posted 02-08-2008 04:12 PM            

I wonder if any of you has any thoughts about this brooch? I collect Victorian jewelry and love old silver spoons, so I was delighted to find this 2 inch wide spoon-shaped pin.

I know there was a tradition a few decades ago in which the shop where a bride chose her silver pattern would give her a lapel pin shaped like a spoon of that pattern. But this brooch is too old for that. With its long pin stem, t-hinge, and c clasp, it's clearly from the 19th century, and I would imagine American, since the line of poetry engraved on the back is by Longfellow. It's (most of) a line from the last stanza of his 1839 poem "A Psalm of Life":

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

So it's clearly later than 1839.

Does anyone have any thoughts about this pin? I believe there are some cultures in which a man gives his fiancee a spoon as a betrothal gift--could that have anything to do with this? The two sets of initials on the front make me suspect there's some sort of love-token exchange going on. Then there's the interesting suggestion in the line of poetry that breaks off before the word "wait"--perhaps it's a gift marking a long engagement?

posted 02-20-2008 04:04 PM            

Well, maybe someone will have some thoughts about this pair of Victorian Aesthetic-style earrings in the form of plates and spoons. You guys like plates and spoons, don't you?

The earrings seem to be gold filled, with a section of what looks like low-grade silver. I haven't tested them (though some previous owner apparently made a couple of nicks to test for gold), but the silver-looking part polishes up like silver and tarnishes rather dark, rather quickly. I haven't polished the earrings lately, so the silver part is pretty dark now.

In case you can't tell from the colors of the photos, the rims of the plates are rose gold, as are the spoons. The centers of the plates are silver-colored metal, currently somewhat tarnished. The kidney-shaped wires and their catches are soldered on. I can't find any markings anywhere.

Anyone have any thoughts about when and where these might have been made?

posted 02-20-2008 04:30 PM            

If my ears were pierced AND if I wore earnings... but alas they're not and I don't. If the spoon brooch were smaller, I might consider using it as a lapel pin.

posted 02-20-2008 04:34 PM            

I'm sorry--I hope I didn't sound whiny! I wasn't fishing for compliments, I was hoping someone would say, "Obviously those are the great seal of the famous Spoon and Plate Society, a secret organization that all our Presidents belonged to," or something like that.

posted 03-10-2008 10:59 AM            

The monogram in the bowl looks as though it was engraved by a different hand, and it appears to be later than the one on the handle. Notice the difference in the way the Cs are engraved, for instnace. Perhaps the spoon was passed along in the family and the BCC monogram was added for a new recipient at a later date. I think the verse and handle monogram are original to the spoon.

The incomplete verse inscription might suggest that there exists somewhere a companion piece bearing the rest of the verse on it. Perhaps another spoon pin, or something that a gentleman could have worn, like a watch fob, ring, etc.

The earrings are circa 1885-95 and I am 100% positive they are English or American. They are the type of figural novelty jewelry of which I have seen numerous examples. Generally they are GF, low-karat gold, silver, or silver plate (or a combination), and the designs are whimsical figural motifs, often common household objects. This jewelry generally would have been inexpensive in its day. If you get a chance to see an old catalog from the 1880s or 1890s (such as Marshall Field, etc.) you can see many pieces of this type of jewelry. In the past I have had miniuature purse-shaped earrings, GF spoon and fork brooches, a silver book brooch, etc. Your earrings are not from a society or organization, that I am aware of, but are just a great example of novel Victorian figural jewelry.