Anbytarforum
Särskilda ämnen & övrigt => _Archives => Discussions in English => Archive - General questions => Ämnet startat av: Karen Kelsey skrivet 2006-11-21, 23:15
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I received a silver spoon when I was a child, but I never knew what story or legend it told about. At the top of the spoon is a soldier with a tall hat, sword, and a long soldier's coat. He is climbing into a large hollow tree trunk, and he is being helped by a woman who looks like a peasant. She is helping this soldier by holding on to a long rope attached to his waist.
Someone told me that this was about a king who hid in a tree to escape the enemy. Another person told me that this was a story by Hans Christian Andersen. The stamp on the back of the spoon seems to be three tiny, old houses, like some type of company symbol. Those houses are very small, and embedded into the silver. Any ideas of what this represents? I've used the spoon for 45 years without understanding its meaning.
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Karen
There is usually a letter and a figure printed on silver spoons indicated the year of origin. If not it is probably not of swedish origin or not made of silver.
Stig
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I believe this is a danish spoon. Three towers is the danish stamp on silver.
The soldier climbing down the hollow tree trunk is probably referring to H C Andersens fairy tale The Tinder box (1835)
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Thanks! Yes, it may be a Danish spoon because my farfar was Danish, arriving in the U.S. in 1906. He may have given that spoon to me, since it was traditional to give granddaughters spoons at every birthday. I have at least 20 different spoons, but this was the only one with the imprint of a story or legend.
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Even if this particular spoon wasn't Swedish, it is a very Swedish - or, probably, Nordic - tradition to give silver spoons.
If a farmer was able to save something, he'd buy silver. There were no banks for ordinary people, particularly in the countryside, until the late 19th or even early 20th century. And besides, money is subject to inflation and until the 1870's Sweden also had several different monetary systems running in parallel. So, actual money was a risky business for long-term savings - but silver kept its value and could easily be sold. So farmers bought different silver items: spoons were perennial favourites but after a good number of spoons, a successful farmer might become ambitious and try for a tumbler, a cup, a pair of candlesticks or even a bowl. Usually the farmer paid in installments and didn't get the coveted spoon until it was fully paid for, which could take a couple of years.
Since farmers were very conservative the silversmiths had to keep two different styles: one modern, up-to-date for townspeople and one oldfashioned, traditional for the farmers. Spoons were for example made with rat-tails (a pronounced ridge) for at least 150 or 200 years after they were discontinued for the fashion-conscious urban population.
So, giving a girl a spoon was to give something towards the dowry (the traditional Swedish wording is (oh yes, still used) to have something at the bottom of the chest, originally referring to the chest/chests a girl would use to collect her dowry and which would follow her to her new home when she married - and if she had something at the bottom of the chest she had quite a bit saved); today the equivalent would perhaps be to make quite a large deposit in a bank account and contribute towards a college education.
Ingela
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Thank you, Ingela. I am from a totally Scandinavian family, and I find that the things they gave me, or the traditions they tried to impart, were often those brought from the old country. My mormors mor, Josefina Johansdotter Anderson, always gave me a silver spoon at both birthdays and Christmas, and she talked about my hope chest. She gave me hand-crocheted doilies and tiny spoons (for salt) for that chest, which I sarcastically renamed my barrel of despair. I have been married for 40 years, and I still have two silver chests that are filled with items inherited from my grandmothers and grt-grandmothers, and everything is silver. When my mormors mor came to the U.S. from Dagsås parish, she wanted to own things - probably because she came from a poor background. Therefore, she invested in silver tea services, plates and bowls, and silverware, and sparkling cut glass bowls, and she gave her grand and great grandchildren silver as gifts. I never knew why, but now you have made me understand this tradition. It also lets me know why we inherited so much silver from the old folks!
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Ah, Dagsås. Which is in Halland. Which used to be part of Denmark. The former Danish provinces were more preoccupied with silver than all the rest of Sweden put together (except for the S?mi people with their famous silver collars).
Halland was of course quite poor compared to e.g. Skåne, but there is a marked difference between Halland, just south of Göteborg, and Bohuslän, just north of Göteborg, when it comes to silver.
A few weeks ago I spent a weekend at a seminar on silver jewellry in the national costume, and I enclose a close-up of a bride from Skåne - we nearly put on dark glasses when our camera flashes reflected in all that silver.
Please note that the bride has two aqvavit-spoons (supskedar) stuck into the top of her bodice!
(https://forum.rotter.se/discus/messages/2450/97790.jpg)
Ingela
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Very interesting, Ingela! I saved your photo and will include it in my narrative about life in Sweden. My mother will enjoy your comments too; she is 85 and has inherited so much silver!