Collecting: Love tokens
Bobby gave me a love token. I carry it with me everywhere.
Love tokens come in many forms: traditionally they are coins from circulation, edges filed down and smoothed, engraved by hand with loving messages.
My husband Bobby's love tokens are different. He sees some small thing that he thinks I'll love and buys it. He leaves 'messages' around for me to find.
Twist-ties off the bread packet wrapped around the side piece of my eyeglasses. A flower picked from the garden and taped to my computer screen...
Image © Jan T Baillie 2009-2020
Bobby's first gift to me: my most prized possession
(He gives me gifts to show me that he loves me)
The first gift he ever gave me, he bought in an antique shop.
It was shiny. He likes shiny.
It was pretty. I like pretty.
It wasn't expensive as gifts go, but it wasn't cheap either.
It was a lipstick case. I don't wear lipstick.
It had a mirror attached. He thought I'd like that. Girls like mirrors.
The gift - A Limoges lipstick case by Patrys of Paris
Twist the cap - and it springs open to reveal
A mirror - for touching up your lippy
The outer case has a diamond pattern etched into it.
Pull out the tube - which used to hold the lipstick
Branded on the bottom: - Patrys Paris France
Around the top is Brevet© S.G.D.G. PARIS, and is also on the outside of the tube. This is the patent mark.
While searching for information
about this gift
I found one very similar, the same brand and age, and it sold for US$200!
Now Bobby thinks he's very clever for buying it.
Limoges
Sought after by collectors
Limoges has become the generic name used to describe a particular style of porcelain decoration that was very popular in the first few decades of the twentieth century, although it has been around for much longer than that.
Limoges is a town near Paris, and it was in that region that manufacturers began to produce this form of artwork. Between the early 1700s and the 1930s, this painted porcelain made from Kaolin clay was produced in several factories and workshops.
I have a cake stand by Frank Haviland, made in Paris, and my step-mother gave me a pair of little blue vases in the Limoges style which she said were very old. They have no markings, but they are likely to be from the early twentieth century.
Start collecting Limoges boxes - Here's a tome about it on Amazon
What are love tokens?
Gifts exchanged to show love
The most common love token in modern society would be a ring.
- Friendship rings are often given to show love between male and a female, before the more formal exchange of an engagement ring.
- Wedding rings are symbolic love tokens worn by both marriage partners.
- Beads are given to friends, in the form of bracelets, or armlets.
- Quilters exchange friendship blocks to signify affection for another quilter.
- Roses are sent to a special one. The colour tells the story.
- Welsh love spoons are elaborately carved love tokens.
Image © Jan T Baillie 2009-2020
Welsh Love Spoons
About love tokens - links for you
- Love Tokens
Vintage Wedding Cake Toppers by Penny Henderson - Heart and Hand Love Token Valentine
Instructions and pattern for this gift - Love Token Society
The Love Token Society is a group of over 200 collectors of old coins such as this one that have had something special engraved on them. These coins are called love tokens. What Are Love Tokens? Through the years lovers have chosen a variety of diffe - Love tokens that antiques collectors yearn for | WriteAntiques
Welsh love tokens
Colonial Australia: Love Tokens
- What is a convict love token? · Convict love tokens
An interactive collection of convict love tokens held by the National Museum of Australia.
A tale about a love token - a grandfather who loved his grand-daughter
- The Immeasurable Value of Love Tokens - Associated Content
Famous for his 60-second telephone conversations, Grandpa was a man of action, not words, and it was through his actions that he expressed his love for those close to him. When I was in college, he built a loft for my dorm room that made me the envy
Bobby used to bring me chocolates
Not good for my figure!
Cakes, lollies, doughnuts — anything he thought I would love to eat.
If he went to the shop for bread, he came back with cream cakes as well.
He is slim and can eat these things to his heart's content, but I need to go steady.
It was hard to tell him not to buy them, because he was buying me love tokens.
Image from Microsoft ClipArt Gallery
One Sunday after church
I found some love tokens left for me
We had two red chooks who had just laid their first eggs.
Bob collected them and decided to write love notes on them.
He left them in a prominent position so I wouldn't miss what he'd done!
Love tokens with a difference! - That's my Bobby
Bobby's latest love token!
It's pink, and I like turquoise, not pink.
While we were on holidays in the far south of NSW recently, he saw a tiny pink wallet in a gift box and decided it would be a lovely present to give me.
It is 2 inches wide and 2½ inches long.
When I opened the 'wallet', inside was a pink handled, fold-up set of tools. Pliers/wire cutters, nail file/star screwdriver, flat screwdriver, and a tiny knife. The cutest little set of tools you ever saw.
Bob is a collector of old hand tools, so I knew this was special in his eyes.
Open the wallet up - to find a tiny folded tool kit
Which has several different handy tools - A great little gadget
Get yourself a big pink tool kit - from Amazon
or a little pink toolkit - from Amazon
In my handbag I carry - all the necessities
When I change handbags to suit my outfit, I transfer everything into the current one.
I take with me:
- my wallet, with my gold cards, Medicare card, pension cards, plastic...
- a little green one-decade rosary my friend Annie gave me
- emergency kit: Band-aids®, feminine supplies, floss pick...
- a hanky (a pretty lacy one)
- my reading glasses
- my sunglasses
- a pretty pale blue biro with butterflies on it
- my asthma inhaler
- the pink toolkit
- a gold ring that Bobby gave me (I can't wear this love token because it's 9ct gold and I'm allergic to the copper in 9ct gold, so I carry it with me)
And
The most prized possession
the Limoges lipstick case
I never leave home without it, it's with me all the time.
If you had to run
What would you get?
© 2009 Jan T Urquhart Baillie
