The Intriguing History of Charms and Charm Bracelets

Charms and charm bracelets have often been bought for women to celebrate important rites of passage, like turning 18 or graduating from school. However, delve a little deeper and it is surprising to see that they boast a long and intriguing history, which spans across thousands of years.
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Indeed, it has been reported that people first began collecting charms in the Neolithic era, at the end of the Stone Age. Regarded as items of luck and to ward off evil and danger, people would look for charms in the form of unusual pieces of stone and wood, and carry them around.
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It wasn’t until the ancient Egyptian times though, that actual charm jewellery like bracelets and necklaces were first worn. Adorned with precious stones and metals, the Egyptian people wore them as symbols of both their wealth and social standing. They were also buried with them in the hope that the jewellery would communicate to the gods the sort of afterlife the Egyptian looked forward to.
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The Christians of the Roman Empire also used charms in the shape of fish as a form of identification and to gain access to a number of secret or illegal worshipping rituals. The kings and knights of the Middle Ages, on the other hand, kept them for protection and to represent their family name or profession.
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It was Queen Victoria at the start of the 20th Century who revived the wearing of charm jewellery once again. Having traditionally been used for superstitious purposes, it was at this time that it began being worn as more of a fashion statement. As a result, there was a huge growth in the production of trinkets, beads and different types of charms.
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The end of the Second World War also saw an uptake in the number of the more modern charm bracelets. As soldiers returned home from the battlefield to their loved ones, they brought with them a range of unusual, handmade charms and trinkets.
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In line with the industrial revolution, and the manufacturing of plastics, the 1940s came out with a range of different charms and bracelet styles, like the gumball charms that were made from celluloid. Particularly attractive to children, they could collect a number of colourful trinkets from the gumball machines and then make a charm bracelet from string. 
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The 1950s saw charm bracelets come into their own: this is when they became famous for women receiving them as presents for such special occasions as birthdays and anniversaries. During the 1970s their status decreased in favour of gold chains, and it wasn’t until the mid 1980s that they regained their former popularity.
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Since then, <a onClick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/article_exit_link');" href="charm">http://www.hsamuel.co.uk/webstore/browse/N/58/">charm bracelets</a> have remained a firm jewellery staple, with many people sporting one. Ideal for creating a unique, personal piece of jewellery, they make perfect presents for women of all ages. Not only that, but because charms can be added to them, they can grow over time to represent an important and cherished part of any jewellery collection.
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