Victorian Lobster Claw Pendant
It’s a lobster claw and it was mounted in the Victorian era, around 1900. The claw itself evokes opulence and extravagance, but it’s quite plainly mounted (in silver, sure but still), nothing too fancy. A contradiction. So who would have made this… worn this… and why?
At the beginning of the 1800s, lobster was a garbage meat thought only fit for cats, prisoners, and fertiliser on farmers fields. A meat known as "poor man's chicken", lobsters were so abundant on the Eastern seaboard of the USA that it's said they washed up on Massachusetts beaches in piles two feet high. But. As the railroads began to develop towards the end of the century, it was an enterprising railroad tycoon who artificially inflated their value when, fed up of shelling out for expensive beef to serve in his ‘fancy dining cars’, he thought up Surf & Turf* to serve on his lavish tables. It was more than a way to cut costs, the exotic seafood element raised his dining game and the enthusiastic railway goers - not aware of the stigma associated with these king crustaceans - began demanding lobster when they weren't aboard the trains, leading to the popularity of "show restaurants known as lobster palaces," frequented by nouveau riche "arrivistes". This became unfashionable by the 1920s and only regained popularity in the early 1960s.
Was this pendant was made in Maine by a crate fisherman, or somewhere on the Eastern Seaboard in the early years of the 20th century as a memento of an expensive lobster meal? Someone who was involved in the lobster industry perhaps someone who made their fortune - modest, though it may have been. Or a ridealong passenger on a first class ticket?
*although the term Surf & Turf wasn't coined until the 1960s
Era: Victorian, circa 1900
Size: 3.9cm (including bail) by 1.4cm
Marks: None, tested as silver
Condition: Good antique condition
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