Dating shiny brite ornaments

Even the Corning Santa Claus ornament has an Americanized appearance ~ so unlike the German St. IN ITS first year of operation, the worlds only mass-production factory for manufacturing glass Christmas-tree ornaments, the Wellsboro, Pa., plant of the Corning Glass Works, has turned out more than half of all the new decorations which will bedeck American trees this season.At the rate of 400 a minute, approximately 2,000,000 a week, the brightly colored globes have been pouring from the production line.In addition to simple spheres, several ornament shapes were industrial-inspired Deco Modern.By not using old European ornaments for inspiration, the new ornaments completely symbolized Americanism, Patriotism and the American Ideal.This led German importer Max Eckardt, in cooperation with F. Woolworths, to approach Corning Glass Works regarding the possibility of adapting their Ribbon Machine light bulb machinery to Christmas ornament production.utilized designers from their Steuben Art Glass division to design the new shapes for their Christmas ornament venture.

The first wartime ornaments were made from glass, but were not silvered on the inside.

I love the story behind the American company and how the war lent to its success.

In 1937, Max Eckardt established Shiny Brite ornaments, working with the Corning Glass company to mass-produce machine-blown glass Christmas ornaments.

Each of these delicate ornaments was completely hand-blown and hand-painted.

Ornament manufacturing occurred in the home, and was a family cottage industry, with each family member responsible for a portion of production.