Can you guess what it cost to bronze a pair of baby shoes in 2016?*
I’ve seen a lot of bronze baby shoes mounted on a photo stand. Derek Jeter had a hat bronzed, I read on their site. (Doesn’t have to be baby shoes)
Wednesday night, I was cleaning out a desk drawer and found this envelope and special value certificate to “use by Aug 11, 1986”. Oooops! My money saver certificate has long expired.
American Bronzing Company is still in business (since 1934) I checked them out and there are a lot of options. Not sure if the ashtray is still available but the company has bronzed over ” 14,000,000 baby shoes.”
Our story begins in 1934, when Violet Shinbach, the “mother of baby shoe bronzing,” established a business that would soon become the American Bronzing Company, the largest and most-trusted baby shoe bronzing company in the world.
*And today it would cost $79.00 to get a pair of baby shoes bronzed, unmounted.
I should have ordered in 1986.
I see you can get silver plate restored too if you have an old tea service that needs spiffing up.
Those bronze baby shoes were popular – back in the day!
That’s about a 130% increase! I’ve never seen bronzed baby shoes, so it couldn’t have been done or maybe didn’t take off over here.
No 1300%?
I didn’t think people did that anymore. If I had done that for my kids, would I still have them on display? Hmmmm. . .
Makes me wonder about other items then and now …… altho I’d probably just as soon not know! 🙂 🙂 Like the price of a best-seller? Or my water bill!!!! etcetc
My dear Mom always wanted our baby shoes bronzed but we didn’t have a lot of money so it never happened. But my brother and I made papier maché shoes and painted them gold (cause every 8 year old knows gold is better than bronze 😉) for Mother’s Day in 1971. We also made a penny bracelet by drilling into pennies and stringing them into a cheap chain. My poor mom.
Eva. Thank you for sharing your beautiful memories. Poignant
“The thrill of your life” – that seems like quite a marketing claim!
Whenever I hear the words “baby shoes”, I always think of the 6 word poem.
I never understood the practice. I had 2 pairs of my baby shoes and kept them on a table in my entryway. Well, then Max came along, discovered them, and now I’ve got a real understanding of why one would want to bronze baby shoes.
Uh oh. Doggy chew toy? I never bronzed any of the shoes but thought about it and saved that corny envelope all these years.
Yes, chew toys. I do love that dog but he sure does make it difficult at times. 🙂