Show and Tell Again

 

As I’ve done in past posts, I have a couple of new additions to my dance card/aide memoire collection that I had to share with you, because they’re such delightful confections…

 

Aren’t they?

The silver one on the left is a dainty two and a half inches long, with the chain and ring for wearing adding another six inches. The ring and chain indicate that this was intended to be a dance card and not just a note pad. There is a tubular holder for a pencil, now missing, and six thin leaves made of what looks like bone.

 

And the filigree! I’m not sure if it’s sterling or not—there does seem to be a tiny hallmark on one edge—but the intricate looping is marvelous.

 

 

The one on the right is four inches long and made of bone or ivory with silver edging (also hallmarked) all around on both covers and elaborate silver ornamentation with room for a monogram.

 

This one still has its tiny pencil for writing on the six bone leaves, which are held together by a silk ribbon woven through them. A delightful confection to carry to a ball…but what is even more delightful is the pencil inscription it still contains.

Reading across the leaves, from the leftmost leaf to right, it says

14th August 1897

Wishing you many many

returns of the day

HEPL

So some lucky young woman received this as a birthday present exactly 126 years ago yesterday. This inspires so many thoughts—who was she? Had she just made her entrance into society? Was it a gift from a family member, or a suitor? Did she treasure it so much that she refused to erase the message (there are signs that the other sides of the pages have been used and erased)?

 

What do you think?

From my Collection...

I’m still collecting dance cards and aides memoire—you can see a few from my collection here—and have a couple of new pieces that I thought might interest you.

First, isn’t this wee aide memoire adorable? It’s the smallest in my collection, a dainty 1 7/8 inches long and under an inch wide, and with four leaves. I also like the ambiguity of the inscription, “Forget me not”...was it a gift from an admirer, a souvenir of a friendship, or just a reminder that this was the place to jot down things one didn’t want to forget?

This one was clearly meant to be used as a dance card: note the ring, so that it could be worn while dancing if one did not have a pocket or reticule at hand. I have a special fondness for these fan-shaped ones. This one has five leaves for writing on, two loops at the left to hold a minute pencil, and a sturdy clasp:

This last aide memoire is highly unusual; I’ve never seen one with a cover made of stone! The jasper (or agate) cover is very handsome and is translucent when held up to the light. Unusually, it has leaves for every day of the week, Sunday included...and the matching pencil is just plain awesome:

And in another type of collection, I was delighted last Saturday to make a new face-to-face acquaintance...long-time NineteenTeen reader and commenter QnPoohBear stopped by a teen book event in Rhode Island where I was a guest to say hello and bring me some printouts of WWI era articles and recipes from her collection. It was a pleasure to see you outside of cyberspace, QNPoohBear!!

Any other collectors out there? What sparks your acquisitive streak?