MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Halley’s Comet has been a source of wonder for more than two millennia, inspiring legend and lore through the ages. China recorded sightings from 240BCE, and maintained an almost complete record of appearances of Halley’s Comet in a more detailed and accurate format than in the West up to the late 14th century. In Europe the 1066 appearance of the comet was widely recorded in local chronicles; it appeared shortly before the Norman invasion of England, and was portrayed in the Bayeux Tapestry. The comet was recorded in numerous medieval works including Giotto’s “Adoration of the Magi” of 1303, and the panel of the Trés Riches Heures of the Duc de Berry (1410) that portrays the Adoration scene. It is not difficult to account for the appeal of Halley’s Comet in the popular imagination. Most comets do not reappear for hundreds or even thousands of years. The periodicity of Halley’s Comet – appearing every +/- 76 years – means that it will appear once in many people’s lifetime, giving it an immediacy that might explain its special appeal over so many centuries. In the last three centuries, in particular, Halley’s Comet has inspired a multitude of decorative objects; perhaps the most enduring is the wide range of jewelry commemorating its reappearances, or sometimes the appearances of other comets. Comet jewelry surviving from before the mid-eighteenth century is uncommon, but such jewelry proliferated during the late eighteenth century - probably because of the 1758 appearance of Halley’s Comet - and throughout the following two centuries. With the twentieth century’s much deeper knowledge of comet science, Halley’s and other comets were reflected in a wider range of decorative arts, but the place of jewelry in comet memorabilia endured, and indeed has continued into the present century.