Victorian Etruscan Revival Tussie Mussie

During the Georgian era with its lack of sanitation, hygiene and rampant pestilence, well-to-do ladies would carry around a small bouquet of fragrant flowers called nosegays to superstitiously ward off disease and mask the noxious odors of the street. In the mid-1800s, this practice of flower carrying was romanticized and the posy holder (or tussie mussie) became a fashionable accessory for any elite lady, particularly if she were attending a ball. Resembling a small vase, the posy holder was usually crafted in silver or brass and sometimes had an ivory or mother of pearl handle. Gentlemen callers would give ladies a small bouquet consisting of a central flower surrounded by flowers of contrasting colors. Each flower represented a specific feeling, which the lady would then look up in her Tussie dictionary. The flowers were skewered into the posy holder with the long attached pin. The lady would then attach the holder to her hand with the accompanying ring and would allow the piece to