Trinkets and Trinket Boxes

This weekend, I did not go out of the house except to get a haircut and to go to the gym.  Most of the weekend was spent working on my website updating webpages and adding new inventory.  For those that do not have their own website, just to let you know, it can be tedious and time consuming.  The benefit is that you are not paying another site a lot of money to host your online store or kiosk.  But this story is not about my website, it is about a trinket or trinket holder that I came across while toiling away; and what exactly is a trinket?

Defining a trinket is really simple.  According to the dictionary, a trinket is an inexpensive piece of jewelry that is also not valuable.  Some would argue that an inexpensive piece of jewelry is not jewelry at all; and so therefore the name trinket.  And of course, where would one keep such items of non-value?  A trinket holder or box of course.  One wouldn’t want to mix trinkets with real jewelry, which of course should be kept in jewelry case or box.  So the story goes that trinket boxes go back to the 1600s and of course France.

The first trinket boxes were actually commissioned by nobles and were nothing if not very fancy and adorned with gold and silver.  In fact, one of the first trinket boxes was produced was in Limoge, France.  Made of porcelain and enamels and adorned in gold and silver, the trinket box was probably worth more than the trinkets it held.  And of course if you were to get your hands on one today, it would probably be worth a few million dollars.  The good news for those of us that don’t have millions to spend on a trinket holder is that there are far less expensive ones on the market that can be just as eye catching.

Trinket holders or boxes, also shortened to just trinkets by some folks, come in a variety of shapes, colors and made of many different materials.  There are inexpensive vintage glass trinkets made by glass manufacturers such as Fenton, Westmoreland and Jefferson.  And there are those made of porcelain from Limoges, Capodimonte, and Sorelle.  Then there are others that are made of wood, metal or enamels and come in interesting shapes, including animals and some that are appropriately named, casket trinket boxes because of course they look like a casket.