Gothic Jewelry for Vampires

The vampire woman dazzles and entrances, but there's a subtle warning wrapped around her neck. Read the signs and you might just escape with your life.

The black ribbon hints at darkness and mourning. It streams through a very pretty cage of Britannia pewter. Is it just pareidolia which sees dragons in the ornate detail? Or floundering human faces and forms? Is that a silver fount bursting above and below?

When interpreted from a certain point of view, those emerald crystals could appear as puncture marks on the neck. And what dangles?  A blade, or a vampire's extended fang? 

Just in case we missed the reference, it's called the Westenra Choker.  As in Lucy Westenra, who rose from the grave in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Now run.

The vampiric message here is even more subtle, though the enchained skull might give the game away. After all this vampire costume choker appears to depict nothing more sinister than two fairies delivering a shining Swarovski crystal.

Until, of course, you look again at the name of this vampire choker.  La Fleur de Baudelaire, the flower of Baudelaire; and who was he?

Charles Baudelaire, a 19th century Gothic poet, and he did indeed give us flowers.  Les Fleurs du Mal - the Flowers of Evil - a collection of verses deemed so diabolical, that most were banned in his native France until 1949. 

And amongst them was the boast of a vampire seductress turned into stanzas.  In Metamorphosis of a Vampire - a poem penned in 1857 - we find the truth behind this choker's 'fairies':

"My lips are moist and yielding, and I know the way
To keep the antique demon of remorse at bay.
All sorrows die upon my bosom...

...Upon his bed that groans and sighs luxuriously
Even the impotent angels would be damned for me!"

Beware this Gallic vampire queen. Even the angels have been subverted to her will.

Expensive and extravagant, there's a distinctly Baroque style about the Queen of the Night jewelry set.  But then again, your vampire is probably old enough to have added these to her collection when Baroque was new.

These are Austrian crystals set amidst exquisitely worked English pewter.  Your vampire has also traveled a bit, through the centuries.  This dark lady knows glamor and quality when she sees it.

But if it's history that you're after, then we can go further back than that!

Ever since Bram Stoker spotted a certain aristocratic title in a History of Wallachia, one name has been synonymous with vampires. 

Dracula was the nick-name of the real historical ruler Vlad Tepes. It means 'son of the dragon' (later diverted through Christianity into 'son of the devil'). He was no blood-sucker, but there still was grisly horror.  His other nick-name of Vlad the Impaler might give the clue there. For the hundreds of hapless victims dying slowly, writhing on a sharpened pole, this human was monstrous enough.

Whether you take your cues from Romanian history or Victorian Gothic novels, these sterling silver Order of the Dragon earrings will date you to at least the early 15th century. This vampiric re-purposing would be anathema to Sigismund, King of Hungary, who founded the knightly chapter to defend Christianity from the on-coming Islamism of the Ottoman Turks.

You may enjoy the black humor, as you sink your teeth into another human victim; or else muse upon the conundrum - did Dracula hold back the Muslim forces by selling his soul to the devil?  And does history ever repeat?

Do vampires shy from Christian symbols or remain impervious to them? After all, these undead may be so ancient that they pre-date the coming of Christ. Or they may be Pagan.

Hollywood has given us both examples. We've watched the like of Christopher Lee's Dracula cower from the cross. We've seen Lestat kiss one. If your vampire embraces a kind of dark Christian spirituality, then this Gothic vampire cross pendant may be the thing.

The heraldry bespokes some ancient noble family; and is that a nod toward the Sacred Heart of Catholicism or merely dinner?  Should that heart be the red of blood, or black to denote the darkness of the Undead?

Either way, those are Swarovski Crystals.