Suffragette Jewelry, Or Is It?
Dispelling Myths and Ms-conceptions

Ivor Hughes

The term 'suffragette' was coined by the British press in 1906. It was used to distinguish the militant WSPU from other suffragist movements. Medals were issued to members imprisoned for their criminal acts - this one recognizing the fact that the member had been on hunger strike. The badge, a portcullis with a prisoner's arrow/crow's foot, commemorates imprisonment in Holloway Prison, north London. It was designed by Sylvia Pankhurst. Courtesy the Museum of London.		The colors of WSPU were announced early in 1908 as purple, white and green. They were no secret - hundreds of protestors would march behind banners such as this one, from the London Borough of Hammersmith, c. 1910. Courtesy the Museum of London.

Myth or History?
Antiques and collectibles are always worth soooo much more when they are attributed to a significant event or person – “recovered from The Alamo,” “belonged to Charlie Chaplin,” – and so on. Sometimes the attribution is pure optimism. Sometimes the goalposts have been moved. That is exactly what has happened to suffragette jewelry over the past ten years.

According to a widely propagated myth, suffragette jewelry in Britain was made of green, white and violet semi-precious stones, whose colors were a code for Give Women Votes. Suffragette jewelry originated in the 1890s, after the suffragette movement was banned. It was produced until 1918, the year in which British women first obtained the right to vote. Or so the myth goes.
Absolute nonsense – a little history lesson can set us straight.

Votes for All… Men
During the nineteenth century, the right to vote had been extended from ten percent of the UK’s male population to around 70 percent. But still no women, no matter who they were, what they had, or what they did. That’s the way it was in those days, in Britain, Europe and the US. British women were far from alone in being disenfranchised. The only European country that gave votes to women before World War I was Finland, and then only in 1906.

Formal representation was made to the British Parliament in the 1860s. Sympathetic pressure groups sprang up, many within established social/cultural organizations, such as The Artists’ Suffrage League, The Catholic Women’s Suffrage Alliance, The Church League for Women’s Suffrage, The Jewish League for Woman Suffrage, and The Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage. Such groups, and their members, were known as suffragists – those supporting the extension of voting rights, particularly to women. They were brought together in 1897 by the formation of The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).

Suffragettes
The NUWSS and their supporters made no progress. In October 1903 one campaigner, Emmeline Pankhurst, broke away and, with her three daughters, founded The Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). Their motto was “Deeds not Words.”

WSPU numbers swelled. In 1905 their protests became violent. They committed acts of arson and vandalism. When imprisoned, their members went on hunger strikes. One, Emily Davison, died after jumping out of the crowd in front of King George V’s racehorse during the running of the Epsom Derby in June, 1913.

WSPU members raised their profile in 1906 by moving their headquarters to London. Their behavior had become so extreme that the distinguishing, and disparaging, term suffragette was coined by the British press – also in 1906.

Late in 1908, the government passed The Public Meeting Act, “to prevent disturbance of Public Meetings.” That additional piece of legislation made WSPU’s disruptive behavior illegal, but did not outlaw WSPU itself. Public support for the cause – and horror at the prison sentences being handed out – meant that police were at times instructed not to make arrests.

The official colors of WSPU were declared and explained in the spring of 1908. They were purple (dignity), white (purity) and green (hope). Hundreds of protestors, wearing those colors, would march behind similarly colored banners. In 1910, over 300 suffragettes marched to Parliament. The police response was so brutal that the movement termed the day “Black Friday.”

Those three colors were never a secret. They were used frequently in newspaper cartoons and on postcards – by supporters and opponents alike. But there was never any mention of green-white-violet.

Mappin & Webb, London jewelers to royalty, issued a catalog of Suffragette Jewellery in time for Christmas 1908. In 1909, leading suffragettes Emmeline Pankhurst and Louise Eates were both presented with specially commissioned pieces in purple, white and green.
WSPU suspended suffragist activities in 1914, and its members threw themselves wholeheartedly into the war effort. In 1917 they changed their name into The Women’s Party. British women aged 30 and over were given the vote in 1918, reduced to age 21 in 1928.

Dismantling the Myth
1. The term “suffragette jewelry” cannot have existed before 1906 and, even if applied retrospectively, cannot relate to anything made before October 1903.
2. WSPU’s color scheme of purple, white and green was introduced in 1908. Anything in those colors and with an earlier hallmark is pure coincidence.
3. The colors were never announced as green, white and violet. The universal phrase at the time was “Votes for Women” not “Give Women Votes.”
4. The colors were no secret and did not need to be expressed as a code – suffragettes marched publicly in and underneath them. There is no record of any banner, leaflet or postcard connecting any GWV motto and color scheme.
5. WSPU was never banned. Still, the timeframe for the manufacture of suffragette jewelry is much narrower than some would have us believe.

The GWV Myth
The GWV colors and motto, and the secrecy surrounding them, is a myth of modern invention. It creates a false provenance that attempts to give pieces of Victorian and Edwardian jewelry a value they do not merit. The perpetuation of the GWV myth serves only to damage confidence in pieces of genuine suffragette jewelry.

As for accepting examples as genuine? Well, the Mappin & Webb catalog of December 1908 shows that some commercially produced pieces, named as such, did exist shortly after the WSPU announced their colors. But to manufacture or wear any in the UK after August 1914 (the outbreak of WWI) would have been considered unpatriotic. So the likely timeframe claimed by believers in the myth is cut from about 25 years to barely six.

So, is the Green-White-Violet nonsense part of some smoke and mirrors act being used to authenticate pieces no more connected to suffragettes than jumbo jets? I think so – and so does Beverley Cook, the curator at the Museum of London with special responsibility for the museum’s substantial suffragette collection. She is adamant that there is nothing in the museum’s collection to support it.
Be just as cautious with suffragette jewelry as you might be when, say, offered a piece of memorabilia from Custer’s Last Stand. Convinced? Then be prepared to pay the premium – but get the guarantee written on the receipt.

For The Record
Suffragettes and suffragists alike did issue many badges, medals and medallions to denote membership – or achievements and ordeals such as imprisonment and taking part in hunger strikes. One charming example is a badge designed by Sylvia Pankhurst, daughter of WSPU co-founder Emmeline (pictured.) It was issued to members imprisoned in HMP Holloway, then and still England’s most notorious prison for women. Such iconic items are uncommon and most rest securely with families or in museums or private collections.

Additional Resources
Motherhood, Social Service, and Political Reform: Political Culture and Imagery of American Woman Suffrage (National Women’s History Museum, www.nwhm.org/exhibits/intro.html).

The first American women’s rights convention was held in 1848 at Seneca Falls, New York. At that convention, the delegates adopted a platform that called for a broad range of social, economic, legal and political reforms that would dramatically raise the status of women in American life. To the surprise of most of us today, the demand for women’s right to vote (called woman suffrage) was the most controversial reform proposed at the convention. From the time it was first formally proposed in 1848, gaining the right to vote took the women’s movement 72 years of struggle to achieve. This online exhibit examines the development of a distinct female political culture and imagery that evolved to promote voting rights for women.

The Women’s Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866-1928 by Elizabeth Crawford (2001) is a comprehensive account of key figures, events and dates. There is a substantial section on suffragette jewelry, in which the author writes that something of a mythology has been fostered by auction houses and dealers who like to claim the association for any piece featuring purple, white and green.
Elizabeth Goring’s 16-page feature on the subject appeared in the 26th annual journal (2002) of The Decorative Arts Society (www.decorativeartssociety.org.uk/). Wonderfully researched, and with a full-page bibliography, it focuses also on the politics and personalities. There is no mention of any GWV connection. Back issues of the DAS Journal are available from Richard Dennis Publications, The Old Chapel, Shepton Beauchamp, Ilminster, Somerset. TA19 OLE.Tel +44 (0) 1460 240044; e-mail: books@richarddennispublications.com.

Museum of London: The majority of UK suffragist societies had London-based headquarters. Some of the London boroughs had branches of their own. Most of the suffragette movement’s protests, demonstrations, arrests and imprisonment happened there too.
The Museum of London has the world’s largest collection and display of social history, including an online collection of over 100 items relating to women’s suffrage in the UK (posters, banners, badges, artifacts etc). Those items are not on display during the museum’s refurbishment, but will be on prominent display from spring 2010.