During the Georgian period, the rise of courtship saw the exchange of love tokens as an increasingly important romantic ritual. The advancement of consumerism in society saw love tokens becoming a mass-produced commodity accessible to anyone. This section will explore a variety of popular traditional and commercial love tokens.

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The exchange of small gifts was used to induce a courtship and then express the couples’ commitment to each other preceding an engagement. Purchased or handmade Items such as men’s pocket-handkerchiefs, and women’s hair and dress ribbons were used to express their romantic feelings and mark their emotional attachment to others. These gifts typically included symbolic embroidery, such as hearts and flowers. The specific colours used also had meaning. This symbolism made these simple gifts expressive and emotionally valuable by demonstrating the sender’s intense feelings. These small gifts were known as ‘fairings’, as were often purchased at fairs. They were an appropriate gift for women to give as they could demonstrate their feminine accomplishments, such as embroidery skills. For men, fairings were the first gifts of courtship before moving onto more serious and expensive gifts which signified an economic investment in their relationship. With his gift he signalled the amount of wealth he had, demonstrating the life he could provide for his wife in marriage, and his commitment to their future.



The earliest known example of cobalt aluminate glass dates to a lump from about 2000 BC in ancient Mesopotamia, very possibly intended for use as a pigment; it was rare until the modern era. Cobalt oxide smalt appears as a pigment in Egyptian pottery about five centuries later, and soon after in the Aegean region.