It could as Ivo says, be a quote though.
Re it sounding haughty. In this day and age it does sound a bit patronising (regardless of whether from a man to a woman or vice versa), or a bit as though the giver is in 'control' of the situation as they seem to be doing the picking of the other person.
However, it might just be that was the societal norms of the time - and the boy picked the girl and this was his way of demonstrating that he felt she was the one. It could be seen as quite sweet really. Or it could be more sinister as you've touched on with haughty - i.e. the woman didn't have a choice and was 'selected' and had to do as she was told. And that was the case in certain circles regarding arranged marriages. Probably widespread regardless of class I would think.
But it was likely 200 plus years ago so we need to think of being in that time and why these things were made and given, rather than thinking about how they would be perceived in the here and now. (and thank goodness we've moved on from two hundred years ago is all I'll say
- I'm pretty outspoken and I don't think I'd have survived well living in those times).
Anyway, perhaps we can find some more inscribed glasses that have a similar theme but not the arm. That might help distinguish whether it was trending as a love token at the time, or whether they were made to denote allegiance to Calvanism.
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Topic: Engraved wine glass. (Read 7641 times)
