Ten years married, and the tradition says tin.
It is a strange gift to be handed. Tin is what cans are made of. But the list is older and odder than most people realise: the early anniversary lists named only a handful of years, and the full year-by-year table most of us know today was largely filled out in 1937 by a retail jewellers' association. Somebody decided the tenth would be tin, and here we are.
Which is lucky for us, because pewter is mostly tin — tin is the main metal in the alloy, by a long way. So a pewter gift is the tin anniversary, kept properly: heavy in the hand, engravable, and still on the table in another ten years.
The bowl that has outlasted everyone
Paul Revere designed this bowl in the 1700s and it has not needed improving since. Ours is spun by hand from sheet pewter, and it is the piece most often engraved with two names and a date.
It works as a fruit bowl, a key bowl, or nothing at all — some of them just sit on a sideboard being handsome for decades.
A vase that exists once
The Freespun vase is the one piece we cannot repeat. Spinning pewter normally uses a chuck — a form the metal is pressed against, so every piece comes out the same. For these, the pewter-smith works without one. The pattern comes out of the hands, and no two are alike.
If you want a tenth-anniversary gift that literally could not be given to anyone else, this is it.
For the table, and for the evening
A pair of wine tumblers, engraved, is the gift people come back and tell us about — because they get used, rather than displayed. Pewter keeps a drink cold longer than glass does.
Beside them: the Victoria candleholders, salt and pepper shakers spun from sheet pewter, and napkin rings in plain, Celtic, Turning Leaf and Alma patterns — the last one modelled on the seaweed that sprinkles the shore at Alma, New Brunswick.
Putting their names on it
We engrave by hand, on a manually operated diamond-tip machine, in three fonts: Script, Century and Block. Flat pieces and the sides of round ones can be engraved; the clamping system is the limit, so if you are unsure about a particular piece, ask us before you order.
Engraving is $1.35 a letter with a $12 minimum. Leave your message and font choice as a note on the order, or call the shop once you have placed it, and we will send an invoice for the engraving.
Two names and a date usually lands close to the minimum. It is the cheapest part of the gift and the part they will show people.
If it is their first Christmas instead
Not every couple is at ten years. The Couple's First Christmas ornament is the one that starts a different tradition — the ornament that comes out of the box first, every December, for the rest of their lives.
It can be engraved with the year.
Everything is cast or spun by hand in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and guaranteed for life. If a piece is ever dull, scratched or damaged, bring it back and we will clean or repair it at no charge — which is a reasonable thing to promise about a gift meant to mark ten years.