Keepsake Boxes and Photo Gifts: Frames, Photo Cubes and Slate

A keepsake is something you keep not for what it is but for what it holds: a memory, a date, a person. Personalised keepsake boxes, frames and photo gifts are among the most treasured presents of all, because they are made to last.

Keepsake boxes

A keepsake box gives precious bits and pieces a home: letters, tickets, wedding favours, baby teeth, medals, a lock of hair. Popular materials include:

• Oak and other hardwoods: warm, tactile and ideal for laser engraving.
• Leather: embossed or engraved initials; feels luxurious.
• Silver-plated or pewter: traditional for christenings and anniversaries.
• Slate: a striking natural material; often used for lids and plaques.

Romantic keepsakes and love tokens

Engraved keepsakes have a long romantic history in Britain. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, sailors going to sea and convicts being transported to Australia would smooth down a copper penny and engrave it with initials, hearts and verses as a "love token" for the person they were leaving. Museums hold collections of these tokens today, and they are surprisingly moving. A modern engraved coin, a heart-shaped slate or a wooden token with a private message continues the tradition.

Slate keepsakes

Welsh slate has been quarried for centuries, and slate makes a dramatic keepsake: dark, smooth and long-lasting. Laser engraving lifts the surface to a pale grey, giving crisp, readable lettering. Slate plaques, coasters, heart keepsakes and house signs all make lasting gifts.

Photo frames, photo cubes and albums

Type	Personalisation	Good for
Wood frame (6x4 or 7x5 inch)	Engraved message above or below the photo	Weddings, new homes, grandparents
Oak photo cube	Photos on several sides, engraved lid or base	Anniversaries, best friends
Printed photo panel or slate	Photo printed directly onto the surface	Family portraits, pets
Photo album	Engraved or embossed cover	Weddings, a year in pictures

Our guide to how printed photo gifts are made explains how to choose a photo that prints sharply.

Mementoes of a lucky day: chips, slips and photo finishes

Some of the best keepsakes are the ones nobody planned. Visitors to Las Vegas, Monte Carlo and Atlantic City have brought home a single casino chip as a souvenir for decades, and collecting chips has grown into a serious hobby, with international collectors' clubs, catalogues and swap meets. Chips from casinos that have closed or been demolished are particularly sought after by collectors. A single chip from a honeymoon or a fiftieth-birthday trip deserves better than a drawer: set it into a shadow box or keepsake box with an engraved lid, the name of the casino and the date. If you are planning that kind of trip as a present, our guide to Las Vegas and Monte Carlo experience gifts has ideas for making the souvenir part of the gift.

Racegoers have their own mementoes. Racecourses have used photo-finish cameras to settle close finishes since the mid-twentieth century, and a framed print of the finish of a race in which a friend's horse won, or in which the family's sweepstake pick came home first, is a keepsake with a story. Frame it with the racecard and the winning ticket. Our Grand National and Cheltenham guide has more race-day keepsake ideas.

Making a memory box together

One of the loveliest gifts for a milestone is a keepsake box filled by a whole family: letters from children and grandchildren, old photographs, a recipe in handwriting, a pressed flower from the wedding bouquet. The engraved box is the present; the contents are the gift.

Written by the Ribbon & Tag editors.