Books & Exhibitions

Lover’s Eyes Inspired ‘Forgetting To Remember’

M.J. Rose’s latest novel pivots on the history of the romantic motif

by M. J. Rose

May 17, 2024—I’ve always loved reading books about time travel but it took a 19^th century tiny jeweled portrait of a man’s eye—just a man’s eye—framed in small colorful gemstones to inspire me to write one myself.

Who was he? Who had painted a portrait of just his eye? Why?

Forgetting to Remember is my answer to those questions.

I saw my first lover’s eye in Paris in the early 1990s, when I visited the atelier of the master jeweler JAR. I was entranced by a mesmerizing brooch that featured an antique eye miniature surrounded by a silver and gold frame of amethysts and white and colored diamonds. But it was the single diamond briolette teardrop hanging from the edge of the piece, signifying all the glory and grief of love, that captured my heart.

I didn’t know there was a rich history behind jewels that featured eyes until 2021 when, during the height of the Covid pandemic, the jewelry historian and author Marion Fasel, sent me a book to review for The Adventurine.

Lover’s Eyes: Eye Miniatures from the Skier Collection, written by Elle Shushan not only reminded me of JAR’s version, but it also brought to mind a quote I’d read, and saved, written by the jewelry historian, Levi Higgs.

 Jewels should stir something deep inside you, a primal urge for endless knowledge, and a desire to crack open the capsule that is the very structure of the jewel. The annals of history it has witnessed and the individual moments, glances, and fleeting ideas this object has been privy to are insurmountable to comprehend. But with one interaction, you brush up against that well of experience, with breadth and depth, and it all comes rushing to the surface of the present, just for you.  

I began to think about the romanticism and poignancy of how Lover’s Eye jewelry came to be when the Prince of Wales, later crowned King George IV fell in love at first sight with the twice widowed commoner Maria Fitzherbert. Because she was Catholic they couldn’t marry but wed in secret and exchanged miniatures depicting each other’s eyes set into jewels, as love tokens.

In my story, setting aside grief from the fallout of the second World War and putting her energy into curating an upcoming show critical to her career as the Keeper of the Metalworks at London’s renowned V&A Museum, Jeannine Maycroft stumbles upon a unique collection of jewel-framed miniature eye portraits—those brilliant romantic devices and clandestine love tokens of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

One piece among the assembly intrigues her more than all the others: a twilight-blue man’s eye framed by opals shimmering with enchanting flashes of fiery color. But the beauty is just the beginning. Not only is the painting a self-portrait of one of her favorite Pre-Raphaelite artists, Ashe Lloyd Lewis, but the brooch itself is a portal into the past.

Despite being cast into an era she was never meant to be in, Jeannine and Ashe develop an immediate and passionate bond, complicated by the undeniable fact that she does not belong in 1867, and she needs to stop a disaster about to destroy her family and reputation in her time.

Striving to live a dual life and dangerously straddling two time periods, Jeannine fights to protect her career and her father from scandal in the present while desperately trying to save her lover’s life in the past.

The pièce de résistance for me in the process of having this novel published was the astonishing generosity of the jeweler Michael Robinson of David Michael who I interviewed in 2023.

I’d always been enamored by Robinson’s imaginative work including his lover’s eye jewelry and during the interview I told Michael about my book. Amazingly, he offered to do a drawing for the cover. To say I was astonished would be an understatement. The process involved discussing the plot, the characters and the mood of the book, after which Michael sent me stunning black and white sketches to discuss. Once we agreed on the final drawing, Michael added the color which my cover designer, the equally amazing Alan Dingman, incorporated into the final.

My goal is always to entertain and at the same time to explore the history of jewelry and revel in the beauty of the objects created by the artists who paint and sculpt and design with gold, silver and beautiful gems and I hope I’ve done these special jewels justice. (And to have this book do well enough that I can afford to have Robinson bring his drawing to life and be able to buy it!)

M.J. Rose is a New York Times bestselling author; her most recent novel is Forgetting to Remember.

Related Stories:

A New Look at Old Lover’s Eyes

‘King of Diamonds’ Reviews Harry Winston’s Many Facets

What Inspires David Michael’s Jewelry Designs

---