Reflecting On Christmas Ornaments
Question: We were decorating our Christmas tree the other night with many ornaments that have been in our family for generations. How can we tell how old some of these ornaments are? I would think they are highly collectible.--P.Y.
Answer: Indeed, they are. There are many collectors who preserve and treasure their tree ornaments and, like your family, pass them on to their children.
As ornament collectors will be the first to tell you, it’s often difficult to ascertain their age. Some ornaments are one of a kind, produced by a craftsman for just one season and then discontinued. Others were produced for a few years and then disappeared from the marketplace.
If you have glass ornaments in your collection, one indication of age is in their design and the materials from which they’re made. For example, a glass ball that has wire tinsel, cotton or silk decorations could have been fashioned in the late 19th Century when such designs were widely marketed.
If some of your ornaments are glass balls that have a round metal cap with a hole in it, this probably indicates they were made before World War I. That’s because ornaments with spring-clip type fasteners, commonly found today, didn’t start appearing until the 1920s and later.
Hung by Strings
Until then, ornaments were hung on Christmas tree branches the old-fashioned way: by passing a piece of string through a cap hole and tying the ornament to the tree. Among other early-20th-Century fastening devices that can help you date your ornaments was the glass hook.
Another hint of age is in the ornament’s finish.
Older pieces show a dulling of surface materials such as lacquer. And collectors with sharp eyes look for cracks in the silver lining of old pieces, also indicating pre-World War I age because of imperfections in the silvering process of that era. Incidentally, it was this silvering process, developed in Germany in the mid-19th Century, that gave ornaments a mirror-like finish.
Glass ornaments, among the most valuable collectibles, began to be marketed in the United States in the 1870s. Then, in 1880, a young entrepreneur, Frank Woolworth, bought some glass-ornament lots from a German importer, even though--as the story goes--he really didn’t think the items would sell well.
As it turned out, though, his Lancaster, Pa., store was soon sold out. A big reason was that the Lancaster-area residents were themselves of German descent and such ornaments had been a part of their family traditions.
A decade later, Woolworth had more than a dozen stores and was selling thousands of glass ornaments. And by that time, Woolworth, recognizing how popular glass Christmas ornaments had become, was himself visiting ornament makers in Germany to place orders for the American market.
In fact, American demand for ornaments had become so heavy that cottage industries were spawned in Germany and Czechoslovakia, where some of the most lovely--and most collectible--ornaments have been produced.
Storybook Characters
By the turn of the century, German glass blowers were not only producing glass ball ornaments, but animals and storybook characters as well. Again, in response to the American market, autos, airplanes and thousands of other designs were soon to follow.
So it’s no wonder that smart dealers sorting through estates carefully scrutinize a family’s Christmas tree ornaments in addition to the usual items of value, such as furniture, paintings and the like. It doesn’t take long for ornaments valued at $30 to $50 each to add up to a tidy sum.
One cautionary note: Don’t try to refurbish an old ornament collection by washing them, without carefully examining the fragility of the ornaments first. Water can damage an ornament’s finish and destroy its value.
Unlike some other kinds of collectibles, which are stored out of the public eye, Christmas tree ornament collectors are especially proud this time of year. The obvious reason: The Christmas tree provides a natural setting for their collection.
Q: Could you give me an idea of what a letter by Charles Dickens could be worth?--A.N.
A: Los Angeles autograph and manuscript dealer Doris Harris recalled that at a Sotheby’s auction in London last July, 27 Dickens letters were available.
Prices at that auction, she said, ranged from about $540 for two Dickens letters and a check to more than $2,300 for a two-page Dickens letter, dated Aug. 13, 1840, to Samuel Rogers, another well-known writer.
“Dickens letters are not scarce,” Harris said. But, depending on their content and the demand, they can be costly.
Mailbag
Stein Collectors International has moved to Los Angeles from New Jersey, according to the group’s executive director, Patricia Manusov.
She writes that the organization has grown to more than 1,500 members and publishes a quarterly bulletin, Prosit. Annual dues, which include the bulletin, are $20.
For more information, Manusov can be contacted at P.O. Box 661125, Los Angeles, Calif. 90066; or telephone (213) 837-9734.
R.H. of Venice wants to know where he can find a chewing-tobacco cutter.
“These used to be on the counters of general stores and used to chop up long bars (of tobacco) into more saleable chunks,” he writes.
Soble cannot answer mail personally but will respond in this column to questions of general interest about collectibles. Do not telephone. Write to Your Collectibles, You section, The Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053.