Page 10 - NLN Feb18

DEAR VALENTINE,
take another little piece of my heart, MORETON BAY AUSTRALIA DAY AWARDS
or hair
or hair

As Valentine’s Day approaches, many of us will think about sharing Jewellery was, and still is, one of the most popular tokens of
a token of our affection. The ubiquitous card is often teamed with affection. However, it is often the inscriptions on love tokens
a staple of the season: chocolate, perfume or flowers. These gifts that express the emotional connection between the giver and
have become accepted expressions of romantic love in Western the recipient.
cultures and yet they often fail to embody a real emotional For example, a 14th-century gold amatory brooch bejewelled
connection between the giver and recipient. with a freshwater pearl in the collection of the Metropolitan
Gift giving has been a subject that has interested scholars for Museum of Art in New York is inscribed with a simple wish:
centuries. The influential French anthropologist Marcel Mauss Fair lady, may I always remain close to your heart.
(1872-1950) observed in his classic 1925 essay The Gift - how A delicate gold posy ring was discovered last year in a field in
giving a gift is giving part of the self. County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The ring, which has been dated
He suggested that even when the gift has been abandoned by the to the late 17th century, bears the Old English inscription: “I noght
giver, it still possesses something of them and therefore, on gift bot gifer” – or, “look not on the gift, but the giver”.
to make a gift is to make a present of some part Although this ring clearly had value in its material
of oneself. “ substance, the inscription suggests the gift was
In the medieval period, we see this idea in an intermediary in the relationship and that the
its most literal form. Fourteenth-century wearer would think of their beloved when they
romances and ballads from across Europe give ...to give a looked at it.
examples of how locks of hair were exchanged Tokens of our love need not be inert. They
by lovers before a departure. This piece of gift is to have the ability to hold an emotional
the self became an emotional aide memoir resonance that reverberates over time and
that kept the lovers connected during times give part of can transport us to a particular place or time
of absence. by evoking memories and inducing emotions.
Combs were also given as love tokens. Surviving oneself. In order to put back some meaning in to
medieval examples are decorated with scenes of Valentine’s Day and the tokens of love with which
courtly love, Cupid with arrows, and pierced hearts. it is associated, we might do well to remember Mauss’
The comb was a personal item that could arouse desire as observation that to give a gift is to give part of oneself.
it caressed the hair. In Chrétien de Troyes’ The Knight of the Cart, We might not choose to take this is as literally as some of the gifts
written in the 12th century, Lancelot finds a comb that preserves exemplified here but it is worth remembering that love tokens
some of the fair hair of Queen Guinevere. can be invested with agency: they have the potential to express
Lancelot presses the hair to his mouth and face, which induces and stimulate emotions.
feelings of joy, delight and, perhaps, arousal. They can become powerful intermediaries in our relationships
The gifting of hair continued to be popular throughout the and create bonds that shape our relationships –
Elizabethan and Jacobean eras where it became a symbol of both that is, if we let them.
love and bereavement.
Lockets, bracelets and rings were popular ways of displaying the
cherished hair of a lover.
By the 19th century, hair was gifted in increasingly elaborate ways.
The Victoria and Albert Museum possesses a watch chain made
of plaited brown hair with gold filigree mounts
that was given by a girl to her fiancé before
their wedding.
Another betrothal token in the museum’s
collection, an elaborate leather pocket
book made c.1836 in England, has
the initials CF (presumably those of
the recipient) embroidered in dark
brown hair. The custom of sewing
hair into betrothal gifts appears to
have been popular across England
and Scotland until the last century.
Of course, not all love tokens were
such literal gifts of the self.

Kimberley-Joy Knight
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Sydney