The Art of Romance by Robert W Tinsley

Who's heard of that? The Night Proposal, a Norwegian courting custom that, according to an article by Mona Beate Vattekar published by the Telemark Museum, stretched from recent antiquity back to the Middle Ages or even beyond.  In "The Olden Times" contact between the genders was highly restricted. At social gatherings the males, of all ages, stayed on one side of the room and the females stayed on the other. About the only way for boys and girls to get to know one another was the Nattefreieri, which only occurred on Saturday evening.  The boy would ask permission to visit the girl. This visit would occur with the two in bed fully clothed. Often the girl's sisters or friends would be present, depending on the stage of the relationship, which apparently ran through "feste" (party), "kjæreste" (girlfriend or suitor), and "frieri" (engagement)" accompanied by appropriate gifts prominent among which are spoons. To prevent th...

An interesting variation of a Norwegian Wedding Spoon from the Norsk Folkemuseum collection. The two spoons are not the same and are much less ornate than the ones I've been carving. The large spoon has 1909 inscribed on the handle. The chain is an order of magnitude more difficult than what we normally see. The loops are circular and much larger than the link body. That's difficult! One other interesting little detail about the chain. On every wedding spoon chain I can remember seeing the loops on each end of an individual link are perpendicular to each other. The same as this one. With one exception. The second link on the bottom in the first picture has the loops in line. Why? Did he have a lapse of attention and make a mistake? Is it a repair by a later carver who just couldn't be bothered to do it right? Did he do it to make the link on the other end of the chain have the proper orientation? Or is there some other meaning? I guess we'll never know. EDIT: I guess I...