Gifts for History Buffs: Objects with a Past

A history buff has read the books and watched the documentaries. What they rarely have is the objects — the things people actually held and used in the past. These gifts each carry a piece of history you can pick up.

Writing and record

A quill pen. For more than a thousand years, everything from monastery manuscripts to the Declaration of Independence was written with a feather quill. Writing with one, even with a modern steel nib, is a direct line to the past. The history of the quill.

A rune set. The Elder Futhark was the alphabet of the early Germanic peoples, carved into stone and wood from about the 2nd century. A set of 24 runes in a bag is a gift for anyone fascinated by the Vikings and their ancestors. Rune meanings.

Navigation and time

A pocket compass. The magnetic compass changed history: it made ocean voyages, trade routes and empires possible. Compass rose meaning.

A pocket watch. For three centuries, the pocket watch was how the world kept time — railway timetables, battle plans and factory shifts all ran by the watch in someone's waistcoat.

The oldest games still played

History buffs love games with a past. These are among the oldest games in the world:

• Go — played in China for at least 2,500 years, and essentially unchanged. Go vs chess.
• Backgammon — a descendant of games played in ancient Persia and Rome. How to play backgammon.
• Chess — from 6th-century India, through Persia and the Islamic world to medieval Europe.
• Mahjong — from 19th-century China. Mahjong tiles meaning.

Playing cards with history in them

Playing cards are a thousand-year-old invention, and every deck carries its history. The history of playing cards.

• Chinese playing cards with Peking Opera faces, from the country where cards began.
• A pirate deck, for the golden age of piracy. Pirate flag meanings.
• An Alice in Wonderland deck, after the Victorian original. The card characters.

Philosophy and symbols

A memento mori coin. The Stoics of ancient Rome reminded themselves daily that life is short; medieval monks and Renaissance painters carried on the tradition. A coin with the skull and the words memento mori is a gift for the history buff with a philosophical streak. Memento mori meaning · Vanitas paintings.

Gifts for history buff guys

The guys in particular tend to love the objects that did something: the compass, the watch, the quill, the game. Pair one with a book on its history for a gift that keeps on giving.

Gifts for writers · Gifts for men who have everything.