Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Christmas Tree Traditon

Glass Ornaments 
Cards on the TreeSimple & Modern

Crafty Tree
All That Glitters

From the book "Christopher Radko, The First Decade"

"It is from Germany that we today get many of our customs, songs, images of Santa, pine trees and European hand blow glass ornaments.

How these traditions traveled to England is interesting. Queen Victoria often visited relatives in Germany in the town of Coburg and while there she fell in love with a young Prince Albert. After they got married they returned to England to raise their family.

The tree that Price Albert provided his family was admired by all in England. This tree was decorated in the finest of hand blown glass ornaments. Since everyone liked the Queen they copied her Christmas customs including the Christmas tree and ornaments.

A F.W. Woolworth brought the glass ornament tradition to the United States in 1890. From 1870's to 1930's, Germans made the finest molds for making ornaments with nearly 5,000 different molds at the time. At the turn of the century there were over one hundred small cottage glass blowing workshops in Europe. Today only two respected German factory teams are capable of producing ornaments to the precise specifications of the Christopher Radko collection.

During the hayday of turn of the century ornament making, almost all ornaments were made in Lauscha, a small town nested in the Thuringian mountains. After the war, however, glass ornament production declined. Many of the craftsmen left for West Germany. Quantity rather than quality, was the Communist management philosophy. Some old molds fell into disrepair and many others were left to collect dust or were lost.

In the 1960's it was fashionable to have an Aluminum tree and all the same shape and color ornaments. Many threw away the old ornaments from Germany. 

It was in the 1980's that Christopher Radko brought back the old art of making the glass ornaments for all to enjoy."

xoxo,
Cathleen

3 comments:

The Style Sisters said...

Cathleen...thank you so much for your kindness and generosity on behalf of my brother. I know that your donation will help to make his dream come true. You are the best! Merry Christmas and thank you again from our entire family.

Karin :)

Anonymous said...

Wow..! All of these Christmas trees are fabulous and super stylish.

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed reading about the history of Christmas glass ornaments and glad of its revival.