posted 12-11-2010 04:27 PM            

Hi all,

I was in a coin shop earlier today and the owner brought out a neat (.833 silver) Danish soup ladle in its original shop box to show me. He mentioned that the client he bought it from, told him that it was a gift from a government official in appreciation, or friendship. The ladle looks to be c. 1950. There was no card, and the ladle had not been engraved. I hear these stories all the time and have come to pay very little attention to them.

Is there a protocol on engraving gifts and at what level of government or society does this apply to? And have the protocols become more relaxed?

Also, how much is to be believed of what you are told about an item, without engraving or paperwork to back it up.

Discuss.. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

Marc

posted 12-12-2010 05:32 AM            

With no supporting engraving - add to price I do not think.

But a gift in original box is very likely.

A lot has been given by trade delegations, official meetings etc.

And most likely you will never find a protocol. A list could excist, but how to find is is unknown to me.

A gift from the king or queen - I would do some research to find.
But the ladle - gift from a minister or civil servant or diplomat. No reason to search.

posted 12-12-2010 08:57 AM            

In the U.S. government, an employee may accept a gift from an employee of another government if it is given as an official gift from the giving government and not just as a personal gift. However, the value of the gift determines whether the employee may keep the gift or if they must turn it over to the agency for which they work. Currently this value is $335. However, since most gifts do not come with price tags still on them, employees must turn gifts into their organization's ethics office and they decide whether it is more or less than $335. If they decide it is more, then the gift becomes the property of the organization and often such government organizations have trophy cases in public areas where such gifts are displayed.

If the government organization does not want the gift for display (and typically they do not unless it has some particular significance), they send it to a part of the U.S. government called the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). The GSA holds public auctions around the U.S. and on the internet. Anyone can bid on and win such gifts there. So normally, in the U.S. anyway, there is absolutely no added value for such gifts since they are easy to buy at bargain wholesale prices in these auctions. The only situation when such a gift might have added value is when it is something that is presented from a famous person to a famous person to commemorate a famous event, and it is engraved to that effect. Even with this, the added value can be minimal or even zero. For example, all U.S. Presidents receive large numbers of gifts every day from people around the world who are either admirers, or more often from people who own companies and want to say that one of their products was given to the President and is "in the White House" to help them sell more of their products. By the end of their Administrations they wind up with warehouses full of such things. If they want to keep any of these things for themselves, they have to pay the appraised value so they normally wind up keeping very little of it.

The rules for gifts to U.S. officials that are not officially from governments is much more strict. In such cases the value of a gift must be less than $20 and the total value of all gifts from the same organization or person to that official over the course of a year must be less than $50. Even low value gifts must be cleared with the ethics officials and anything that exceeds the limits gets set to the General Services Administration for auctioning.

posted 12-16-2010 03:16 PM            

Her husband was a major advertising executive, and in the 1950s and 1960s developed an advertising campaign for Scandinavian furs--and the pitcher was a gift from the consortium of Scandinavian manufacturers. No reason to disbelieve it, and at least I know it is a wonderful object with a history of being in New Jersey since it was made. Fortunately, not a bit of inscription on it, which would be hard to do on this form. Jensen still makes this form--but NOT the way it was made originally. Our example is also an early version of the form.