The occasionsA new baby
Gold beforethe first tooth.
A baby is a few weeks old and someone in the family, usually a grandmother, is already at a gold counter. This page is for that someone: what the first gold is, how it is sized, and when it should wait in its box.
The oldest gift, forthe newest person.
A birth is marked in gold in every community this shop serves. The detail differs from family to family, but the shape of the custom does not: within weeks of a baby arriving, someone older comes in to buy something small and permanent. More often than not, that someone is a grandparent.
The first bangle
A baby bangle over one adult fingertip, on cream silk. The scale is the picture.
The gift takes one of two forms. A tiny bangle that is worn now, slid over a fist that has barely uncurled. Or a chain or a name pendant bought at birth and put away until the child is old enough to wear it. Either way it is bought in 21 or 22 carat, the same gold as everything else in this cabinet, because the point of the gift is that it is real.
Every other newborn present has a shelf life. The clothes are outgrown before the first birthday, the toys are passed on, the pram is sold. The bangle is still gold at eighteen. Which is the quiet point of it: the gift is not really for the baby. It is for the adult the baby turns into.
The three questionsfamilies ask.
- Fit now, or grow into?
- Both are done. Sized to the wrist, a bangle fits for the naming and the first photographs. Bought a touch large, it waits a few months and then wears for years. If in doubt, the larger one is the safer buy.
- Worn, or put away?
- A bangle is for wearing and a chain is for keeping. Many families do one of each: the bangle goes on now, and the chain waits in its box until the child is old enough to mind it.
- Is it safe?
- A baby or small child should not wear a chain unsupervised, so anything made for a baby’s neck stays boxed until they are older.
Whichever way the family decides, the piece is priced the way everything here is: its weight, the day’s rate, and the making. How the pricing works →
The grandmother’s errand
Usually hers, sometimes a parent’s, occasionally the whole family’s at once. Three pages that help with the choosing.
Buying your first gold
If a gold counter is new territory, start here.
The smallest sizes
Three baby bangles in a row on the counter glass, smallest first.
Bangles
The piece first gold almost always turns out to be.
The gift, boxed
A small piece in its open box on maroon velvet, tissue pushed back.
Gifts
Gold as a present, for every day after this one.
Bring the baby,or just the news.
Tell us who has arrived and what you have in mind to spend. The small pieces come out on the counter, and whatever you choose is weighed and priced at the day’s rate while you watch.
364-378 Prospect Road, Kilburn SA 5084
Tuesday to Sunday, 10:30am – 6pm