What's Wrong With Clowns?

Clowns are supposed to make us happy by making us laugh.  There have been fools, jesters and clowns as far back as Egyptian times.  We are all familiar with today's Western circus clown who generally wears white face, exaggerated makeup including a big red nose and wears large floppy shoes.

Historically, clowns were often people with some type of physical or mental deformity.  They might also adopt a costume or wear make up that would further enhance their differences.  However, superstitious people often believed these same clowns were evil because they were "different".

Some of that superstition and fear seems to have carried over into modern times.  There are actually numerous web sites and blogs created by people who actively hate clowns.  Presumably, some of that fear was caused by a too early introduction to clowns. That same fear is often extended to Santa Claus. Yet for some reason, children get over their fear of Santa, (maybe it's the gifts?) but they never seem to get over their fear of clowns.

Interestingly enough, this dislike of clowns seems to carry over into jewelry.  I find that I not only have difficulty selling clown brooches, I don't even get any watchers.  I honestly think that no one would take these off my hands for free even though they are attractive and well made.

Kathy Flood in the Warman's Guide to Costume Figural Jewelry comments on this also.  She points out that in jewelry, especially European jewelry, clown can be very sinister.  Sometimes they are even mistaken for devils.  This results in a lot of great pieces of jewelry being overlooked by collectors.  So maybe it's time to start thinking differently - and "Send In The Clowns" to your collection.