Celluloid Toy Charms

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Celluloid Toy Charms

    Charms have an  interesting history. Way, way back to the Neolithic era, people would pick up rocks and wood and wear them around their necks a talismans to keep evil away and protect them from harm.  Charm bracelets appeared during the early Egyptian times of the pharaohs. At that time, charms were used to prepare Egyptians for life after death and the these items would be somehow classify the people as to  where they would rank in the afterlife. At the beginning of Christianity, Christians would hide fish charms underneath their clothing to identify themselves as followers of Jesus. Later during the middle ages, charms returned to be used as a designation of class and status in society, although even poor people would wear them.

   By the mid 19th century, Queen Victoria chose to wear charms, and the significance of status, religious connection, or to ward off evil was replaced by the use as a fashion accessory.  In the early 1940's, celluloid  was an inexpensive and readily accessible natural material that could be used for charms. AS such, many manufacturers (mostly in the USA), chose to give them away to their customers as a "perk" to having purchased their products. The most famous of all were the Cracker Jack" brand of carmel popcorn. However, charms were also given through the purchases of such things as bread, milk, tobacco, and jelly.

* Reference Sources:

topics.info.com/Charm-Bracelets_3456

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Celluloid-Charm-Black-Kewpie-/121104666386?pt=Vintage_Costume_Jewelry&hash=item1c32668f12

    By the way,  celluloid is a natural occurring material made from plants.

Bathtubcharmer

Please click to be redirected to Bathtubcharmer's E-Bay Myworld site

Not all of the charms from the 1940's and later were made from cellulose. The above 3 groupings are made from copper or copper plated metal.

I think that charm came from a company that made hotdogs.

The company was called Swift's Premium.

This post was probably one of the hardest ones to do. The hard work was from having to isolate most of the images from  a granite - type of foundation.  For myself, Photoshop still has lots of areas in need or improvement. One of these is their selection. Even though there are probably 20 ways to isolate a subject form a background, in this case, none of them worked well. Consequently, I had to "slog it out" to eventually to bring out the "charm" of all these charms. The key issue was the fact the the grey-white granite is similar in tonality to many of the charms, even though they are different in colour. Consequently,  selecting the granite would inevitably select the charms or parts of them.

However, the effort was well worth the final result.  Presenting the charms against the clean background brings out  their pure and intrinsic value of what I'm sure millions of children of that era adored and cherished.

Although, charms might not quite be in the category of "toys", the fact that I'm sure children played,talked about, and traded these charms relegates them in my opinion to toys. And the fact that these items are so small but so fascinating certainly validates the old expression - "good things come in small packages".