Daily AncestorDraped urn
A draped urn on a gravestone is a 19th century mourning symbol; the cloth over the urn is read as the veil between life and death.
Adding a swag of cloth to the classical urn joined two mourning images: the urn for the dead and the drapery that covered rooms and coffins in a house of mourning. One Massachusetts example dates from 1820, and the form stayed common through the Victorian era.
Draped urns also crown obelisks and columns on larger monuments. The drape is about grief and the separation of the living from the dead, not about the person's age or cause of death.
As seen in a recordRural or garden cemetery, 1820 to 1900
Draped urn atop a marble pedestal: Erected to the memory of Hon. Chester Wolcombe, 1788 to 1859, and Mary his wife
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Draped urn." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/gravestone-symbols/draped-urn. Last checked 2026-10-15.