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A Broad Selection of American Vintage Ornaments

Written by: Kevin Milaeger

October 23rd, 2023

Now that the weather has cooled I’m sorting through the vintage Christmas ornaments that we’ve acquired since last year. We have a tree full of vintage ornaments at each store already, but we have lot more ornaments to work through and put out. This is an ongoing project and we’ll be adding to the store trees regularly.

Smaller American Indents

Larger American Indents

Assorted American A

Assorted American B

We’re especially pleased to offer a broad selection of American ornaments, mostly from the 40’s through 60’s. A number of these are indents, which are a favorite of collectors because of their increased surface area, and greater reflection, hence more dazzle. Some are quite small, smaller than a golf ball. Some collectors shun the small ornaments, but I like them. You can always find a spot for them, unlike some of the really big ornaments. I think of them as tiny treasures, like a little surprise that you overlooked the first time. A few of these are “sugared,” giving them added texture. Some of the unsilvered small ornaments are nearly gem-like in their coloring.

American Indents A

American Indents B

An interesting category that we see far too little of is one I call “Chinese lanterns.” These come in a variety of shapes, and to me, they suggest those wonderful colorful paper lanterns. The color on some of these is very strong, with little or no fading. Because of their interesting shapes, they add a lot to a tree display.

Chinese Lanterns

"Tree" and "Mushroom"

Some of the names I use to reference different shapes are just names that I came up with. They aren’t real categories, so if you try to search online for them you may not find much. Two such categories are the tree and mushroom ornaments. These are very pleasing shapes, with broad, bold stripes of various colors. I don’t know why, but they are made with much thicker glass than most ornaments, much thicker than those from Europe.

World War II

If you’ve been reading my ornament blogs over the years you probably remember my fondness for “unsilvered” ornaments. These lack the inner silver coating that was not available during the big wars, because the mercury was needed for the war effort. Along with mercury, aluminum was also in short supply during the war, so the caps on some of these are made of paper. I like the idea of seeing though the transparent ornaments and seeing other ornaments. And I like it that they let light through, so the tree is overall brighter. They are particularly effective with white lights. These are almost always colored glass, and we see pretty much all colors. Striping or other decoration often adds to their charm. Some have tinsel inside for additional pizazz.

Hand Painted Unsilvered

Smaller Unsilvered

We’ll have much more to show you in the coming weeks. Please keep in mind that we’re always looking to purchase old glass ornaments. We often get them from estate sales, flea markets, rummage sales and auctions. Perhaps you have a box or two of unwanted ornaments that you’d like to turn into cash. Send us a few pictures if you are interested.

Unsilvered with Tinsel

Unsilvered with Decoration

Please email me if you have any questions or comments. If you are interested in purchasing ornaments pictured in this blog, please contact Nick at 262.693.2040 x101 or info@milaegers.com.

A Broad Selection of American Vintage Ornaments

Smaller American Indents

Larger American Indents

Assorted American A

Assorted American B

American Indents A

American Indents B

Chinese Lanterns

"Tree" and "Mushroom"

World War II

Hand Painted Unsilvered

Smaller Unsilvered

Unsilvered with Tinsel

Unsilvered with Decoration

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