the summer sky, an unbelievably fragile thing that is gone as quickly as it's seen.
Butterfly Catcher Earrings by St Erasmus £44
Available in the Jewellery Department
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