Dr. Lori Verderame
Art & Antiques by Dr. Lori
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 post-war 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.
Shakeable Snow globes
Snow artistry has taken on many forms when it comes to winter collectibles including the ever-popular snow globe. Snow globes, snow domes, or as the German’s call them, schneekugeln were 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.
Dr. Lori Verderame is the award-winning Ph.D. antiques appraiser on History channel’s #1 hit show, The Curse of Oak Island and weekdays on the Doctor and the Diva. Dr. Lori presents her Antiques Appraisal Comedy Show to audiences nationwide. Visit www.DrLoriV.com/events or call (888) 431-1010.
Images: “Photo Credit: Staff photographer at www.DrLoriV.com”
1. Dr. Lori’s headshot (on file)
- Vintage Snow globe with snowman