Atlas / For love / Welsh love spoonNo. 17

Plate IBritain & Ireland · Wales Welsh love spoon, drawn by Wishlore

Pl. IWelsh love spoon. A carved wooden spoon with a heart. Drawing: Wishlore.

No. 17 · For love · Britain & Ireland

The Welsh love spoon

A wooden spoon carved by hand and given in courtship in Wales.

Earliest record: Oldest dated spoon, 1667
Source: National Museum Wales, Llwyau caru (love spoons)
Region: Britain & Ireland · Wales
Wish: For love
Layers: Record Folk Modern

Keep this symbol · from £2.99 Read the sources

The story · three layers

The story, in three layers.

Record, Folk and Modern are kept apart, and each one carries its source.

Record

Wales, 1667

The oldest dated spoon, 1667

The oldest dated love spoon, from 1667, is in the collection of National Museum Wales.

Folk

Wales

A courting gift

Spoons were carved by hand and given as courting gifts.

III

Modern

Books and shops, today

A meaning for every carving

Books and shops give a meaning for each carved motif. The museum notes there is little historical evidence for those meanings.

Welsh love spoon

Oldest dated spoon, 1667

Story and sources on the reverse

Pl. IIThe story card. Every printed piece carries the story and a code that opens the full source list.

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Story and source code on the reverse

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Watch the story

The story, in a minute.

It opens with the pencil construction, then follows the record, how people used it, and the piece we make today. Every fact in it comes from the sources on this page.

Length: 0:55
Narration: English, with subtitles on screen
Images: Pencil construction and the atlas drawing on this page, animated; no AI images; jewellery shown as a line drawing
Sources: Listed at the end of the film

Story film · 0:55 · Drawn from the atlas plate · no AI images

In one breath

Carved by hand, given to ask a question. Who would you keep it for?

The Welsh love spoon

The story, in three layers.

The oldest dated spoon, 1667

A courting gift

A meaning for every carving

How would you like to keep it?

The story, in a minute.

Other symbols to keep