They sparkle, they shine--they light up the tree and the eyes of all who look upon them: therein lies the beauty of Christmas ornaments. Across these pages in richly detailed photographs are a merrily glistening array of some of the most creative, clever, and exquisite ornaments ever produced. A lively introduction explains the tradition of decorating trees, and gives the history of ornaments from the first commercially marketed ones (made possible by a new glass-blowing process) to the silver balls and garlands produced by newly arrived immigrants to the United States to modern designs fashioned out of Styrofoam and satin. The authors also look at some homemade treasures, including designs on paper and food-based decorations such as cookies, pretzels, and marzipan.
A lovely little book that takes a fresh look at Christmas decorations. Up to page forty it covers the usual paper, glass, celluloid and plastic decorations that you'll see in most collectors books about festive season but from there until page 160 there are photos of an amazing assortment of up-market ornaments that are not usually seen in other books. The Christmas feel is drawn rather wide because you'll see a Tutenkommen head designed by Jay Strongwater, Christopher Radko inspired monsters from Jurassic Park or a Buccellatti endangered species set in sterling silver (and only five hundred produced) but all of them have the hanging clip to allow them to be put on a tree. Most of the book's decorations though do interpret the traditional symbols of the season: Santa, winter scenes, three wise men, snow crystals (Swarovski do some stunning ones) or just highly decorated round baubles. Surprisingly there are no Georg Jensen Christmas keepsakes. All of these delights are displayed on the page as cutouts with short captions with a simple elegant layout. My only criticism is that there are no dimensions mentioned for any of these wonderful ornaments. ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.
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