ART & ANTIQUES
Value This with Dr. Lori
Snowy Season
Collectibles
By Dr. Lori Verderame
It’s funny but everyone seems to have a different calendar
when it comes to decorating for the season. Some stores
start decorating for the holidays in mid October while
others wait until the chilly winds of early December arrive.
Whether winter decorations brighten your home as early as
Halloween or linger through Super Bowl Sunday, decking
the halls is a tried and true seasonal favorite. With guests
coming and going as we usher out the old and ring in the
new year, the age-old question of when to deck and when
to deinstall the holiday wreaths, ornaments, figurines, etc.
is one of personal preference. Snow season collectibles—nativity sets, Christmas trees, Hannukah menorahs, wreaths,
garlands, sleigh bells—all help make the season cheery and bright.
Byers Choice Ltd. Carolers
Snowy season collectibles are popular and speak to our image
of the holidays. Byers Choice Ltd. carolers, a Bucks County,
Pennsylvania mainstay and international favorite, are popular
collectibles featuring moveable figurines on solid bases with
hand painted clay heads demonstrating a singing caroler. Each
caroler is hand made by a skilled artisan at the Byers Choice
Ltd. workshop in Chalfont, PA and visitors can watch them
being produced on the shop floor during a self-guided tour of
Byers Choice Ltd. They are produced and marketed by theme
–carolers by the sea, Charles Dickens’ characters, American
patriots, etc.--relating to the Christmas holiday and are widely
collected throughout the year.
It is widely believed that collectible snowmen were first catapulted
into the public eye in the early 1950s, well into the postwar
period in America. Today, many folks have taken snowman
collecting to a new level. Arguably, the most famous snowmen
of all time is Frosty the Snowman. This snowman was actually first
introduced as a song before becoming the pop culture icon that
we all know and love. The wintery themed novelty song was produced
by Steve Rollins and Jack Nelson and recorded by cowboy
crooner, Gene Autry, in 1950. Trying to capture the success of
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, a recording that sold 2 million
copies, Autry recorded the quintessential snowman’s theme
song. Related cartoons and children’s books about Frosty the
Snowman soon followed. In 1954, the UPA studios made Frosty
the Snowman the central character of a 3-minute animated
short film. By 1969, the animation company of Rankin/Bass produced
a half hour TV special featuring Frosty the Snowman and
the unmistakable voices of Jimmy Durante and Jackie Vernon.
The rest of this snowman celebrity story is corncob pipe history.
Lifestyle
Shakeable Snow globes
Snow artistry has taken on many forms when it comes to winter
collectibles including the ever-popular snow globe. Snow globes,
EQUINE snow domes, or as the German’s call them, schneekugeln were
40 www.EliteEquestrianMagazine.com Vintage Snow globe
Photo Credit: Staff photographer at www.DrLoriV.com with snowman
first introduced in France during the early 1800s as a successor to the
hand-blown glass paperweight. At the 1889 International Exposition
in Paris, the snow globe got worldwide attention as a souvenir. This
world’s fair snow globe featured a model of the newly built Eiffel Tower
designed by Gustave Eiffel inside.
Initially, snow globes consisted of a heavy lead glass dome that
was placed over a ceramic tableau. Central European artisans blew
glass globes to protect religious relics and clockwork movements
started to export their glassware to the growing snow globe industry.
The globes were filled with water and then sealed. Shaking the globe
made the snow inside move within the globe from all directions as
if demonstrating a windy blizzard. The snow inside the snow globe
was created with bone chips, porcelain pieces, or non-soluble soap
flakes. More recently, the snow inside a typical snow globe is produced
from tiny pieces of white plastic and enhanced with distilled
water and glycerin to make the water denser and snow appear to
realistically move within the globe atmosphere. In the 1940s, snow
globes were produced as advertising paperweights and as travel
souvenirs and keepsakes of vacations.
In the Victorian era, the British called the collectible tableaus
“snowstorms” as they gained popularity from circa 1890 to 1901. Despite
their European beginnings, snow globes were mass-produced
in the U.S. thanks to Pittsburgh, PA native, Joseph Garajha. The first
mass-production patent for snow globes featured Garajha’s new
base which allowed the globe to be screwed into it like a light bulb.
Today, snow globes are traded and collected worldwide. Today,
the specialty annual snow globes featuring products and characters
from companies like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Disney are big gifts
with collectors. These collectible themed snow globes find themselves
on holiday shopping lists worldwide and some range in value
from $500 to $5,000 at auction.
Whether your winter is filled with days building your own Frosty on
the front lawn or sipping hot cocoa by the fire, snowy season collectibles
are fine additions to your home and will surely satisfy your need to
decorate with a seasonal flair.
EE
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