BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments

Subject: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: SINSULL
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 01:09 PM

I have a pair of Christmas balls - one green and one silver. They are huge, maybe 10" in diameter and were probably store decorations. These are Mercury glass and HEAVY. Late 1800s.
Does anyone know anything about them or where I might find a history and value?
Thanks,
Mary

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: GUEST,Jack the Sailor
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 01:13 PM

I'd look on Ebay.

Is there an "Antiques Roadshow" coming near you soon?

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 01:36 PM

http://www.vintageweave.com/store/page20.html
You could try this site.... maybe contact them for advice. Best wishes, Mike.

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 02:00 PM

A plain mercury glass ball, 10 inch, is offered at one site for $US230. Colored ones are worth more.
Those with mottled or varied colors, often known as 'witch balls,' can be worth a great deal. A 5-inch multicolor is offered by a dealer for $1200.
The Sandwich Glass Co. and other 19th c. glass makers produced them, some as 'whimseys' which often are one-of-a-kind, but the simple globular forms were made fairly abundantly for decorative purposes.

I remember a neighbor, years ago, who had one on a stand, an eye-catching decoration.

Made in England from mid-18th c. and in U. S. and Canada in the 19th c.

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: SINSULL
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 02:15 PM

Thanks Q. But these are not gazing balls. They are actual Christmas balls with the hole and fitting for hanging. But I would like the link to the site - it may be a start. These have no come up on eBay in years. either they are rare or crap. As big and heavy as they are, I can't imagine them being used in a home. But maybe they are something altogether different.

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 03:15 PM

Your inquiry and my attempt at an answer already show up in google!

I found one large 'silver' mercury ball for $1150, showing the fitting.
Mercury ball

Some large ones were made for use on newel posts, but they had a stem.

Smaller ones are still being made for sale in India, etc., several offerings on google, although mercury ornaments and toys are now classed as toxic.

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 03:25 PM

Apparently the seller dates it as ca. 1930.

The balls and ornaments seem to be 'chic' nowadays, made with a silver nitrate reflector rather tham mercury.

Article from Spokesman Review-
Mercury glass

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 03:28 PM

Sorry- wrong story number put in link:

Mercury glass

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 03:52 PM

There was a good article in Martha Stewart Living a couple of years ago about old glass ornaments. Kugels, primarily, but they are lots of shapes and sizes.

I'll see if I still have that one around here, or you could visit her web site and check out the December issues.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: SINSULL
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 04:18 PM

Found one. 1800s but only 5 1/2". $115. Gold.

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: SINSULL
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 04:27 PM

http://www.tias.com/9080/PictPage/3923462455.html

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 04:44 PM

For ten bucks the appraisers at What's It Worth To You will give you a written appraisal. They do good work, at least in my experience with them.

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Aug 08 - 11:52 AM

Mary, it looks like you have some interesting resesarch to do this fall. Start a search with the keywords over on eBay and you'll get an email letting you know any time an item is listed. This is a great way to run a comparison, once you find someone who lists who seems to know what they're talking about, that is. ;-D

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: bobad
Date: 30 Aug 08 - 11:58 AM

Glass balls were used as fishing net floats, is it possible that that was their function?

Google glass net floats.

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Aug 08 - 12:10 PM

They look entirely different.

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: olddude
Date: 30 Aug 08 - 12:46 PM

my friend does estate sales with lots of antiques. I help him out from time to time. We normally get about 120 US dollars a piece for them. I know some are more rare then others but in general that is what the go for. Antique websites and books will have all kinds of big numbers on them but this is normally what you could really espect without elaborate etched designs. Selling on ebay if you want to get rid of them, expect to get what I quoted unless they are very rare ones which the description doesn't sound like to me

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: olddude
Date: 30 Aug 08 - 12:52 PM

Oh by the way, I am quoting those prior to 1900's. Companies continued to make the same pattern's until the 40's in which case they would be much less than that. I am assuming they are christmas bulbs and not float's for a net or even the very early fire bulbs. These were filled with a chemical, they were in-cased in a glass bulb and they would be used to throw into a fire, upon breaking they would release the chemical to put the fire out. If you have one of these now, they sell pretty good. We sold a mint set of them in the wooden case for 800 dollars US but they were rare colors.

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: maeve
Date: 30 Aug 08 - 01:56 PM

From the first post:

Subject: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: SINSULL - PM
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 01:09 PM

I have a pair of Christmas balls - one green and one silver. They are huge, maybe 10" in diameter and were probably store decorations. These are Mercury glass and HEAVY. Late 1800s.

___________________

Not fishing net floats, not for extinguishing fires. Mercury glass.

It's ok. I forget to read the whole thread too. :>)

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: SINSULL
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 11:31 AM

A local group is offering appraisals next Saturday. I will walk them over and see.Thank you for all the help.
Mary

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: olddude
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 01:04 PM

Mary what you describe, yes ... 120 US dollars a piece my guess

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 03:06 AM

Can't help thinking you'd get more posts if you'd titled this thread 'Antique Christmas balls' but you might not have liked the majority of comments!

Good luck with your searches... try searching 'baubles' as one of your key words. Any indication where they were made? Germany was the epicentre for all glass Christmas tree ornaments at one time - as is bourne out by the multitude of Christmas shops open and trading well in August!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: mouldy
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 12:25 PM

I've got a green witch ball.
It is like a huge Christmas bauble, and they were meant to hang in the window. It is 8" in diameter. I paid £10 at an antiques fair for it, and have seen similar ones for £25-£30. I got it with a gilt chain (not old) hooked onto it, and funnily enough I was online just now looking up where traditionally it should hang!

Andrea

I'm going to hang it off the curtain pole in the dining room, where it will face the south.

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 01:22 PM

The search term to use to get you deep into the collecting territory is the one I used in my earlier post - kugel (also try the mis-spelling "kugle"--it gets a few hits). That gets you straight into ornamental glass balls and shapes, many of them antique.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Antique Christmas Ornaments
From: GUEST,RB
Date: 07 Oct 08 - 07:27 PM

She was correct about them being Witches balls. Some were referred to merely as Spirit balls and they had a hole in one end and some were hung...this is where Christmas ornaments came from. In the Victorian era they became the ideal of wealth and people had fancy ones and they weren't hung on trees because they were too heavy but they are of the same background. It just depended on use and who had them and location on the name attached. In Germany they are called Kugels.