Mourning Paraphernalia

I am normally not a big fan of the color black. In fact, I didn't even know it was a color until my friend Megan (I think we were 5 or 6) told me her favorite color was black. Odd...I thought.
But.... I collect mourning paraphernalia - which seems like a contradiction, but color collections know no boundaries.
First, I started collecting mourning stationery - the paper cards that were sent out after a woman had lost her husband - the width of black ink around the border of the card denoted the length of time one had been in mourning - the wider the band the closer to death. Eventually a woman would write all of her correspondence on a card with a very narrow band of black ink around the edge - I guess so everyone else knew she was in mourning - for the rest of her life. I've just started collecting mourning handkerchiefs - which were probably used mostly by women - again lots of different widths of black to show how long a woman had been in this dark period. I love how the mourning period was turned into a fashion culture. What about the woven hair lockets? Or buttons made with photos of the dearly departed? Maybe my favorite are the jet buttons that were sewn onto their mourning attire. Those clever Victorians.
My favorite old bead dealer just unearthed a box full of glass mourning buttons - on cards. If in need or curious, leave us your name and Sofia will draw a lucky winner out of an old hat on Friday.