If you are the lucky recipient of an heirloom locket, you have an opportunity to explore your ancestors and carry on the tradition by giving the locket to your own children. Lockets are more than just antiques, they contain bits and pieces of history, carrying with them a small part of each person who has worn them.
Probably the most popular lockets are heart-shaped ones, which remain a favorite gift item today. Lockets became popular in the Victorian era and have been a staple in jewelry boxes ever since. There are many different styles - lockets with jewels embedded in them and designs etched on them in gold and silver. Lockets can be rimmed with diamonds and worn as necklaces, bracelets, rings or pins. They can be oval, square, diamond shaped or any other unusual shape. Of course, the norm is heart-shaped, because lockets are symbols for love.
When you inherit a locket, you are given a chance to explore your family’s legacy. Family lockets can shed a little light on relatives that may have been largely unknown to you. If you have one of these treasured pieces of jewelry, you may want to unearth the story behind it, as most lockets will have a story to tell.
While lockets usually house pictures of loved ones, some preserve more than photos, with locks of hair or notes pressed into tiny hidden compartments. If you have an heirloom locket with photos in it, you may want to remove the photo to see if anything is behind it. To remove the photo, you must be very careful, as it may be quite fragile and worn. Use sharp tipped tweezers to grasp the photo and gently lift it out of the locket.
If you have an old locket that doesn’t appear to have any sort of inscription, take it to a jeweler and have it inspected. Even if there appears to be nothing on the locket, it is possible the engraving has worn away over time, but a jeweler may still be able to read it under magnification.
If there are no lockets in your family and you have children, you may want to start your own tradition. By giving a locket to your daughter, you will not only be giving her a meaningful gift, but something she can pass on to her own children someday, keeping family memories alive.
For families that have more than one daughter, one idea is to pick a special birthday or other occasion to give each girl her own personalized locket. It could be a special birthday (ten, thirteen or sixteen come to mind), a graduation gift or a reward for a special report card. You can pick out different styles for each daughter and have them engraved with individual messages.
As a gift idea, a locket can be a special present for mom. Lockets are popular gifts for Mother’s Day or Valentines Day and some styles even feature birthstones for each child. Come up with a message, photo or just engrave names and birthdays of the children inside.
When it comes time to hand down mom’s locket, you may need to make decisions especially if there are several girls in the immediate family. One solution is to share the locket. Each daughter could have mom’s locket for part of the year or you may want to rotate years. In this way everyone gets to remember mom by having the locket at least part of the time.
The choice of a locket can also be a meaningful gift for a fiance or wife to celebrate a special occasion. The gift of a locket on the day of your wedding is a romantic idea. Of course, a locket can also be used to signify events in your married life, like the birth of a child or an anniversary.
As you can see, lockets are more than just jewelry, they are links between the past and the future. The gift of a locket may just help to carry on your family traditions for generations to come.
