The History of Glass Christmas Ornaments
It was the invention of the blowpipe by some unknown artisan that brought about the craft of glass blowing, eventually evolving into the fine art of Christmas glass ornaments we know today. Christoph Muller and Hans Greiner set up Germany’s first glassworks in 1597 in Lauscha which was located in a river valley, and had several elements needed for glass making: timber (for firing the glass ovens) and sand. Soon other glassworks were established in the town, producing drinking glasses, flasks, glass bowls, glass beads and even glass eyes.
In 1847 Hans Greiner (who was a descendent of the Hans Greiner who had established Lauscha’s first glassworks) began producing glass ornaments in the shape of fruits and nuts. These were made in a very unique hand-blown process combined with molds. The inside of the ornament was made to look silvery, at first using mercury or lead, then later using a special compound of silver nitrate and sugar water. Greiner’s sons and grandsons, Ernst, Otto, Willi, and Kurt, carried on the Christmas ornament tradition. They were also responsible for another ingenious product: glass marbles.
Glass ornaments became popular in 1846 when an illustration of Queen Victoria’s Christmas tree was printed in a London paper. The royal tree was lavishly decorated with glass ornaments from Prince Albert’s native land of Germany. Soon these unique glass Christmas ornaments were being exported to other parts of Europe as the demand grew and grew.
In the 1880s it was the American dime-store magnate F. W. Woolworth who discovered Lauscha’s glassworks during a visit to Germany. Despite his initial reluctance to stock the glass ornaments, he later made a fortune by importing the German glass ornaments to the U.S. Ironically, he was selling $25 million worth of ornaments by 1890 at nickel and dime prices.
Germany continued manufacturing ornaments facing virtually no competition until 1925. Then Japan and Czechoslovakia began producing ornaments in large quantities for export to this country. By 1935, more then 250 million Christmas tree ornaments were being imported to the United States.