The Cullinan Diamond, or Great Star of Africa

Weighing in at 530.4 carats, the Great Star of Africa, as it is referred to, was discovered in 1905 in Cullinan, a town in northeast South Africa, by miners of the Premier Diamond Mining Company. The stone was named after Sir Thomas Cullinan, owner of the mine. Purchased by the South African government, the diamond was then presented to King Edward VII on his birthday. It was later cut by the Asscher Brothers into several smaller gems.

The nine largest pieces after the diamond was cut:

Else von Freytag-Loringhoven

Born in 1874 when the German Empire was still in existence, Else Hildegard Plotz suffered a difficult childhood in which she was physically and sexually abused by her father. After having practiced prostitution and engaging in several affairs with both genders, she married an architect from Berlin named August Endell in 1901. The following year, Else took up with her husband's friend, Frederick Philip Grove, with August's apparent acquiescence. The trio lived together in Italy, Switzerland, and France before Else followed Grove to a farm in Sparta, Kentucky. Their relationship dissipated shortly after, and, in 1913, Else married the German baron Leopold von Freytag-Loringhoven in New York. Else modeled for artists like Marcel Duchamp and also produced many of her own works, mostly sculpture pieces and paintings, which have been identified as Dadaist. Penniless, Else returned to Berlin 10 years later. Friends found her in a state of near insanity and set her up in a flat in Paris, where she died of gas suffocation in 1927.

One of Else's most famous piece, God:

Memento Mori

So, in addition to jewelry made from hair, Victorians memorialized their loved ones by having daguerrotypes made of them. According to a contributor to Daily Oddities, "This was especially common with infants and young children; Victorian era childhood mortality rates were extremely high, and a post-mortem photograph might be the only image of the child the family ever had. ... The earliest post-mortem photographs are usually close-ups of the face of shots of the full body and rarely include the coffin. The subject is usually depicted so as to seem in a deep sleep, or else arranged to appear more lifelike. Children were often shown in repose on a couch or in a crib," often joined by a favorite toy or family member. Sometimes the subject's eyes were propped open or pupils were painted onto their eyelids. Later European examples popularly featured "the deceased in a coffin with a large group of funeral attendees.