Silver Baby Rattle

If you were born into a well-to-do family a century or two ago, even your nursery toys would come with a bit of ceremony.
Baby rattles were once popular birth and christening gifts, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, and they often carried more meaning than we might expect from something made for a nursery. Some were simple, like this little barbell-shaped rattle, while others were elaborate pieces with bells, whistles, coral, mother-of-pearl handles, and engraved family initials.
The sound itself even mattered. A rattle could amuse a baby, of course, but bells and jingling charms were also long associated with protection. In older folk beliefs, bright metal, coral, noise, and dangling charms were all thought to help guard a child from illness, bad luck, or harmful influences. Coral was especially prized for this reason.
A silver rattle also said something about the status of the family. Victorians were not exactly shy about showing off a little, and the more ornate these tiny objects were, the more they cost. With enough fine workmanship and fancy additions, even a baby’s rattle could become a miniature display of wealth, taste, and importance. In other words, this was a baby whose arrival was not meant to go unnoticed.
Many of these rattles were saved long after childhood as family keepsakes, partly because they had value, and partly for nostalgia’s sake. This little rattle may be a simpler example, but it still belongs to that world where status, symbolism, and a bit of old-fashioned superstition were not to be toyed with.