French traditional jewellery - marriage
The village wedding by Samuel Luke Fildes
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The wedding ring
The wedding band, very important because it would be blessed by the priest and then exchanged during the ceremony, was traditionally in yellow or rose gold, and sometimes hollow or gold plated for modest budgets. The oldest ones, called "tors", were made of two gold wires twisted and then soldered together. Today, white gold and platinum are the most popular, and with the abrupt rise in the price of gold, multiplied by four in five years, we see a tendency towards inexpensive wedding bands in stainless steel, tungsten or titanium. Note that it is possible to purchase wedding bands specially made with a weak spot designed to break should the ring be caught in a machine. Very few are purchased, a pity as numerous fingers would be saved from amputation each year were their use to be generalised.
Gimmel rings, twinned wedding bands, were sometimes offered in the early nineteenth century. These gimmel rings are unique in that they open up into two distinct bands which nevertheless remain joined, and which symbolise the two souls joined together, separate and yet inseparable. The names of the couple as well as the date of the marriage were usually engraved on the inside. The workmanship of these rings is fantastic, they were entirely hand finished and the joint is almost invisible and only a knife-blade can tease them apart, a fingernail is too blunt. One also sees gimmel rings made of three distinct bands which slide apart so that the two clasped hands open to reveal a heart on the central band. The word gimmel is derived from the French jumelle, meaning twin. I think we can assume that the symbolism of the two souls united would have also applied to the tors rings, and that the gimmel rings were derived from the tors. Antique tors and gimmel rings are very rare today because they are fragile and it was difficult to repair them or change their size; the majority were certainly melted a long time ago.
![]() tors ring, gold |
![]() gimmel ring triple wedding band shown open |
![]() gimmel ring triple wedding band - shown closed |
![]() gimmel ring wedding band, engraved 1830, shown closed |
![]() gimmel ring wedding band, engraved1822, shown open |
gimmel ring or twinned wedding band, shown closed
![]() gimmel ring or twinned wedding band shown closed |
![]() gimmel ring or twinned wedding band shown open |
pair of rose gold wedding bands worn by a couple, chiselled gold, 1896
![]() antique pink gold wedding band |
![]() antique yellow gold wedding band |
![]() antique pink gold wedding band |
![]() antique yellow gold wedding band |
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four views of a splendid wedding ring made for the marriage of Olivier de la Grange with Laetitia Boyer, the 12th of August 1846
The marriage treizain
Since at least the fourteenth century, and probably since the time of Clovis, the groom offered the bride during the ceremony a "treizain de mariage". It consisted of thirteen coins or tokens in gold or silver. The number thirteen represented Jesus and the twelve apostles, and the act of giving them symbolised a compensation to the bride for the goods or land brought by her to the union. The coins or tokens were generally presented in a special metal cylindrical box, a case or a purse, the latter being made of gold, silver, gold-plated silver or silk. Between one and three coins were kept by the priest, the others were destined to be guarded a lifetime but were almost always spent in one of the times of need that all couples go through. This is why complete treizains are extremely rare today. In the Treasure of Erfurt, in Germany, discovered in 1998, we can see an empty silver gilt treizain box dated to the first half of the 14th century. (1)
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![]() Marriage treizain complete with its silver box and 12 bracteates, circa 1750-1800 Stamped "UNIS D'UN AMOUR ETERNEL" still shiny after 200 years in an air-tight box! |
marriage treizain complete with its silver box and 13 gilt silver bracteates, circa 1750-1800
Stamped " ESPOVSER"
marriage treizain of 25 centimes coins from 1844 - gold-plated in their fitted case
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![]() marriage treizain purse in gold with 12 gold 5 francs coins |
![]() marriage treizain purse in gold with 12 gold 5 francs coins |
![]() selection of gold purses, period Napoléon III (25%) |
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The marriage medal
The treizain was replaced towards the start of the nineteenth century by a marriage medal, generally of silver, sometimes of gold, the reverse or edge of which was generally engraved with the names of the couple and the date of the ceremony. The marriage medal was blessed along with the wedding bands during the ceremony by the priest.
wedding medal in gold |
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![]() silver marriage medal |
![]() very large gold wedding medal, 1876, obverse |
originally a presentation medal for the coronation of king Charles the tenth in 1825, this medal was engraved in 1876 to commemorate a marriage
engraved edge of wedding medal shown above, celebrating the marriage of
Eudoxe Regnouf de Vains and Isabelle Poujol d’Acqueville on the first of February 1876
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![]() marriage medal in silver engraved by Mattei, the border in ivy represents eternal love : "I attach myself or I die" |
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![]() silver marriage medal |
![]() marriage medal in silver gilt |
![]() silver marriage medal |
![]() silver marriage medal |
![]() wedding medal in silver from 1914 - obverse |
![]() wedding medal in silver from 1914 - reverse |
![]() gold wedding medallion, 1912, reverse |
200%
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![]() marriage medal in silver plated bronze offered by the mayor and town councillors of Carcassonne |
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The wedding cup or loving cup
In some regions of France, the parents of the couple would present them with a silver or engraved glass wedding cup, which was used to give the toasts. The cup was brought out regularly in order to toast births, baptisms, communions and made its last appearance filled with holy water at the foot of the coffin....... The shapes of the Burgundy and Brittany wedding cups are quite characteristic; in other regions, they often shaped like a tall silver champagne glass engraved with a garter motif or like a silver teacup with a saucer.
The silver or glass cup was presented to the bride, while the bridegroom would receive a flat 'tasse-à-vin' or tastevin. In the past when people went out to eat, they would need to bring their own cutlery and the flat shape of the tastevin enabled it to be easily carried in a man's pocket. Both cups were engraved with the initials of the owners to prevent problems when retrieving the cups. Of course, silver was reserved for the wealthier couples; most couples had to make do with pewter, earthenware or even wooden cups and beakers.
silver loving cup or wedding cup from Brittany circa 1716-1717
![]() silver loving cup or wedding cup from Burgundy circa 1780 |
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Marriage - photographer Godart, Lille
Marriage, photographer Henckendorn at Colmar
The silver cutlery service
A silver cutlery service was a very traditional gift often given to the couple, generally by the parents or by a wealthy relative. This silverware was brought out for fancy meals after having been polished to sparkle. Solid silver tended to be too expensive for most budgets and we notice that most silverware is in fact silver-plated, even though the recipients always believed it to be of solid silver.
A traditional service consisted of twelve spoons, twelve forks, twelve dessert spoons (also used as teaspoons) and a ladle. The knives were never offered with the service as the superstition claimed they would "cut" the friendship. Until around 1950 the knives, sold separately, had handles of ebony, horn, ivory or Celluloid and thus didn't match the rest of the service. Since then the knives have matching silver plated handles and are bought and offered with the rest of the service.
The wedding book by Arthur Blair Leighton
1 : CATOIRE, Christine., Treasures of the Black Death, The Wallace Collection, 2009
2 : LE BRETON, Gaston., Inventaire des bijoux et de l'orfèvrerie appartenant à Mme. la Comtesse de Sault, Imprimerie Nationale, 1882
Table of contents
weddding ring, engagement ring, diamond ring, bague de fiançailles, bague de foi, bague à la Duchess Anne, alliance en or, ivoire de Dieppe, argenterie, métal argenté, argent massif, ménagère en argent, manche à gigot, pelle à tarte, pince à sucre, louche, cuillère à ragout en argent XVIII, sucrier en argent, service de baptême en argent, théière en argent, rince doigts en argent, Christofle, Tiffany, Têtard Frères, Fabergé, Mappin and Webb, cafetière en argent, chocolatière en argent, plateau en argent, argenterie art déco, argenterie art nouveau, manches a côtelettes en argent, service à découper en argent, service à confits, cuillère à Absinthe, saupoudreuse en argent, passe thé en argent, verseuse en argent, casserole en argent, bijou régional, bijoux régionaux, bijoux et orfèvres en Haute-Normandie, bijoux des régions de Fran
French traditional jewellery - marriage