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5648
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German Blown Glass Baby Jesus Diorama Scene Christmas Ornament
A fabulous, rare old German large blown glass diorama scene Christmas ornament with a celluloid figure of the infant Christ Child inside. The mercury silvered ornament is 3" diameter with a deep concave recess or indent which is rimmed in green mica. The baby Jesus figure inside has a gold paper scrap halo and is surrounded by thin crimped gold wire and a hand painted sunburst. The concave back is highly reflective, giving the scene a heavenly mirrored effect.
The ornament has a non-traditional antique wire hanger attached to the pike, extending to the edge of the scene. The glass concave ball is in wonderful condition with no damage and very little wear to the paint or silvering. However, age has caused the glue used to secure the celluloid Child and scrap halo to loosen, you'll want to reglue them back into place (you can easily see the marks exactly where they were so they can be replaced in the correct position).
Circa: 1920s
Country of Origin: DE
Manufacturer: Early 20th Century German Import
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5562
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Old Italy Glass Diorama Scene Indent Christmas Ornament Father Christmas
This Italian diorama style indented dimensional scene Christmas ornament is from the 1950s. Inside the concave recess in the silvered glass is a hard plastic Father Christmas or Belsnickle style old fashioned Santa Claus with one arm outstretched, the other holding the toy sack slung over his back. The ornament is silver on the outside with a rayed back, the inside is deep cobalt blue with glittery mica snow. The metal cap is marked Italy. 2-3/4" high to the top of the cap, in excellent condition with no damage.
Circa: 1950
Country of Origin: IT
Manufacturer: Mid Century Italian Import
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5609
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Clay Face Chenille Santa Atop Vintage Glass Christmas Ornament
Rare and wonderful, this old chenille Santa Claus ornament was probably made in Japan. A classic clay face chenille Santa with read cotton beard is mounted to the top of a mercury silvered gold glass Christmas ornament along with a chenille candy cane, mercury bead spikes, and lacquered holly leaves and berries. The ornament is attached to a mica snow frosted ring so it can stand by itself, though you could easily hang it on your Christmas tree as well. The entire ornament is about 4" tall.
Santa's face is wonderfully detailed, right down to his forehead wrinkles. The red chenille has typical age fading, and the lacquered holly and berries have some wear as shown. The glass ornament has a pearly, near-transparent effect from normal age degradation of the inner mercury silvering. It's an older ornament, made before World War II. You can always tell by the quality of the molded clay face (plastic faces were used more often on the post-war versions). Whether you collect antique chenille Santa figures or just unusual and scarce vintage ornaments, you won't find this one again any time soon, I'm sure.
Circa: 1930s
Country of Origin: JP
Manufacturer: Pre War Japan Import
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5490
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Pair of Blown Glass Figural Bell Christmas Ornaments
Two very pretty figural bell Christmas ornaments with pontils forming the clappers at the base. They're nicely decorated with pink, blue, and green geometric bands trimmed with gold glitter around the centers, blue draping with white polka dots at the tops and bases, all on a pearly white satin background with silvered undersides. The bells are 3-1/2" high and in excellent condition with no damage. The metal caps are unmarked, the ornaments date to the 1980s.
Circa: 1980s
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5732
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Box Mr. Christmas Fancy Yellow Flower Indent Glass Christmas Ornaments
Three very beautiful 1960s Christmas ornaments with daisy or sunflower center indents, still in their original Mr. Christmas box, made in East Germany. The ornaments are quite large, 3" diameter by about 3-3/4" high to the tops of the caps. The yellow and silver backs have a deeply textured orange peel effect, the centers have deep sunflower or daisy reflector indents in brilliant yellow gold and red. As if they still weren't pretty enough, there is white mica glitter at the openings - worn on two ornaments, but it's really doesn't matter - that's not where your eyes are drawn.
One ornament still has it's silvering, the other two have some loss of the inner mercury, mainly to the top halves. It happens to most old ornaments with real silvering sooner or later and is normal and expected. Otherwise the ornaments are perfect and undamaged. The box is in excellent condition, I see no damage or wear at all other than very minimal discoloration from age and storage. The metal caps are marked Germany East, as is the box. The zip code on the box dates the set to 1963 or later.
Circa: 1963
Country of Origin: DE
Manufacturer: Mr Christmas East German Import
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5474
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Pink Silver Indent and Chartreuse Czech Beaded Cross Christmas Ornament
A very pretty, delicate beaded glass Christmas ornament from Czechoslovakia, circa 1930s. The outside of the cross is formed by tiny wired chartreuse colored mercury glass beads. Down the center and across the arms are larger indented mercury beads, silver with pink centers. The cross measures 3-1/2" by 2-1/2". There is some typical deterioration of the inner mercury silvering, causing the beads to have both pearly and transparent areas.
Circa: 1930s
Country of Origin: CZ
Manufacturer: Pre-War Czech Import
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5678
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8 Red and White Figural and Indent Glass Feather Tree Christmas Ornaments
Eight lovely antique mercury glass Christmas ornaments with a common red color theme. They're small, mostly feather tree size, all but one made in Germany.
There are four very fragile, almost paper thin indented ornaments, each 1-1/2" diameter or less. Two are solid red, one has a pebbled or beaded stippled back. The silvered ornament with the red center has the same pebble textured back. The satin white indent has a red tinted rim and center.
The two largest ornaments are the figural Santa Claus at 2-3/4" high and the 2-5/8" tall paneled lantern. Both ornaments have natural deterioration of the inner mercury. The Santa has a pearly transparency with little color left, the lantern has a little more color left but will display as semi-transparent when backlit.
The 1-3/4" red flower or tulip ornament has some flaking of the red paint as shown. I believe the Art Deco style ringed beehive ornament with the red star was made in Japan. It's also about 1-3/4" high. All of the ornaments have some finish wear as shown and mentioned above, otherwise they're in good condition for their age.
Circa: 1910s - 1930s
Country of Origin: DE
Manufacturer: Pre-War German Import
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5685
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Figural Glass Clown With Banjo Christmas Ornament
This is a late 1940s to early 1950s West German figural glass Christmas ornament in the shape of a clown holding a banjo. Note the unusual crossed legs. Apparently at least four versions of this musical clown ornament were produced - three are shown in George Johnson's book A Pictorial Guide to Christmas Ornaments and Collectibles, valued at $50 to $75 each. The other clowns hold a drum, an accordion, and a saxophone. This one with the banjo isn't pictured however, but it's definitely part of the same series.
The ornament is 4-1/4" high and in wonderful condition with very little wear. The inner mercury silvering has whitened a bit but not degraded or turned transparent. The dark red and green paint of the clown's costume is still bright, and the painted facial features are all intact. There are no chips, breaks, or other problems.
Circa: 1948 - 1952
Country of Origin: DE
Manufacturer: Post War West German Import
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4799
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Blown Glass Teardrop Christmas Ornaments in Wired Tinsel Cages
Three very pretty blown satin glass long teardrop ornaments, each wrapped in wired metallic tinsel. They are 7 to 8 inches long total; one is blue with silver, one is green with silver, and one is beige-peach with gold. The metal caps are covered with the tinsel but I think the ornaments were made in West Germany. I have a fourth ornament in dark gold with green mercury beads at the bottom that I will include if the buyer wants it (second photo). It has a hole on one side but you may want to use it anyway, hanging the damaged side in toward the tree trunk, or you may have a replacement glass teardrop that will fit the tinsel and bead cage.
Circa: 1950s
Country of Origin: DE
Manufacturer: Mid Century West German Import
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5471
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Strawberry Cottage Glass Feather Tree Christmas Ornament
This vintage feather tree sized glass Christmas ornament is in the shape of a strawberry, with four paned windows on each side. Just over 1-3/4" high, it appears to have been silvered on the inside at one time but the mercury has deteriorated, leaving the ornament with its outside paint intact and a semi-transparent effect. I had to replace the metal cap, it was rusty and broken. There was no mark on the original, or if there was it was unreadable. In very good condition with no damage.
Circa: 1930s - 1940s
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5610
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2 Vintage Pink Shiny Brite Figural Top Lantern Glass Christmas Ornaments
A pair of vintage Shiny Brite glass Christmas ornaments in the uncommon toy top shape, sometimes called lanterns. They're just over 2-3/4" high, one solid medium pink, the other a brighter, hot pink, almost magenta, with painted green stripes. In good vintage condition with no chips or breaks though the light colored ornament has a bit of color wear.
Circa: Late 1940s to 1950s
Country of Origin: US
Manufacturer: Shiny Brite
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