the major milestones of her life–followed in line.
With the mid-century trend for travel enabled her to see much more of the world than her mother and grandmother had. Perhaps a small cruise ship charm told of her honeymoon trip to the islands; or an Eiffel Tower charm of a romantic weekend in France. She could spend many a cocktail party explaining the numerous exotic travel mementos on her wrist.
Like many women of her day, a little pearl typewriter signified that she had a job outside the home. She might have also enjoyed sports (golf and tennis) and was loved the arts, particularly painting and theatre.
A woman might have added other charms to her bracelet simply for their beauty. Compared to the flat, stamped charms of modern times, vintage charms are three-dimensional, highly detailed, and often jeweled — tiny works of art in their own right.
There’s been a new trend for collecting vintage charms. Women today often wear a single charm from their collection on a bracelet, or as a pendant. Collections are often beautifully displayed in a shadow box, or hung from ribbons on a bulletin board, mirror or frame.
Vintage charms make wonderful gifts. For a recently married bride, each guest could gave the bride an antique charm representing one of her, or the couple’s, interests or experiences. For another bride, she could do the opposite, using the antique charms as personalized thank-you gifts for her bridesmaids. Yet another idea would be that a woman could treat herself each birthday to a charm with some relevance to the preceding year of her life; and she could start the same tradition for her young daughters.
Charms have become popular as a way to