Great article on the Burials and beyond blog :

Victorian Iron Mummies: The Fisk Casket

The Victorian ‘cult of death’ is a term often thrown around. We use the word ‘cult’ as though all things macabre were worshipped and accepted without question. 

We consider postmortem photos, hair jewellery and elaborate monuments of proof they were celebratory of all things decidedly finite and mortal. 

However, as much as burial was an elaborate and sentimental affair, there were deathly alternatives a little too ostentatious or simply odd for Victorian palettes. LINK