SMP Logo
SM Publications
Silver Salon Forums - The premier site for discussing Silver.
SMP | Silver Salon Forums | SSF - Guidelines | SSF - FAQ | Silver Sales


Welcome to the Silver Salon Forums !
Since 1993
Over 11,793 threads & 64,769 posts !!

New members' post here Forum

The Silver Salon Forums are open to anyone with an interest in silver and a willingness to share. Know little or nothing about silver? Don't worry! Anyone with a genuine desire to explore the subject of silver and related metal crafts is welcome.



Favorites: (9/09/07) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11


REGISTER (click here) How to Post Photos


customtitle open  SMP Silver Salon Forums
tlineopen  New members post here
tline3open  Love Token Bracelet

Post New Topic  Post A Reply
profile | register | preferences | faq | search

ForumFriend SSFFriend: Email This Page to Someone! next newest topic | next oldest topic
Author Topic:   Love Token Bracelet
Elisabeth7291

Posts: 53
Registered: May 2009

iconnumber posted 07-15-2013 07:31 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Elisabeth7291     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Just when I think I've found everything that is interesting in my husband's family collection, I come across something new.

Thanks to Paul's thread on Love Tokens I was able to identify the charms on this bracelet as such. I believe this is silver - perhaps not the highest quality. It does have a maker's mark on the clasp, but the wear is such that it is unreadable.



The coins used are all Norwegian Oscar II circa. 11 10 Ore, 1 25 Ore and 3 50 Ore. This bracelet belonged to my husband's grandmother, born in 1889. The names on the back are mostly girl's names but also include "Mama" and "Papa." I believe the coins are too organized to have been collected one at a time and more likely represent a gift presented by a group at a specific time. The coins were in circulation ~1884 - 1904.

One of my questions is - for those who know more about Love Tokens - is it more likely that the gift was made when the coins were in circulation or after?

And, does my theory sound accurate that this might have been a one-time gift instead of a collection. I have no idea of the value of something like this at the time it might have been given. Is it too extravagant for a birthday? Does it fit a confirmation? Would it more likely be a farewell gift when the owner and her husband immigrated to America? That would have been in 1919 when she was 29. Is this a gift of a married woman?

All thoughts and opinions from those who know more about this are greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance!


------------------

IP: Logged

Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 07-16-2013 11:29 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thanks for correcting the image size.

IP: Logged

Elisabeth7291

Posts: 53
Registered: May 2009

iconnumber posted 07-17-2013 06:54 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Elisabeth7291     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Sorry about that. I'm usually better about that now that I've learned... but also, I've been relying on my husband to give them to me at the right size when he sends to me & I didn't double check before I loaded them.

...Now to see if anyone knows much about this type of jewelry!

[This message has been edited by Elisabeth7291 (edited 07-17-2013).]

IP: Logged

Kimo

Posts: 1627
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 07-18-2013 01:31 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kimo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This is a very nice bracelet that I am sure must have had great personal meaning to your husband's ancestor. As you suggest, there are a great many possibilities as to what it might represent.

From the description and photo my first hypothesis is that it could be a farewell present rather than love tokens. Love tokens tended to be one at a time gifts from one lover to another and they typically have either wording or symbology or both indicating such love.

The reasons I think it could be a going away gift are:

  1. as you say the coins seem to be all of a similar kind and approximately the same age and so were likely engraved in a single timeframe;
  2. there is no indication of passionate love in either words or symbology on them;
  3. they include the woman's mother and father;
  4. when this woman left her home and friends in 1919 to go to America, I would guess that there was little expectation that she would be returning soon (if at all) as she and her husband were embarking on their new life in America. Everyone in her family and her closest friends could put their names on coins on this bracelet for a very modest cost and give it to her at her farewell party so she would always remember them in her new life far away; and,
  5. if these coins were no longer in circulation by the time she emigrated they could have been readily available at minimal cost.
Or it could be something else?

IP: Logged

Hose_dk

Posts: 400
Registered: May 2008

iconnumber posted 07-20-2013 05:44 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Hose_dk     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The term Love token I learned from e-bay. These coins with names or symbols are seen in my country, but they are not common. In fact I have only seen a few.

When I go to e-bay (and I think its fair that I refer to e-bay in this case) There is a lot of them German, English, a few Danish but a fair Collection of American.

But in Europe - not many.

This makes me draw the conclusion that its a farewell present. Remember - in this case Norway ant the people WHO stayed at home and you are never to see Again.

In this pdf:
you can see prices from 1880 until 2004. In 1880 one kilo bread was 0,16 kr (16 øre) 1 beer 8 øre, 1/4 kilo butter 50 øre, 1 liter milk 6 øre, ½kilo of cofee 90 øre.

Hourly pay scollard labor was 27 øre and he worked 64 hours week.
So you see butter and cofee was very expensive.

The coins you have represented value. Mark that 1,00 kr and 2,00 kr was also in silver. And none of them used here. 1 kr would represent 4 hours of Work for a skilled labor. Most likely 6 hours or an unskilled -

My remark regarding e-bay. I think that these coins are farewell gifts Remember me - and that the concept of love tokens was brought to America with them. Because in Europe they are very rare.

Also remember the remarks of costs/wages - 10 øre is equal to 50 grams of butter or ½ kilo of bread.

In my mind that's an awful lot of Money -
Therefor you do not see 1 kr or 2 kr. That would be much much to give away for a poor Family.

Also the love tokens represented a security. In case Things get roof - use the coins to survive. Be sure that its silver alright. The grade is 830 or 826 which was the standard. (a standard defined 300 years before anyone even had a dream of Columbus discovering US - so rest a sure that its silver) And silver as a rescue if everything went wrong away from home.

Rest a sure that this bracelet was treasured by the original owner. It represented something that you cannot even dream of.

I our world of 2013 - that way of thinking is antique. And no longer relevant - in 1900 very much realistic.

[This message has been edited by Hose_dk (edited 08-02-2013).]

IP: Logged

Hose_dk

Posts: 400
Registered: May 2008

iconnumber posted 07-20-2013 11:41 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Hose_dk     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
We go on this time off topic. So off that I open an new answer.
You ask related to the value of this. And whether its for a jung girl or if a woman could be given this. By my reply its already obvius that its not for a child. Let me elaborate giving exambles from my Family. We are i Denmark so customs are very similar to Norway.

We love silver. Silver is for keeping and for long time saving. Silver keeps its value and no matter how economy goes - silver keeps its value. You save your silver for a Rainy day or for times to get toof. Even in those conditions you do not sell your silver because it can always get worse. And you know what you have so you can get food on the table tomorrow. Thats the atttude, you save for hard times and times can always be toffer.
People WHO sell their ansisters silver on e-bay have never understood this. The value of silver as a ressource.

The value of silver is more than monetarry. Its a way to secure you and your Family. Buttons at your jacket, spoons, beakers ... all we use for sawings.

Does the value of the bracelet start to become real?

Silver is for keeping because times can always get toof. And tomorrow can be worse than today.

Now this is off topic. Long off topic, but its difficult to understand what was the walue? in given times?
Can I have some more? Oliver Twist ask when Dickens describe the poor during the Victorian times. But how was it? We cannot know, , emotional and economical your husbonds ansister have felt in 1919. I have this feeling and therefore I say all the love tokens at e-bay. Hae sellers understood what feeling they are selling for peanuts?

[This message has been edited by Hose_dk (edited 08-02-2013).]

IP: Logged

Elisabeth7291

Posts: 53
Registered: May 2009

iconnumber posted 07-22-2013 10:18 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Elisabeth7291     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Kimo & Hose_dk - Thank you so much. Your responses are very helpful.

Kimo - I guess I've seen "love tokens" on the internet refer to any love relationship - not just romantic - and that is why I continued it here.

Hose_dk - Your thoughts on the value of this are very meaningful to me. I hadn't thought of this farewell gift as a means for "if things get too hard" but I'm sure there was implication of that being available as a last resort. I've shared other pieces of this family silver that they brought over with them, including a sterling tea and coffee set, many loose pieces of beautiful sterling serving pieces, so I know that this family treasured and valued their silver. I also believe - because of how much of it there is - that they were probably a wealthy family. Not that they didn't know hard work. The father represented on this bracelet owned the Oslo Hotel - according to a letter we have that he sent his daughter on hotel stationary.

I, too, was raised to know and appreciate the value of silver. When I was 6 or 7, my parents started my collection of silver flatware - Grande Baroque - and I've loved collecting it ever since. My husband often teases me that now that we've come to inherit all his family's silver, our marriage is a sure thing - I might divorce him, but I'd never risk losing the silver! ;-)

I am already enjoying wearing the bracelet and take time to think about its original owner and what value it must have had for her.

IP: Logged

Hose_dk

Posts: 400
Registered: May 2008

iconnumber posted 07-22-2013 12:46 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Hose_dk     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Yes so they had Money. That changes. But still the idea of having silver as a saving. I know that in 1919 silver was no longer a saving.
The use of bottons, beakers etc made of silver go back in time. I would assume that in 1919 the idea still lived but was disappering. Today we still give fork and spoon for christening present. Tough today often i stanless steel.

In Sweden they had a tradition of giving spoon for funeral. As memory of the deseased. For people of the house hold. Often with inscription of memory.

IP: Logged

ahwt

Posts: 2334
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 07-22-2013 03:10 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ahwt     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This is a little off topic, but on the mention of funeral spoons in Sweden I thought Hose_DK might enjoy seeing some of the same from Albany, New York. I think spoons were mainly used to remember the deceased, but I did see one remembrance engraved on a large punch/soup ladle. I have always been sorry that I did not buy it.
These all all from the book "Albany Silver 1652-1825".


Thanks for the interesting discussion.

I am also trying out the new Picture Trail site.

IP: Logged

All times are ET

next newest topic | next oldest topic

Administrative Options: Close Topic | Archive/Move | Delete Topic
Post New Topic  Post A Reply
Hop to:


Ultimate Bulletin Board 5.46a


1. Public Silver Forums (open Free membership) - anyone with a valid e-mail address may register. Once you have received your Silver Salon Forum password, and then if you abide by the Silver Salon Forum Guidelines, you may start a thread or post a reply in the New Members' Forum. New Members who show a continued willingness to participate, to completely read and abide by the Guidelines will be allowed to post to the Member Public Forums.
Click here to Register for a Free password

2. Private Silver Salon Forums (invitational or $ donation membership) - The Private Silver Salon Forums require registration and special authorization to view, search, start a thread or to post a reply. Special authorization can be obtained in one of several ways: by Invitation; Annual $ Donation; or via Special Limited Membership. For more details click here (under development).

3. Administrative/Special Private Forums (special membership required) - These forums are reserved for special subjects or administrative discussion. These forums are not open to the public and require special authorization to view or post.


| Home | Order | The Guide to Evaluating Gold & Silver Objects | The Book of Silver
| Update BOS Registration | Silver Library | For Sale | Our Wants List | Silver Dealers | Speakers Bureau |
| Silversmiths | How to set a table | Shows | SMP | Silver News |
copyright © 1993 - 2022 SM Publications
All Rights Reserved.
Legal & Privacy Notices