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Text By Ellen Gardner
Objects of Affections
In gentler times, a man proposing to his sweetheart would, on bended knee,
present her with an exquisite little package of silver or
embellished metal. Inside, an engagement ring twinkled in a nest of silk
and velvet.
One day while reading an article about vintage jewelry,
Arkansas native Courtney Hildebrand saw a picture of one of these boxes. "
I had to have one."
She found her first at a Memphis flea market. It was
a sterling silver Birk's box, coveted because of the British
manufacturer's fine reputation.
"My mom and I did some research and
discovered the top was decorated with the Prince of Wales feathers, a
crest that means it was probably commissioned by Edward VIII, Prince of
Wales from 1910 until 1936," Courtney says.
Flowers wreathe this Art Nouveau-era trinket box lined with pink silk
(a); a silver Victorian ring box in an ornate style (b); one of
Courtney's favorite boxes is topped with the Prince of Wales crown and
was probably made for the prince to present to dignitaries (c); the
lovely lines of a flowering fuschia plant form a delicate handle (d
).
Among the more unusual pieces in this collection are the oval box with a
guardian angel (e); a flowering branch handle on a box with a woman's
face on the front (f); a swan gracing an oval box (g); a dresser
with the original mirror (h); a wise owl sitting atop a round box
(i), and one of Enid's favorites, a souvenir box from Washington,
D.C. (j), where her daughter, Camden, served as press secretary to
a U.S. Senator.
"These boxes are from the Art Nouveau period, which, at its purest form,
spanned only 20 years, from about 1890 to 1910," says collector Enid
Hubbard. Though they look like brass, they're pot metal washed or plated
in gold. Many of these boxes were made by companies in New England after
the Civil War. The linings are silk bordered in fabric cording (shown in g
, k, and l). The boxes range in size from 1 1/2" x 2" (m) to 5 1/2" x
6 1/2" (h) and generally sell for less than $350.
Ring Bearers page
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