The Rarest Christmas Ornament
A Mystery: Are these ornaments forever lost or might they be found in your attic?
The magical glow of Christmas trees illuminates many homes during the holiday season. This became a tradition in the year 1848 when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were pictured in the “Illustrated London News” standing near their heavily decorated tabletop tree. The magazine was a popular read in the United States and this image sparked the tree idea for the first time in the hearts of American society forever after.
Decorating the tree always becomes a memorable event celebrated through collections of ornaments that individually bring back memories of families, friends, and joyful parties held throughout our past. Ornaments rekindle the art of story-telling, often ignited with brandied egg nog, as each bauble is carefully hooked onto a sturdy branch; all positioned in just the right spot.
How many times have we opened a box of ornaments to delight in the festive treasures that we had otherwise completely forgotten about during the rest of the year. Even Christmas curmudgeons find themselves smiling when they see a tiny Christmas tree ornament from their childhood lovingly tucked inside tattered tissue paper for safekeeping. And most people have storage units stacked with tubs filled with Christmas lights and ornaments. Bulging boxes are packed with glorious baubles, some dating back through decades of family traditions including themed trees or Grandma’s vintage collections of badly scratched Shiny Brites, squashed tinsel, and faded red honeycomb paper bells.
Then, there are the most serious collectors who cherish and pursue what is considered the most rare and ornate. These are from the Golden Age of ornament-making which spanned the late Victorian era from about 1870 through the onslaught of WWI. In fact, scarce, antique Christmas tree ornaments, in perfect condition, can cost seasoned collectors many hundreds of dollars each.
Antique Christmas ornaments can indeed be difficult to date and sometimes the only reliable methods are found through old photographs, catalogues, advertising, and magazine articles that have been printed since the turn-of-the-last-century.
One example of an article, published without a byline, is titled Christmas Made in America. This was found in the October 1919 edition of Scientific American; a magazine familiar to us all because it has continually been in print since 1845.
The magazine details the post-WWI development of the very first American factories that were solely dedicated to producing tree ornaments.
And, curiously, none of these ornaments as referenced in Scientific American have been seen today although avid Christmas collectors and curators agree that they are out there. They have simply yet to be found.
It is all a Christmas mystery because there are no definitive records that these factories ever existed aside from the photographs and the published reports found in this particular edition of Scientific American as well as brief mention and photograph in a Kansas newspaper dated 1920; no addresses nor references to an exact location have been located.
But, the proof exists and the Scientific American story reads:
“Before the war, practically all the beautifully glistening balls and other ornaments for the Christmas trees of American kiddies were made in Germany. Now with the war at an end, the German toy makers…will find the market for their goods in America at an end.”
“This Christmas, every tree in America will be adorned with such ornaments — real American products — made by skilled American toy makers and glass blowers. Even the dyes with which these decorations are charmingly colored are American-made.”
According to the magazine, the very first domestic Christmas ornaments manufactured in these factories appeared in toy and department stores during the holiday season in 1918.
But these ornaments “were poor and rather crude imitations of the German articles — so defective in fact that when they were hung on the trees, even the children noticed the difference and wanted to know what was the matter with Santa Claus.”
“But it is not the American spirit to give up a difficult job…and wonderful progress has been made in the past twelve months in the manufacture of blown-glass Christmas-tree decorations in this country. This year, Old Santa will find…a full stock and variety to select from…. Practically all the early crudeness has been polished off…and they are now quite as beautiful as any that Germany ever offered us.”
But where are the Christmas ornaments that are mentioned in this magazine now? I have spoken to many renowned collectors and curators dedicated to Christmas collecting over the years and none have seen any ornament quite like what is described and pictured in this story.
If any of these 1918-1920 ornaments were to be found, it would be essential to accurately date them. One of the most important clues to accurately dating ornaments is based on the style of the little ringed metal or cardboard caps designed for attaching the hooks.
Collectors point out that before 1919, the caps were typically glued on. After 1919, a spring-styled clip was mostly employed for attaching the caps to glass ornaments. Caps also can tell us the manufacturers’ country of origin because many have the name of the country stamped directly onto them.
The Scientific American article described the 1919 ornament stock as “a good assortment of so-called irregular shapes and twisted balls,” but there wasn’t much in the way of variety to the glass designs. There were no figural designs such as Santas, stars, and angels in the American trade, for instance.
There is no doubt that before WWI, Germany exported the finest and most intricate glass figural Christmas tree ornaments imaginable, fulfilling eager demand. Furthermore, as it turned out, following the end of the WWI embargo in 1919, Germany would again export their ornaments to an almost equal demand. Christmas ornaments from Germany remained beloved following WWI over nearly any other export from that county during the early 1920s because they were more beautiful and, as the Scientific American article eventually confesses, cost less than those made by the American competition.
During the post-wartime embargo, the American manufacturers were simply not able to produce the “fancy tree novelties” that German makers were long known for even though it is well known that American entrepreneurs were hoping to build a glass-blowing industry in the United States using uniquely skilled German immigrants.
The truth lies in the fact that the lack of magnificent figural ornaments was due to the poor quality of the American glass medium at the time.
“…Domestic manufacturers have not been able for various reasons to duplicate in substantial quantities…the fancy glass balls blown into the various fruit shapes, dolls, Santa Clauses and other odd and difficult modelings.”
“Very little of American glass is sufficiently elastic to be blown into these odd shapes containing rather severe angles.”
“Most of our glass…is somewhat brittle, even the best of it, and there is an unprofitably high percentage of breakage when the more extreme fancy shapes are attempted. There is, however, a little glass made in America of nearly the proper quality and there are a few among our manufacturers of tree ornaments who are fortunate enough to have help sufficiently skilled to work this glass up properly.”
This problem would soon be solved, Scientific American predicted, and the fancy shapes would be soon developed and ready for the 1920 Christmas market.
But this prophecy did not come to fruition. There is no record of American glass-blown ornament factories in the media following the year 1920, to date.
Scientific American also details another design of the most popular American Christmas ball ornaments as having a special “sanded-glass finish.” They were described as relatively large orbs, blown with colored glass, and then lacquered. There is no record of this design, likewise, in existence to date, as described:
“While the lacquer is still wet, powdered or very fine ground glass is sprinkled lightly over them. This, when properly done, produces the rich, soft luster of velvet which glistens when the light strikes it, through what seems to be an outer dullness.”
The previous year, 1918, the magazine claimed that ornament manufacturers had “great difficulties” with the ornaments’ dyes; especially red, which was said to have been aborted altogether early on. Yet, by 1919, while the other dyes were finally considered fast, the red color continued to be elusive.
“It still appears to be difficult for us to turn out a fire-red ball which is entirely satisfying. There remains a slightly perceptible brownish tint in the fire-red balls…and it is not entirely done away with, even with the very best of our (American) products. This blemishing tint will have to be completely eliminated before we can truly completely say that we manufacture fire-red glass balls in this country equal to the imported, but there is no doubt that (by) another Christmas, we will see this accomplished.”
The magazine chronicles these American factories in detail, although they are not identified by name or defined location outside of New York City. Today, the business records affiliated with these factories are just as elusive as the ornaments they once produced.
The century-old magazine’s narration of the manufacturing factory process is enticing:
“A visit to one of Old Santa’s American Christmas tree ornament factories is an interesting experience. Besides they are probably the only factories of the kind at present in the world, as the German ornaments have never been to any extent factory-made, but mostly produced in the homes of the peasants living in the vicinity of Nuremberg which, previous to the outbreak of the war, was the great toy center of the world.”
The writer goes on to claim that a cottage industry for ornament-making was attempted here in the United States, but our culture did not support the idea. Therefore, they state, “regular factories” sprung up.
But the only factory described, located in New York City, and as photographed, was said to have employed a “dozen workmen, all expert glass blowers.”
The workers sat along a long, wooden bench, and “in front of each man is a gas lamp which projects a long hot blue flame in which the glass tubes are quickly heated until the part subjected into the flame glows as red as fire.”
“The glass blower takes hold of the comparatively cool stem of the glass and putting it in his mouth blows into the red hot ball…and by careful practice he is able to blow the ball to any size desired, whether it be small or large.”
“When this is accomplished, he places the ball into a rack…these racks hold perhaps half a dozen balls and when they are full, boys convey them to waiting girls who assort the balls as soon as they are cool, into various sizes, and carefully inspect each one for any imperfections in the blowing.”
“After, they are conveyed to a skillful young workman who, with a rubber bulb filled with silver nitrate, carefully drops in each ball a small quantity of the fluid.”
“This process [creates]the beautiful glistening effect…they sparkle like diamonds…but as the nitrate of silver would not spread on its own and evenly coat them like the back of a mirror, it is necessary for them to pass through another process.”
“So they are passed to the young man who handles the nitrate dropper and to an assistant who stands close by and quickly dips the rack of balls into a tank filled with steam. This steam has the effect of so dissolving the nitrate that it quickly spreads all over the inside of the ball and so remains after the balls are taken out of the bath.”
The final stage involves dying the ornaments, but only mentioned in little detail.
“When the ornaments are ready for the dye pot in which they are carefully immersed by women skilled in this delicate work. As the beauty and success of the product is almost entirely dependent upon this dying process it must be accomplished with the greatest care.”
“After the balls have been successfully dyed, they are placed upon long racks built against the walls of the factory to dry and drain. Then the workmen…carefully clip off, in a machine devised for the purpose, the long stems through which the balls were blown, leaving only an end sufficiently long to which the little gilt rings are attached from which the balls are hung by hooks from the trees…. American made balls…(have) hangers (that) are so tightly fastened to them that there is little or no danger of their coming off….”
Finally, the ornaments were packaged in pasteboard boxes and shipped out for distribution to toy stores, department stores, and other retailers.
The ornaments had a retail price that was much higher than what comparable German baubles had sold for before WWI. Yet, Scientific American magazine urged people to buy them regardless, if only out of an American sense of pride, and patriotism; all in support of American-made products.
Today, these century-old decorations could be the most sought-after of all the historical Christmas ornaments. If they could be positively identified, they could also be the most important in value as a collectible.
But most likely of all, any of us may have rifled through the remnants of family storage units, attics, or basements filled with old Christmas boxes and not even realized what we were about to discard.
So, the search continues for these mysterious American ornaments and their makers. Perhaps the ornaments, as the Scientific American article suggests, were indeed simply too fragile, and all have broken over the years. Perhaps, as more than one Christmas collector alluded, the “new” American dyes and paint were defective so that their designs disappeared over time making them deemed too ugly to keep.
Whatever the reason, this Christmas intrigue remains. And, it might be worthwhile to take another look in your family attic or storage facility. Maybe that shoddy box of simple silver antique ornaments beneath the cobwebs contains some of the rarest Christmas treasures of all.
••This post is sent to you with kind wishes for a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Also with sincere wishes for peace and kindness between us all in 2023!
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Wow I think this may have been my favorite article to date from Julia. So interesting and full of great information about something I had no idea existed. I know I don't have one in my attic but there must be one out there just waiting for me to find. it. Let the search begin!
Let us know if you find one!