Artist unidentified, ca. 1880; Michigan
Artist unidentified, ca. 1880; New York
Today I happened upon a precious find at the American Folk Art Museum, a fantastic if under-appreciated museum that shares an exterior wall with the behemoth Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in Midtown Manhattan.
I am quite unfamiliar with the traditions and materials attached to wedding anniversaries. I’ve been married for 1 yr, 4 mths, and 13 days, but I would hate to pare it down to the quantitative. Nope, I’d rather talk qualitative.
In my home, I thought anniversaries were celebrated thusly: husband inscribes book to forward-thinking wife on the merits of equal adulthood (feminism); wife diligently selects longevity products to ensure husband doesn’t keel over at young age. The whole paper, cotton, leather and so forth celebrations are new to me.
These images are from the American Folk Art Museum’s permanent collection. Instantly, I was enamored with these tin treasures of love, once shared by a couple honoring a 10th wedding anniversary. Tin is a medium with great possibility, a material that can be wrought into ornate motifs or left bare to age freely with the elements. Doesn’t that represent the the ideal harmony of a marriage well made?
A dive into the history of these light-hearted pieces will help encourage further delight. Below is an excerpt on the tin anniversary tradition from the museum’s website.
The custom of giving anniversary gifts of increasing value through the years of marriage originated in medieval Germany but was interpreted in a whimsical manner in Victorian America. During the second half of the nineteenth century, the tenth—or tin—anniversary became an occasion of riotous celebration, and whimsical gifts made of tin were presented to the married couple. Often they were oversized replicas of everyday items or humorous pieces with personal meaning. In 1881, John H. Young wrote that the custom of “celebrating wedding anniversaries has of late been largely practiced.” Ten years later, Richard A. Wells, in Culture and Dress of the Best Society, suggested that “a general frolic is in order at the tin wedding. It is an occasion for getting together old friends after ten years of married life. . . . The invitations for this anniversary may be made upon cards covered with tin foil or upon the ordinary wedding note paper with a tin card enclosed. Those guests who desire to accompany their congratulations with appropriate presents have the whole list of articles manufactured by the tinner from which to select.”
Professional tinsmiths cut the pieces from sheet tin using templates, and the sections were soldered together. The seams were hooked over each other and hammered to create a tight seal. Surviving anniversary tin demonstrates not only the skill with which the items were fashioned but also the variety of forms available. The top hat, eyeglasses, slippers, bonnet, and bow tie are part of a group of more than twenty pieces discovered together in Gobles, Michigan, and were probably gifts from a single tenth-anniversary celebration.
What traditions of love do you craft or collect? Does material carry meaning?
