AN 18 CT GOLD AND ENAMEL MOURNING LOCKET

AN 18 CT GOLD AND ENAMEL MOURNING LOCKET, DATED 1797 inset with hair over foiled glass in blue and white enamel border, the back engraved William Ewing Died in Charlestown [Charleston] South Carolina September 2d 1797, aged 20 Ann Ewing Died in Glasgow December 1st 1797 aged 23, 37 x 48mmThe siblings this brooch commemorates, Walter Ewing (1777 Glasgow-Charleston 1797) and Ann[ie] Ewing (1773 - Glasgow - 1797) were two of the children of Walter Ewing McLae of Cathkin (c1745-1814; Ewing until 1790) by Margaret Ewing, nee Fisher (c1745-1815).The Ewing family were prominent Glasgow merchants whose fortune had been amassed in the West Indies sugar and Virginia tobacco trade, their prosperity founded on slavery.