Victorian Symbols

30 symbols to explore

Browse victorian symbols

30 symbols.

Veil Candle Crest

A veiled light makes grief visible without extinguishing hope: mourning surrounds the flame, but the flame remains, creating an image of remembrance held through darkness rather than defeated by it.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG

CommercialMemoryFaithDeathHistorically supported

Botanical & ThornworkFree

Red Rose

A nineteenth-century botanical emblem of love, with period flower dictionaries specifically linking the red rose with beauty and romantic affection.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG

CommercialLoveHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Wisteria was a recognised nineteenth-century ornamental climber, but the familiar meaning “welcome” is not securely evidenced in the major Victorian flower dictionary checked here and is better treated as a later association.

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CommercialOriginal Meaning UnknownLoveHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Laurel

Laurel was a clear late-Victorian emblem of glory, continuing an older classical association with honour and victory while period dictionaries distinguished several other plants bearing the laurel name.

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CommercialStrengthResilienceHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Rosemary

Rosemary carried a well-established association with remembrance, reinforced in nineteenth-century flower dictionaries and a much older literary tradition of memory.

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CommercialMemoryFaithHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Ivy

An evergreen emblem of fidelity and attachment, ivy appears in nineteenth-century flower dictionaries with meanings centred on faithfulness, friendship and enduring bonds.

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CommercialFaithLoveResilienceHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Pansy

In nineteenth-century flower dictionaries, the pansy was characteristically an emblem of thought, remembrance and affectionate reflection—an association echoed by its older name, heartsease.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG

CommercialMemoryLoveHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Lily of the Valley

Lily of the valley was a distinctive nineteenth-century emblem of the return of happiness, a hopeful meaning repeatedly recorded in language-of-flowers dictionaries.

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CommercialRenewalHopeHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Sweet Violet

The sweet violet was a nineteenth-century floral emblem of modesty, its low-growing, fragrant blooms lending themselves naturally to the period's language of restrained virtue.

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CommercialHumilityHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Daffodil

In late nineteenth-century floriography the daffodil carried the concise meaning “regard,” distinct from the related narcissus and jonquil entries found in flower dictionaries.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG

CommercialLoveRenewalHopeHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Hawthorn

Hawthorn was a nineteenth-century emblem of hope—more particularly a lover's hope in one period account—with its May blossom also carrying older associations with courtship and marriage.

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CommercialHopeLoveHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

White Heather

White heather became a late nineteenth-century emblem of good luck, developing a distinctly Scottish association that differed from earlier flower-dictionary meanings for heath or heather generally.

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CommercialLuckProtectionHistorically supported

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Fern

The fern carried the meaning “fascination” in late nineteenth-century floriography, while period dictionaries treated the separately named flowering fern as a different emblem associated with reverie.

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CommercialWisdomHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Myrtle

Myrtle was a well-established nineteenth-century floral emblem of love, reinforced by older associations with Venus and by its prominent place in Victorian bridal tradition.

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CommercialLoveFaithHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Oak Leaf

Late nineteenth-century flower dictionaries distinguished oak leaves from the oak tree itself, assigning the leaves the specific emblematic meaning of bravery.

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CommercialStrengthResilienceHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Yew

The yew was repeatedly identified with sorrow in nineteenth-century flower dictionaries, an association reinforced by its dark evergreen foliage and long presence in churchyards and burial grounds.

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CommercialDeathMemoryResilienceHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Cypress

Cypress was an explicit nineteenth-century emblem of mourning, its long funerary history and association with graves making it one of floriography's clearest symbols of grief.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG

CommercialDeathMemoryHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Red Poppy

In nineteenth-century floral language the red poppy symbolised consolation, while its now-familiar association with remembrance belongs primarily to the twentieth-century aftermath of the First World War.

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CommercialMemoryPeaceHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Camellia

Nineteenth-century flower dictionaries linked Camellia japonica with modest merit or excellence, while colour-specific entries gave red and white camellias distinct meanings.

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CommercialHumilityHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Peony

Peony carried surprisingly uneasy meanings in nineteenth-century floriography: period dictionaries record anger, shame and bashfulness rather than the modern prosperity-focused symbolism often encountered today.

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CommercialHumilityHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Primrose

The ordinary primrose was associated with early youth in late nineteenth-century floriography, while red and evening primroses were treated as separate emblems with different meanings.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG

CommercialRenewalHopeHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Common Daisy

The common daisy was a clear nineteenth-century emblem of innocence, while period flower dictionaries gave separately named garden, wild and party-coloured daisies their own meanings.

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CommercialHumilityHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Forget-Me-Not

A nineteenth-century floral emblem of remembrance, the forget-me-not was explicitly linked with true love and enduring memory in period flower dictionaries.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG

CommercialMemoryLoveFaithHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Sunflower

Victorian flower dictionaries did not give the sunflower one universal meaning: Kate Greenaway distinguished dwarf sunflower as adoration and tall sunflower as haughtiness.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG

CommercialLoveHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Red Tulip

Late nineteenth-century flower dictionaries gave the red tulip the particularly direct message “declaration of love,” distinguishing it from generic, yellow and variegated tulips.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG

CommercialLoveFaithHistorically supported

Botanical & Thornwork£0.99

Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle was an emblem of generous and devoted affection in late nineteenth-century floriography, its twining growth providing a natural image of close and enduring attachment.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG

CommercialLoveFaithHistorically supported

Gothic & Memento Mori£0.99

Black Ribbon Device

A simple black ribbon turns private loss outward, echoing the visible mourning dress and armbands through which grief and remembrance could once be publicly recognised.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG

CommercialDeathMemoryLoveHistorically supported

Gothic & Memento Mori£0.99

Obelisk Shadow Sign

An obelisk stands solid while its shadow stretches beyond it, turning a durable cemetery monument into a reflection on absence, memory, legacy, and the traces a life leaves behind.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG

CommercialDeathMemoryIdentityHistorically supported

Gothic & Memento Mori£0.99

Tear Drop Emblem

Reduced to a single tear, grief becomes intimate rather than monumental: a small mark for sorrow, love, compassion, and the way remembrance can condense an entire relationship into one visible sign of absence.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG

CommercialDeathCompassionMemoryHistorically supported

Gothic & Memento Mori£0.99

Wilted Lily Device

The lily is shown after its moment of fullness, making the bend of the stem and fading bloom a restrained image of mourning, impermanence, memory, and renewal.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG

CommercialDeathMemoryRenewalHistorically supported

About victorian symbols

Victorian symbols and their researched historical, cultural, and practical relationships.

Curated sets

Collections with related symbols.

Collection overlap is shown against the symbols on this meaning page.

25 matching symbols

Botanical Silhouettes — Flowers, Leaves & Plants in Simplified Nineteenth-Century Style

Botanical Silhouettes brings together 25 flowers, leaves and plants rendered as bold, simplified botanical emblems. Inspired by nineteenth-century botanical illustration and decorative arts, the collection focuses on recognisable plant forms translated into clean silhouettes suitable for engraving, cutting and print. Many of these plants also appear in historical traditions of botanical symbolism. Where a historical symbolic association is documented, individual entries should distinguish period evidence from later or modern interpretations.

5 matching symbols

Memento Mori Mortality Symbols Collection

Memento Mori Mortality Symbols gathers 25 symbols shaped around hourglasses, candles, skull-adjacent marks, decay and renewal motifs, time symbols, and mortality emblems, with each mark chosen for clarity, historical resonance, and a strong editorial silhouette.