Love Tokens

There are many kinds of love tokens associated with the wedding, the bride, and the groom.  Some tokens were given during the engagement from the intended couple to each other, and others tokens were gifts to the intended from their parents and friends.  

I have provided many examples of love tokens that were given to the future bride by her soon to be spouse or for their engagement, wedding, or after.  You’ll know them by the ‘love’ symbols.  Some of the symbols you will see in the following pictures of love tokens are: 

Burning Hearts – Hearts on Fire

Claddagh (hands, crown, heart) – Friendship, loyalty, and love respectively.                                                                          

                     “Let love and friendship Reign”. 

Clasped hands – intimate friendship and affection

Crescent Moon – Honeymoon

Cupid (or his bow, arrow, or quiver) – Associated with Love

Dog – Fidelity, faithful

Doves (sometimes swallows and usually a pair) – Love birds

Forget-me-not - True Love, memories

Heart – Love

Ivy - Friendship, fidelity, marriage

Knot - Lovers intertwined knot

Mizpah - "The Lord Watch between me and thee when we are absent one from another."

Myrtle – Love, Hebrew emblem for marriage

Pansy – Thoughts, love  

Single Bird -  out of the cage with the cage door open – Freedom

Snake – Head touching tail – Eternity

Witches Heart – Protection

There were many more symbols used in the Romantic period.  I have only given you a small sampling that will help you interpret the examples I am sharing with you. 

Many of these pieces were made using human hair in the artwork.  The cupids bow, four of the lockets, two of the rings, the stickpin, the sheaf of wheat brooch, and the wedding remembrances or commemoratives all were made using human hair to make up the picture.  Other pieces, such as the circular regard ring, one of the lover’s eyes, the snake brooch, the hand and heart brooch, double heart brooch, the clasped hand ring, the French Wedding earrings, and the pansy ring all have hair lockets or in the case of the clasped hand ring the shank was made using human hair.    

Two of the examples have dates with inscriptions so I feel confident that they were given as a wedding gift to the bride from her husband.  One of the examples is the brooch with the heart dangling from the hand.   It is inscribed in French “Day in my life” and the date “RFG 24 Mar 1833”.  The other is the double heart brooch.  It is inscribed with the couple’s initials “TB & CMB” and the date “16 Feb 1836”. 

There are ring examples that were used as wedding bands, which include the Mizpah, Claddagh, clasped hands and Gimmel ring, the split band, and the Regard ring.   The regard ring has the gems spelling out the word “REGARD” with the gemstones ‘r’uby, ‘e’merald, ‘g’arnet, ‘r’uby, and a ‘d’iamond in that order.  There are two other examples of pieces that spell out Regard.  A ring and a brooch.   There is an example of a ring that has the symbol of an ‘eye’, two hears with an arrow going through them, and the initials of “JC”.   I interpret this as saying “I love JC”.  The split wedding band is like a two-piece puzzle that fits together so tightly that it looks like one ring.  The inscription on this ring with the initials of the bride and groom, and the date of 1833, can be seen when you take the ring apart.

I have included a few other examples of love tokens that aren’t jewelry.  The two wood busks (worn down the front of a ladies corset) that were generally carved by a male suitor for his lady, the two lace bobbins (with wedding mottos), the tortoise box with miniature scene and the saying “Our love united us”, and the carved ivory day calendar that was carved by William for Sarah during the Civil War.  

There are two ‘hair’ pictures that were made to commemorate a marriage.  One picture depicts the initials of the couple with doves flying above carrying a myrtle wreath.  The other has the couple’s initials with pansies, and forget-me-nots. 

There is a set of wedding bracelets.  These were worn on each of the brides’ arms.  The bracelets were probably a gift from the bride’s parents.  There is a brooch with a “Sheaf of Wheat” (fertility, plenty) that was probably given to the bride from her parents or her husbands’ parents. There is also a cameo with two doves (love birds), a harp (harmony), and a sheaf of wheat (fertility) that was probably a gift to the bride.