Philately 24x7 hurries to inform that Slovenia Post has prepared for issuing a heartwarming stamp celebrating the upcoming St. Valentine’s Day. The item has been already designed and will be put into circulation on the 30th of January.
The image of a pair of marriage spoons on this stamp tells several stories. First of all: the story of the love that the married couple promises to each other at their wedding.
Wooden spoons (permanently) joined by a wooden chain are commonly given as a wedding present or may even form part of the wedding rituals, where the bride and groom eat part or all of the wedding breakfast with the joined spoons.
At the same time the spoons tell a story of craftsmanship: about the knowledge and skill that went into making them. Together with the links of the wooden chain, the spoons are made from a single piece of wood, with no assembly, no gluing and no other technical processes.
The craftsmanship involved in this dates back to Austro-Hungarian times, when men would pass the long winter evenings – and boys watching over the livestock at pasture or serving in the imperial army would while away the hours – carving every kind of wooden artefact imaginable, from tobacco boxes and wooden picture frames to spoons joined together by wooden chains.
The fact that the latter were made from a single piece of wood was a source of great interest and a confirmation of the expertise of individual craftsmen. These spoons, then, have a dual significance: as a masterpiece of craftsmanship and as a tangible symbol of lasting love.
The only maker of these wooden spoons and chains in Slovenia today is the craftsman Janez Golob.
No comments:
Post a Comment