Showing posts with label silver. Show all posts
Showing posts with label silver. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Up to Snuff

 

QUESTION: I’ve been fascinated by antique snuff boxes for some time. Most are a bit above my budget, but I’d like to purchase one or two soon. However, I know little about snuff and the origins of these decorative little containers. When did people start taking snuff? And where and where were the first snuff boxes made?

ANSWER: Snuff was a type of smokeless tobacco made from finely ground or pulverized tobacco leaves. Users snorted or "sniffed" it into their nasal cavity by inhaling it lightly after placing a pinch of it either onto the back of their hand, by pinching some between their thumb and index finger, or holding a specially made "snuffing" device.

Friar Ramón Pane, a missionary who came to the New World with Christopher Columbus in 1493, was the first European to witness the inhaling of snuff by the Taino people of Haiti. Until then, tobacco was unknown to Europeans. But by the 1650s, artisans were making small boxes the snuff dry.

Traditional snuff production consisted of a lengthy, multi-step process, in tobacco snuff mills. The selected tobacco leaves were first cured or fermented, which gave it the  individual characteristics and flavor for each type of snuff blend. Many blends of snuff required months to years of special storage to reach the required maturity. Fine snuff consisted of varieties of blended tobacco leaves without the addition of scents. Varieties of spice, piquant, fruit, floral, and mentholated soon followed, either pure or in blends. 

Each snuff manufacturer usually had a variety of unique recipes and blends, as well as special recipes for individual customers. Common flavors also included coffee, chocolate, Bordeaux wine, honey, vanilla, cherry, orange, apricot, plum, camphor, cinnamon, rose and spearmint.

The 18th century witnessed an increase in the use of snuff, especially among the English and French aristocracy. Because it was a small, fine substance, it needed a vessel to contain it. Both snuff and the little boxes that contained it became important expressions of class. Originally made for daily use, snuff boxes became important symbols of personal representation. Snuff taking had become an important marker of social status.

Although men could ingest other forms of tobacco, both men and women could take snuff. Tobacco would often be used by men while socializing in coffeehouses, thus becoming linked to public masculinity.

Taking snuff could be unpleasant, especially if there were a crowd in a room. In the act of ingesting it, a person had to remain dignified. Society considered it rude for snuff takers to make excessive noise making or reaction. Like tea or coffee consumption at this time, it wasn’t only about the substance being ingested: but the ingestion itself that had to adhere to society’s rule.

The manufacture of snuff boxes became a lucrative industry when taking snuff was fashionable. Snuff boxes ranged from those made of horn to ornate designs featuring precious materials made using state-of-the-art techniques. Since prolonged exposure to air caused snuff to dry out and lose its quality, manufacturers designed snuff boxes to be airtight containers with strong hinges, generally large enough to hold a day's worth of snuff. The wealthy kept larger snuff containers, called mulls, on their dinner tables for use at dinner parties. These could be quite elaborate and often included rams horns decorated with silver or in some cases a depiction of the head of a ram.

In the early 18th century, French jewelers created snuff boxes of gold set with diamonds, amethysts, and sapphires. By 1740, specialized artisans took over the production of these ornate tabatières, which they engraved, chased, and enameled. 

The shapes of these boxes weren’t limited to rectangular boxes. Porcelain containers resembling little trunks were popular, as were ovals, but tabatières shaped like shells were more rare. And while the materials used to construct a box were often enough for its decoration, sometimes artisans hand painted these snuff boxes, depicting everything from miniature landscapes and bucolic scenes to tiny portraits or cameos of their owners.

Miniatures often adorned the lids of snuff boxes. These could be scenes from various mythological, Biblical, or pastoral settings, but portraiture was the most common decoration, especially on those boxes given as gifts. It was usually men who adorned the portraiture present on the jewelry of women.

Silver snuff boxes became associated with Sheffield, England, where silver-plating had been perfected on these small containers in the late 18th century. By the early 19th century, the silver industry had blossomed in Birmingham, England, where snuff box makers such as Samuel Pemberton, Nathaniel Mills, and Edward Smith produced oblong containers with images of castles and abbeys on their tops and sides.

Birmingham was also a center for papier-mâché snuff boxes, which manufacturers hardened using several layers of enamel. A market for these inexpensive boxes developed in the United States, so Birmingham box makers began decorating their wares with portraits of U.S. naval heroes and victory scenes from the War of 1812, often using engravings by such renowned American artists as Gilbert Stuart as their source material.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Art Deco World" in the 2024 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.


Saturday, June 29, 2024

A Silver Alternative

 

QUESTION: As I was browsing a weekly flea market, I came upon a curious silver vase—at least I thought it was silver. But when I picked it up, it felt like glass and was much lighter than silver. The dealer said it was Mercury glass. I never heard of such a thing. Can you tell me more about it?

ANSWER: As the Industrial Revolution gained momentum, the growing middle class wanted inexpensive alternatives to the silver objects owned by the wealthy. One of those alternatives was Mercury glass, first made as an inexpensive silver substitute. Soon it evolved into an art form of its own.

First produced in the late 18th century, Mercury glass was a handblown, double-walled glass with an interior coating of silver-colored metal compounds. It took many forms, including candlesticks, compotes, candy dishes, plates, goblets, wig stands, curtain tiebacks, and doorknobs. Some critics condemned it for looking too much like mirrored glass and too little like silver, which was what people liked about it.

Produced originally from around 1840 until around 1930 in Bohemia, now the Czech Republic, and Germany, it spread to England in 1849 when Edward Varnish and Frederick Hale Thomson patented the technique for silvering glass vessels, and continued to be made there until 1855.

Mercury glass, also known as silvered glass, contains neither mercury nor silver. It's actually clear glass, mold-blown into double-walled shapes and coated on the inside with a silvering solution containing silver nitrate and grape sugar, heated, then closed. Sealing methods included metal discs covered with a glass round in England, or a cork inserted into the unpolished pontil scar on the bottom in America. In the beginning a few Bohemian makers tried to line their pieces with a mercury solution, but they stopped using it due to expense and toxicity. However, this is where the name originated.

Companies in the United States, including the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company, New England Glass Company Union Glass Company, and the Boston Silver Glass Company, made silvered glass from about 1852 to 1880. The New England Glass Company displayed a variety of silvered glass articles, including copper wheel engraved goblets, vases and other tableware at the 1853 New Crystal Palace Exhibition.

Bohemian Mercury glassmakers decorated their pieces with a variety of techniques including painting, enameling, etching, and surface engraving. Antique historians believe it to be the first true "art glass"---glass made for display and for its artistic value rather than for everyday use.

The peak of Mercury glass’ popularity came in the mid-19th century. Back then, high-quality European and American-made pieces were lightweight, had graceful forms, and came decorated with acid-etched fruit or floral motifs, cut glass designs, and sometimes paint. Young girls, working on assembly lines, painted vases in particular with their own designs of swans, daisies, or leaves. Makers intended the details on their pieces to be equal to the finest decoration on other forms of glass and china.

After briefly falling out of favor, Mercury glass reappeared around 1900 in the form of Christmas ornaments and gazing balls, as well as blown fruits and flowers. Today, most serious collectors concentrate on antique forms, like curtain pins, salt cellars, or pedestal-footed silvered vases.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Art Deco World" in the 2024 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Friday, February 2, 2024

Inside Out

 

QUESTION: While browsing a recent antique show, I discovered a delightful little copper box with what looked like an embossed design. The dealer told me it was probably made around the turn of the 20th century or at least before World War I. She said the design was repoussé on copper. I’d like to know more about this repousse technique. Can you give me a bit of history and an explanation of how it’s done?

ANSWER: There are two techniques for hammering copper—chasing and repousse. The difference between the two is that chasing pushes the metal in from the front side while repousse pushes the metal out from the backside.  Both techniques frequently employ a backing to support the work material and confine the movement of the metal to the immediate area around the tool.

While the word repoussé comes from the French word repoussage, meaning "pushed up," the word chasing, which also derives from the French word chasser, meaning ”to drive out.” Repousse is a metalworking technique in which an artisan shaped a malleable metal by hammering from the reverse side to create a design in low relief. Chasing is a similar technique in which the piece is hammered on the front side, sinking the metal. The two techniques are often used in conjunction. Many metals can be used for chasing and repoussé work, including gold, silver, copper, and alloys such as steel, bronze, and pewter. Tool marks are often intentionally left visible.

With the simplest technique, sheet gold could be pressed into designs carved in intaglio in stone, bone, metal or even materials such as jet. The gold could be worked into the designs with wood tools or, more commonly, by hammering a wax or lead "force" over it.

Both techniques date from antiquity and have been used widely with gold and silver for fine detailed work, such as the burial mask of King Tutankhamun, and copper, tin, and bronze for larger sculptures, such as the Statue of Liberty. Both methods require only the simplest tools and materials, and yet allow great diversity of expression. They’re also more affordable, since there’s no loss or waste of metal, which mostly retains its original size and thickness.

Before the use of repousse, ancient artisans pressed gold sheet into a die to work it over a design in cameo relief. Here the detail would be greater on the back of the final design, so some final chasing from the front was often carried out to sharpen the detail.

In 1400 BCE, ancient Egyptians used resin and mud as a softer backing for repoussé. The use of patterned punches dates back to the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE  Craftsman made the simplest patterned punches using loops or scrolls of wire.

By 400 BCE., the ancient Greeks had begun using a combination of punches and dies on a beeswax backing to produce repousse on their bronze armor plates.

The resurgence of repousse and chasing first occurred in England during the late 19th century as part of the British Arts & Crafts Movement. Most notably was the work produced at the Keswick School of Industrial Arts, founded in 1884 by Canon Hardwicke and his wife, Edith Rawnsley, as an evening class in woodwork and repoussé metalwork at the Crosthwaite Parish Rooms, in Keswick, Cumbria. Hardwicke designed the curriculum to alleviate unemployment. The school  prospered, and within 10 years more than 100 men had attended classes. 

The school prospered and swiftly developed a reputation for high quality copper and silver decorative metalwork. By 1888 nearly 70 men were attending the classes. By 1890 the school was exhibiting nationally and winning prizes; Its students numbering over 100,  it had outgrown its cramped home in the parish rooms, forcing Rawnsley to raise funds for a purpose-built school nearby.

The Newlyn Industrial Class, later renamed the Newlyn Art Metal Industry, established in 1890 by John D. Mackensie, was similar to Keswick and shared a common purpose with it. Inspired by the teachings of John Ruskin, they aimed to provide a source of employment in small communities where work came and went with the seasons. At the Newlyn classes, held in a net loft above a fish-curing yard, the pupils were mainly fishermen, while at Keswick students were pencil makers, laborers, gardeners, shepherds, and tailors.

Both metal workshops specialized in the production of repoussé copper work, This technique and material was popular with amateur craftsmen and women across the country because it was easy to learn. A student placed a flat piece of copper face down on a bed of pitch, or, as in the Newlyn workshops, lead. These materials were chosen because they would yield to the force of the blows of the punch but would still support the metal. Once a student had punched the design out from the reverse, he or she turned the metal over and chased finer details on the front.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Age of Photography" in the 2023 Holiday Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.


Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Snake Eyes

 

QUESTION: From my first visit to Arizona, I was taken by the beauty of the turquoise jewelry I found there. I’ve been back several times since and each time I discover new artisans. I especially like the style of the pieces created by members of the Zuni Tribe. I’d like to know more about this jewelry. How far back does this type of jewelry go? And how collectible is it today?

ANSWER: Much of the jewelry made by Southwestern Native Americans features one well-known semi-precious stone—turquoise. 

Formed from hydrated copper aluminum phosphate, turquoise has been mined beginning 3,000 years ago in Persia, now Iran. The Persians treasured this sky-blue stone because they believed it to have healing properties and the ability to protect or warn the wearer of evil.

Because of its scarcity, today’s Iranians no longer mine turquoise, making antique Persian turquoise jewelry, often carved and inlaid with gold, extremely valuable. Such pieces, like necklaces and amulets, first came to Europe through Turkey, where the stone got its current name, “turquoise.”

Turquoise has been found all over the world. The light and fragile material can range from opaque to semi-translucent, with a waxy to dull luster, and its colors, which vary based on their iron and copper content, span from China blue to deep blue, and from blue-green to yellowy green. In Tibet, green is the most valued color of turquoise.

The stone often contains  “inclusions” from the mother stone or “matrix” that held the turquoise as it formed, and this creates a “spiderweb” effect of brown, black, or ochre veins. Turquoise mined in the U.S. and Mexico tends to be greener  and often has more inclusions than the vein-free sky-blue version from Persia.

Turquoise may be used for beads, cabochons, or carved pieces like cameos in necklaces, earrings, bracelets, brooches, and belt buckles. The most valuable turquoise available today comes from the Sleeping Beauty mines in Arizona; it’s dark blue and matrix-free.

In the late 19th century, Navajo artisans began to incorporate turquoise mined locally into their silver jewelry, but it was quickly mined out. A trader named Lorenzo Hubble began to import cut turquoise from Persia for the Native Americans to use. Then, in the early 20th century a new mine for cut turquoise opened in Nevada. Soon other American mines followed. 

Various Native American tribes of the Southwestern U.S, including the Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni developed distinct styles of turquoise jewelry. 

For example, the Navajo created what’s known as the “squash blossom” necklace style, which features a crescent-shaped pendant covered with turquoise beads. While this style may have come from the pomegranate motif that Spanish conquistadors brought to Mexico, but there’s little evidence Native Americans intended this design to represent that flower. This style was also adopted by the Zuni.

Zuni jewelry is known for its rows of “snake eyes,” which are small, rounded, high-domed cabochons, often made of turquoise or coral. The Zunis are also known for their “petit point” jewelry, a style made of tiny hand-cut rounded, oval, or square turquoise clustered in unique designs, that originated in the 1920s. The Pueblo tribes, and particularly the San Domingo tribe, used turquoise in mosaic jewelry, as well as in their disk- or tube-shaped heishe beads. The Zuni were the first to introduce turquoise animal-shaped fetish beads.

In the 1970s, Native American jewelry became popular, so that United States mines became overwhelmed by the demand. Once again, Native American traders had to start importing Persian turquoise. 

Most turquoise jewelry on the market today, particularly if it’s affordable, is made of imitation turquoise, or low-grade turquoise treated to have a more attractive appearance. In fact, imitation turquoise goes back to the Victorians, who were the first to use glass to mimic the stone.

Most real American turquoise may turn green in response to light, oil, heat, and water, so it should be treated with care. Because it’s more porous than Persian turquoise, American turquoise, jewelry makers stabilize it by soaking it in resin or impregnating it with wax. This keeps it from crumbling and doesn’t affect the value. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Age of Photography" in the 2023 Fall Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.



Monday, February 6, 2023

Anyone for Tea and Cake?

 

QUESTION: Ever since I was a little girl having tea parties for myself and my dollies, I’ve loved little cups and saucers. One of my grandmothers gave me a little tea set for my sixth birthday. I loved that set. Soon my tea parties expanded as I invited my girlfriends to bring their dollies over to visit. As I got older, my interests changed until one day while helping my mother clean our attic, I found my original miniature tea set. Since then, I’ve been collecting miniature cups and saucers. I would love to enhance my collection. Can you advise me on how to do that?

ANSWER: What a charming memory. Collecting miniature cups and saucers and even whole tea sets has been a popular pastime for many people. The chief advantage is that because they’re small, they take up less space, making them ideal for those living in condos and apartments.

Children’s tea sets, first produced for the children of the wealthy, seem to have been created before potters discovered the formula for porcelain in Europe. Metalsmiths crafted the earliest ones of pewter or copper, and in some cases gold or silver. Children’s toy tea sets first appeared in 16th-century Germany, a country known for producing toys in wood and metal.

Porcelain children’s tea sets didn’t appear until the 18th century, but just like the silver and gold ones, only the wealthy could afford them. These sets were generally of very high quality, and people kept them for special occasions. Children’s tea sets didn’t become popular household items until the early to mid 19th century, during the Industrial Revolution. The Universal Exhibition of 1855 in London seems to have been the starting point of their expansion. 

In Colonial America, tea was a family event, with everyone enjoying a break during the day. No doubt make-believe tea time and pretend tea drinking were a part of some children’s playtime activities. Perhaps many little girls played at serving tea and dreamed of having a tea parties of their own. The pieces in these sets usually imitated those in regular sets, differing only in size. Though children’s cups and saucers look like traditional tea cups, only a bit smaller than demitasse cups. The handles were small, and not easy for adult hands to hold.  

Collectors love miniature cups and saucers for their variety, in shape, style, and decoration. They can be classified in two distinct styles—dollhouse-size miniatures and toy-size. 

Dollhouse-size miniatures are the smallest—usually scaled an inch to the foot. During the late 18th century, English and continental makers produced dinnerware sets for fashionable ladies to furnish  miniature rooms in large dollhouses. By the 19th century many more companies produced these sets, making them for both children's and adults' dollhouses.

During the Victorian era, wealthy families furnished a nursery for their children. While adults took tea in the parlor, the children had theirs in the nursery. This practice required child-size tea sets. Teacups held three or four ounces, just the right size for three-year- and up. Manufacturers decorated these pieces with animal themes, nursery rhymes, airy .tales, children's activities and the art of famous illustrators

First made n the early 19th century, Staffordshire ABC ware included more than 700 patterns. The alphabet appears on each piece. In the case of a small one, such as a tea cup, which was too small for the entire alphabet to fit, English manufacturers made the letters smaller or used fewer of them. Today, children's size miniatures are the most abundant and reasonably priced. American production of children's ware reached a peak during World War II before the less costly Japanese ware became available.

Mary of Teck, wife of George V of Great Britain, who reigned from 1910 to 1936, was an avid collector of dollhouses and miniatures. Because of her interest, the hobby regained popularity in the 1930s through the 1950s, making early dollhouse-size miniatures rare.

Toy-size miniatures are larger than the dollhouse-size but smaller than child's size. Novice collectors often mistake them for salesman's samples. These toy-size miniatures served several purposes. First, collectors could display them in a cabinet. Second, they taught children of wealthy families manners and social races in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Makers frequently decorated these teacups and saucers with historical scenes and mottoes.

Manufacturers produced these toy-size cups and saucers in the same forms, shapes and styles as the full-sized ones of the period. The potters of Nuremberg, Germany became famous for their miniature tea sets, decorated in vivid colors. Early tea bowls and saucers made by Meissen occasionally come up for sale. The Dutch produced small pottery items decorated in blue and white in the 17th century and introduced them to England in the 1690s. Soon "baby house waresº were part of Staffordshire potteries’ stock.

Companies such as Coalport, Minton, Spode and Worcester produced miniature creamware, stoneware and porcelain cups and saucers in the 19th century. The Dresden studios decorated miniature cups and saucers, often in the popular quatrefoil shape, in the late 19th century.

The most common examples of toy size cups and saucers found in the marketplace today date from the 20th century. In France several companies in the Limoges area produced them around the turn of the 20th century and still make them today. RS Prussia manufactured examples of lovely molded cups with leafy feet and unusual shaped handles around 1900. English potteries, such as Shelley, Crown Staffordshire, Copeland Spode, Wedgwood, Royal Crown Derby, and Coalport miniature tea sets with trays, which were exact replicas of full-size sets. Collectors especially like the Royal Crown Derby pieces, decorated in the Imari patterns. Probably the hottest miniature cup and saucer in the marketplace today are those made by Shelley. The price for a cup and saucer can reach as high as $250 to $300. In the United States, Leneige Company and Gort China made miniature cups and saucers from 1930 to the 1950s.

The creation of early plastics and Bakelite in the late 19th century marked a huge change in children’s tea set design. Manufacturers still made them in porcelain and more durable stoneware, but plastic sets soon began to emerge. By the mid 20th century, plastic sets and sturdy stoneware became the norm. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about old-time winter objects in the 2022/2023 Winter Holiday Edition, with the theme "Winter Memories," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.



Sunday, February 13, 2022

A Bookmark for My Love

 

QUESTION: I love to read, so I have quite a few bookmarks. Most are newer. But at several recent antique shows, I noticed quite a few older bookmarks, many of them featured hearts in some way. Were they given as Valentine’s gifts? I think I’d like to start a collection of some of these older bookmarks. How collectible are they?

ANSWER: Bookmarks have been around in some form or another for hundreds of years, ever since the first printed book rolled off the press in 1455. What a lot of people don’t know was that bookmarks were popular gifts, especially during Victorian times. And many people gave them as small Valentine gifts.

Over the years, Valentine gifts have taken many forms—cards, chocolates, even bookmarks. But whatever form they have taken, these expressions of love often displayed a heart of some sort.

People often gave bookmarks as gifts and as souvenirs or to commemorate a number of events. The heart shape in bookmarks often served to convey expressions of emotions, religious sentiments, or as a way to advertise products of the day.

Also called bookmarkers, these were important instruments for people to use to keep their place while reading. Surprisingly, a great many bookmarks are in the shape of a heart or contain some kind of heart motif.

At first, they were probably nothing more than a scrap of parchment. But as time went on people used a variety of objects as bookmarks. Eventually, printers created actual bookmarks with the primary purpose of marking a place in a book. Someone presented Queen Elizabeth I of England with a silk fringed bookmarker by Christopher Barker in 1584. 

Bookmarks became more common by the post Industrial Revolution. By the mid-19th century there was a convergence of improved methods in the book binding process and an overall increase in literacy. With improved book printing techniques, books became less expensive to produce, and more available to a lot of people. But no one usually read an entire book in one sitting, so bookmarks became a necessary way to mark the place where the reader stopped. 

Silk bookmarks were the most common from around the 1850s and were primarily intended for use in Bibles and prayer books. During the 1860s in Coventry, England, Thomas Stevens was experimenting with his looms and developed a jacquard technique for manufacturing colored silk pictures. He demonstrated these at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, and the World's Fair Columbia Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Silk bookmarks, generically called "Stevengraphs," are typically 2 by 6 inches long. These machine embroidered silks became so popular that Stevens began producing them with American themes. Other companies also produced these  desirable and highly prized silk bookmarks. They were especially popular with the women in Victorian book clubs. 

Between 1850 and 1900, home-crafted bookmarks of needlework on perforated cards became quite common. Printing techniques dramatically changed from 1860 through 1900 and ushered in the “Era of Lithography." Names such as Currier & Ives and Prang were to the best known associated with lithography and chromolithography. 

Silver bookmarks became quite popular from about 1380. People still give them as gifts today. In addition to silver, bookmarks have also been made in brass, copper, nickel steel and Britannia white metals. With the turn of the century came bookmarks made of aluminum, celluloid and lighter weight paper. The heart motif can be found on bookmarks made of all these materials.

Because the shape of the heart has long been a symbol of love, affection, deeply felt sentiments, caring, concern and earnestness, its easy to see why makers of bookmarks often turned to the heart as a theme.

The intertwined cross, anchor and heart were often meant to represent faith, hope and charity. Was this bookmark a symbolic religious expression of late Victorian or turn of the century sentiments? Or was this possibly the bookmark of a tea captain? Or was it designed to be given by a sailor to his sweetheart or wife as a gift, a gift that would remind the recipient of the giver whenever a book was read? 

While hearts represent love, or positive feelings such as warmth and charity, they also were very useful marketing tools. A celluloid heart bookmark with a surround of blue and green forget-me-nots on the outside border advertised "Cunningham Pianos." 

Embossed aluminum bookmarkers fashioned in the shape of hearts were quite popular during the 20th century, especially for souvenirs. A 1901 heart bookmark with embossing read "Pan American Exposition, 1901, Souvenir" around the raised raging bull symbol. Another example features an embossed aluminum bookmark that bears + the Bunker Hill Monument.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the "Antiques of Christmas" in the 2021 Holiday Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.