Oh dear, I do indeed also have the family portrait looking over my shoulder. Among them, my g. grandmother also attired in black, trimmed in white and wearing a mourning brooch! The one difference however is that she wasn't a widow at the time. (She wore black following the death of her first born infant son until her own death more than 30 years later.) Just one question, it was my understanding that mourning attire was matte black. Would this have excluded silk as suitable material for that purpose? (Only a male would need to ask such a question!) Bill