Learn English – What does “prophetic pins” mean in Dickens’s David Copperfield

dickensliteraturemeaning

This is from the first chapter:

My mother was sitting by the fire, but poorly in health, and very low
in spirits, looking at it through her tears, and desponding heavily
about herself and the fatherless little stranger, who was already
welcomed by some grosses of prophetic pins, in a drawer upstairs, to a
world not at all excited on the subject of his arrival…

What are those pins? How do they look like? Why are they called like that? Why pins? Why prophetic?
Then there is another mention of them:

‘Bless the Baby!’ exclaimed Miss Betsey, unconsciously quoting the
second sentiment of the pincushion in the drawer upstairs, but
applying it to my mother instead of me, ‘I don’t mean that. I mean
your servant-girl.’

So there were also some words there? What words and why?

Best Answer

According to the Victoria and Albert Museum,

Back in the 18th and 19th centuries, a popular gift for newborns was a layette pincushion.

They show an example of such a pincushion on which is written, with careully arranged pins, the message "Health to the little stranger":

enter image description here

We must imagine that Dickens was referring to this practice in both of the passages you quote.

Regarding Dickens calling the pins "prophetic", as well as his reference to their "second sentiment", consider the following, also from the Victoria and Albert Museum:

These pincushions were in some ways the equivalent of the modern birth congratulation card....Layette pincushions were generally given after the birth, as there was a superstition that the pins could increase the pain felt by the mother during birth. That would be a very unwelcome present indeed!

My guess is the pins were "prohetic" in the sense that the mother received them before birth, thus prophesying her pain at childbirth. The "second sentiment" refers to the message that was written on the pincushion (in this case "Bless the Baby!)."

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