Can you imagine the origin?

A rare find or a piece of junk?

I have a Facebook friend who shares images regularly of rare jewels from long ago. Necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and pendants of brilliant colors and or antique visuals. When you see these items their value is apparent and it brings to mind images of queens and princesses, or heiresses who may have once owned them.

Today I went to a store where I had not shopped in more than a year and saw this unusual bracelet. It was on a giveaway table so I took it home disinfected it, cleaned it, and put it on. I wondered how old it was and what it might have looked like when it was new and shiny. I pondered what it may have initially cost and who was the owner.

Costume jewelry or something of value?

This bracelet might only be a piece of costume jewelry considered as no more than junk given away by someone who no longer desired it. Perhaps some elderly woman passed away and her family members discarded it. Prompted by Vocal challenges that stretch the imagination I decided to consider something grand about my new bauble because they say one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Perhaps this bracelet is at least a century old like a vase my great grandma who was born in 1900 inherited from her mother. I gave it to my daughter who will one day give it to her little girl. Maybe my bracelet belonged to a woman in an aristocratic family and was passed down to women through 6 or 7 generations.

Utilizing the imagination

In the eye of the beholder

I thought of A Charlie Brown Christmas where Freida did not want to be in the play next to Pigpen because his dust cloud would mess up her naturally curly hair. Charlie Brown told her to pretend it was the soil of some past ancient civilization like Babylon. Pigpen lifts his head in pride and asks Freida if this doesn't make her look at him with new respect. Unfortunately, she did not play along and gave him a mirror. She told him to look at himself because he was an absolute mess.

Like Freida, someone could take one look at my bracelet and shoot it down as a cheap piece of tin but I choose to see it as an item of value. Whether it is worth a lot of money or not in my eyes it is a thing of beauty. Someone thought it worthy to donate and I was fortunate to find it. The woman behind the counter even said she thought it was lovely. The owner might have been an eccentric elderly female with blonde hair that is partially grey and is worn in a bun. This senior citizen may be in her 80s and appears frugal but when she dies everyone finds out she is very rich.

From trash to treasure

My late husband and I were together for 45 years and we always gave each other white gold jewelry. Even so, on rare occasions, I wore earrings and bracelets that were gold or platinum which complemented my white gold and sterling silver items.

The fact that this bracelet was given away says that for whatever reason it was no longer considered valuable. Perhaps it was given as a gift of love and now because of divorce or death, it only causes pain. The true value may not have been realized by someone cleaning out a home or throwing out things when an older woman went to a retirement center or long-term care facility. All that matters is that it's mine and to me, it is an item to be treasured.