Elgin author travels the world in search of antique German ornaments
When you lovingly unwrap your grandmother's glass dove to hang on your Christmas tree, just think -- she could have left you a clown or a devil.
And it would have been worth a lot more money.
Most birds do not impress John Lightner. He is interested only in the rarest of antique glass Christmas ornaments.
Lightner, who lives near Elgin, has published a book called "Christmas Rarities."
And he does mean rare.
He traveled the United States and Europe to photograph blown glass ornaments from 19th and early 20th century Germany. Some might be one of a kind.
The extreme fragility of the ornaments alone does not account for such rarity. Perhaps these ornaments were salesmen's samples that didn't impress whoever was buying for stores like Woolworth's, said Lightner.
"A lot of people think I'm out of my mind to spend that kind of money for a piece of glass that could break so easily," he said.
While many of these ornaments with bizarre themes, deteriorating silvering and faded or missing paint do not meet our current standards of beauty, they offer a fascinating trip through history.
Meet the Yellow Kid, one of the earliest comic strip characters whose name is tied to "yellow" or sensational journalism.
Charlie Chaplin, an icon of the silent film era, is depicted, as is Buster Brown, who sold shoes to many a generation of American children.
Although he is not sure, Lightner thinks some ornaments might have been inspired by Benjamin Disraeli, the 19th-century British prime minister; American founding father Ben Franklin, and French heroine Joan of Arc.
While Lightner's book lists values of hundreds of dollars and occasionally more on these 1,500 ornaments, he says these estimates are not worth much.
A grinning clown head is listed at $275 to $350 in the book, and devil heads are in a similar range.
Charlie Chaplin could run from $300 to $375, and Buster Brown with glass legs is estimated at $1,200 to $1,400.
The real values all depend on what someone in the relatively small circle of super collectors is willing to pay, he said.
He visited about 50 of them while researching the book.
His main advice to collectors: Do not buy an expensive ornament sight unseen. Even a tiny pinhole break can greatly affect the value.
Do not store your glass ornaments in the attic or basement where they might encounter moisture and fluctuating temperatures. Sixty-five to 85 degrees is ideal. He puts his in bubble wrap, then inside an unsealed sandwich bag.
If you want Martha Stewart to turn green with envy, just mention Lightner.
His real love is the ornaments known as kugels, and he says he has one of the largest collections in the world.
Kugels, as Stewart fans know, are balls and pieces of fruit and vegetables made from colored glass in 19th-century Germany.
The decorating diva has introduced her own line and installed the baubles on the Christmas tree in Macy's State Street store.
Lightner has a chapter on kugels in his book. They are much heavier than the blown ornaments and are made of colored glass, rather than being painted. He also laments that some newer ones made in India are difficult to tell from the original German.
He has kugels listed as high as $3,500, but for most of the rare ones he just says "market."
Like many collectors, Lightner traces his passion to childhood.
"My father would put up a huge tree every year. I was just mesmerized by the lights and color of the ornaments and the shapes. I was probably 6 years old when my father first let me help put on the lights. We had a big Christmas tradition in our home."
"Christmas Rarities" is available for $75 plus postage at www.christmasrarities.com