Christmas Tree Found Early Use For Light Bulbs

BOOK REVIEW

Electric lighting has been used on Christmas trees for over 120 years. It was in 1882 that a tree belonging to an associate of Thomas Edison was first decorated with small electric lamps. Since that time, many thousands of different decorated lights have been produced, and these are the subject of Electric Christmas Lighting, by Cindy Chipps and Greg Olson, a 2005 Collector Books publication.

The business of producing electric Christmas lighting became a prosperous business over the years. Companies in Germany, the United States, England, and Japan, followed in order by Hong Kong, Taiwan and now China have been the primary manufacturers. This book focuses on the period from the early 1900s to the middle of the 1960s, which the authors consider to be the most prolific and interesting years for this lighting. The begins with the earliest of the festoon lights to the period where midget lighting came into fashion.

The bulbs of the first Christmas lights had, instead of a screw base, two wires which extended outside the glass portion (called an envelope) and were bent into a loop. Several glass envelopes were strong together to form a chain, called a festoon.

This was a cumbersome system and it soon was replaced by the screw base which is used today. The screw bases were made in sizes called candelabra, intermediate and standard. The very small midget screw base came into use in the late 1950s.

The first glass envelope portions were in the same pear shape that Edison had used for his lights. The clear glass  was sometimes dipped in lacquer to give it color, or dipped in acid to frost the glass. Milk glass lamps in this shape were a later import from Japan.

By the 1920s, lighting sets were available. The first of these commercially available wee made of porcelain sockets strong together on cloth-covered wire, usually eight to a string and wired in series.

The porcelain sockets quickly gave way to composition sockets, followed soon after by phenolic ones.

The original boxes were wooden, which in turn gave way to the cheaper cardboard boxes. It is the graphics on these cardboard boxes that make them particularly interesting.

In addition to the basic lighting sets covered in the book, there are sections on bubble lights, shade sets, stars, figural lightbulbs, candles and  candelabra, wreaths, specialty and motion lamps, treetoppers and more.

The book contains a value guide, and sells for $39.95. It is available at book stores, from Collector Books at P.O. Box 3009, Paducah, KY 42002, or online at www.collectorbooks.com.

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Price Guide For Watches Is Excellent Reference

BOOK REVIEW

The Complete Price Guide to Watches, the 2005 edition, by Cooksey Shugart, Tom Engle, and Richard E. Gilbert, is one of the most useful reference books available for anyone trying to identify and evaluate watches. It includes pocket watches and wristwatches, both American and European made.

As the authors point out, watches have proved fascinating for several reasons. Since the beginning of civilization as we know it, man has been fascinated by time and tried to keep track of it, beginning with the simplest hourglasses filled with sand.

Furthermore, the watches of years past represent an intricate form of artisanship. They were assembled by hand, with extreme accuracy and beautiful workmanship. The well-made ones will still be reliable time pieces today.

If you wish to collect watches, there is a lot to learn, because many factors influence the value. As with all collectibles, condition is a factor. So is the age, the manufacturer, and the materials used. A watch differs from many collectibles, however, in that the inner workings are more important than the outside appearance. A glitzy watch with a cheap movement has less value than a fine movement in a less expensive case.

Railroad watches are a case in point. A railroad man had to have a watch that met the rigid standards of the railroad company. Railroad timekeeping was the standard for the nation. But the average railroad man could not usually afford a fancy case, nor did he need one - this was a working tool, after all.

The book tells the story of the "Great American Pocket Watch" in detail. It's an interesting story. There were between 500 and 1000 American railroads and each one used different rules and specifications for its watches. In the 1890s, Webb C. Ball, the general inspector for over 125,000 miles of railroad, was authorized to develop standards for railroad watches. Although the standards were changed each year, according to regulations, if a watch fell behind or gained 30 seconds in 7 to 14 days, it had to be sent in for adjustment or repair. This accuracy was critical from a safety standpoint; the number of railroad accidents decreased greatly after the timekeeping was synchronized and accurate.

The Complete Price Guide to Watches is published by TinderBox Press (305) 532-6950 and distributed by Collector Books (800) 626-5420. It contains almost 1,200 pages and sells for $29.95.

Donna Miller

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These Shoes Weren’t Made For Walking

BOOK REVIEW

Figural shoes made from every material known to man have been created for over four thousand years, according to Anne Wojtkowski in Porcelain and Pottery Shoes. Boots, sandals, slippers, clogs,  roller skates and more, all have been reproduced in miniature form.

In Wojtkowski's book, just porcelain and pottery shoes are covered, as the title indicates. You'll find Delft-patterned  Dutch shoes, German  shoes in Royal Bayreuth's tapestry, Rocking ham-glazed American made shoes, Austrian porcelain baby shoes, Nippon shoes that look like Dutch clogs and Goss crested china shoes from England, to name just a few.

The well-researched text includes an alphabetical listing of manufacturers, designers, decorators and importers, along with locations, years of operation and product lines.

Most manufacturers made shoes known as straights. These are shoes that have no distinguishing curves that designate them as left or right. Mates are a pair of shoes that are shaped like straights, but have some feature that suggests there is a mate. For example, if you find a shoe that is a straight, but has buttons down the left side, it is very possible that it has a mate - one with buttons down the right side. (Actually, the straights mirrored fashion. Real shoes that were made curved for the right or left foot were made by hand and available only to the wealthy; most women's real shoes were made as straights until about 1900.)

If you find a porcelain shoe that has the decoration on only one side, you have found what is known as a cabinet piece. These were made during Victorian times to display in a cabinet or on a mantle, where only one side would be visible. It's not incompletely decorated - it was made that way on purpose.

 Another special type of collectible shoe collectors call a "wedding cake" shoe. These have elaborate piped-on slip appliqués that have been applied from a nozzle in the same way that cakes are decorated.

There is another group of shoes called "gangster" shoes. Although the manufacturer is unknown at this time, many of them feature spats with green shoes, like those worn by well-dressed dandies and gangsters of the early 1920s.

This will be a valuable reference book for collectors of miniature shoes. It is published by Schiffer Publishing, and includes a price guide. The book sells for $49.95. Contact Schiffer at (610) 593-1777 or use the online catalog: www.schifferbooks.com.

Donna Miller

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