Milk Chocolate Heart of Viana Avianense

Viana's hearts have a distinctly religious origin.

In classical antiquity, the heart represented the center of life, solidarity, fraternity and love, these being the most prominent characteristics in the lives of the saints, which is why they were represented with the heart outside the chest.

These hearts emphasized the heat of love with the flames that sprouted from the upper part, this part being a stylization of these same flames, hence the name flaming or double hearts. They appeared in Portugal with the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and hence the people liked to wear it on their chest as a sacred symbol.

The hearts can be made of sheet metal, filigree or stamped or engraved sheet metal.

Source used: Goldsmithing Museum.