Welsh Spoon
This weeks Thrifty post is not actually an item I found in a thrift shop it is actually an item that belonged to my grandma and was given to me last week. Its a Welsh Love Spoon that is carved from a single piece of wood.
The spoons were carved by young men for the girls they wished to marry. They were often presented to the girls father to prove to him he was capable of providing for his daughter. There were symbols in the spoon that show different things. The lock and chain in this spoon show security and safety.
The more elaborate the spoon shows off the skill of the maker and also proves his capability to support a family, supposedly. Another element in the spoon is the carved balls which show how many children the man wishes to have. The balls were the hardest part to carve. It takes a lot of patience to carve out a ball and cage from solid wood. The more balls you carve show the more patience you have and also show that you could probably handle the number of kids that you could carve out.
Now its nice to think that this is a tradition to show off the wood working skills of a welsh man wanting to marry a woman. I think this tradition was started and perpetuated by all the fathers of the daughters in Whales. Well just think about it. If you force your daughters boyfriend to carve you one of these before they get married, he is going to spend all of his time with his hands on this and not on your daughter.
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