The Victorians Loved . . . Spiders?

Not only spiders, the Victorians were obsessed with all manner of crawling creatures as part of their fascination with natural history. When urban society grew more and more detached from nature, the Victorians tried to reconstruct it in their homes and - as in these spider buttons - fashions, sometimes in a truly shocking way!

It was common for the most fashionable society women of the time to dot their upswept curls with flickering fireflies or let live beetles leashed to pins roam around their bodices! In 1891, one story was told of a Victorian woman who strapped a diamond to a live beetle and trained it to fly around her neck, tracing the shape of a necklace (how this training took place I can’t imagine!) 

The antique spider buttons on these 3 necklaces aren't so shocking, but I do wonder what may have creeped upon the garment they were once attached to.

Only 3 available and you can find them at Tiara Day in downtown Frederick, Maryland. That is, of course, unless they've already crawled away . . .