Three annealed ornaments, two with chenille legs Glass Figural Ornaments By Michael Rhoads Thanks to F. W. Woolworth, we enjoy the riches of early German glass figural ornaments. Making ornaments was a cottage industry. They were made in private homes and involved the entire family from blowing the glass into the molds, silvering, painting and…
Saint Nicholas, originally portrayed with a short, dark beard The Evolution of Santa Claus By Melicent D’Amore Introduction Throughout my 30 years of collecting figural glass Santa Christmas ornaments I’ve observed design differences reflecting regional interpretations of Santa Claus that have influenced diversity in the styles of Santa ornaments created. This article is intended to…
Restoring Vintage Christmas Items… for Future Collectors to Enjoy by Mark Podmore I’ve been collecting vintage Christmas items for many years and am always coming across items in dire need of a restoration. Shabby, dirty and broken; most of these items require a little TLC and lots of creativity to do a faithful restoration. If…
Western Union Santa Grams by John Kardos The New York and Mississippi Valley PrintingTelegraph Company, now Western Union, began in 1851. The firm expanded by buying out a number of competitive companies. In 1856, the company changed its name to Western Union Telegraph Company in anticipation of its ability to send telegraphs from the east…
Collecting Glass Figural Christmas Ornaments by Tony Johnson Once a person discovers the passion of collecting antique German glass figural ornaments, they usually set their sights on finding as many different examples as they can. While this is a wonderful idea, there were literally thousands of different molds produced. Over time I have found that…
NILCO Christmas Lights by Gene Teslovic Photos by John Hanssen While General Electric remained the largest producer of incandescent light bulbs, they considered the production of novelty bulbs as a passing innovation and the production of novelty bulbs was left to the Novelty Incandescent Lighting Company or NILCO. NILCO was a small incandescent lighting company…
