The Gleam of Czech Christmas Trees

Part of the "Shiny and Brite" of this year's Gingerbread House Festival comes from the mid-century Czech Christmas trees displayed on both fireplace mantles.  This loaned collection belongs to Executive Director Carolyn Venne, and Carolyn provides an overview of these beauties in this Musing with images of the trees on display.

History of the Czech Republic and Nomenclature

The history of the current political boundary of the Czech Republic is a long and varied one.  Some key points:  The area was once generally made up of the three lands of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia, which had been settled by Celts, Slavic tribes and Germanic tribes.  At different times it was ruled by the Roman Empire and the Austrian Habsburg Empire.  The independent state of Czechoslovakia was created after World War I, and was later long under Soviet rule.  In 1993, Czechoslovakia was divided into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic (Slovakia).  

The term "bohemian" used to describe an artistic wanderer was derived in France for the Romani people who had migrated from the region of Bohemia in the 15th century.  Today bohemian is a fashion style, but it also refers to a region in the Czech Republic.

"Rhinestones" were named for the pebbles of quartz and other natural sparkly rocks with a high lead content found in the Rhine River (which makes up much of the Swiss-German and French-German borders).  Today, rhinestones are typically leaded crystal or mirror/foil backed glass beads, made popular by Daniel Swarovski, son of a Bohemian gem cutter, and the company Preciosa (founded in Bohemia in 1915).

History and Tradition

Many people are familiar with traditional Czech blown glass Christmas ornaments or vintage rhinestone costume jewelry, brooches in particular.  But a lesser known collectible item are standing Christmas trees.  Each stone is hand set and soldered together.  In fact, the reverse side of true vintage trees always feature a messy background of metal in various colors - this is indicative of the use of pot metals (factory production scraps such as copper, zinc, tin, aluminum and others).  

Specific historical information is rare, in part because standing Christmas trees have been continuously made for nearly 100 years.  My research has indicated that factory production workers in Czechoslovakia as early as the 1930s took home extra rhinestones or repurposed stones from broken jewelry to make Christmas trees.  Soon, trees were a purposeful item produced by various big name costume jewelers including Husar D, Bijoux M.G. and Taboo.  

Many makers (companies and/or workers) never stopped creating trees, and today you can find brand new ones (usually in modern color schemes), trees with repurposed stones in a cacophony of colors and, well- preserved trees close to their original condition. It's nearly impossible to know the history of a tree for certain.

My Collecting Story

Many years ago on Martha's Vineyard my mom and I entered one of their many (greatly overpriced) antique shops and were accosted by the amazing sight of thousands of twinkling Czech rhinestones in Christmas trees of every size and design.  Even the tiniest ones were priced at more than $100.  A few years later on a river cruise, my mom visited the Czech  Republic and purchased a vintage tree for each of us at a much more reasonable cost.  I soon explored Ebay for the first time with the potential to collect more, and, well, you can guess the rest.  

The first tree I purchased is my least favorite.  Seeing it online, I thought I had hit the jackpot, but when it arrived, I was immediately disappointed by its giant plastic-looking gemstones, pristine base and shiny reverse side (see right and below).  A hallmark of vintage trees are obviously touches of patina and rust, wonky stone settings and evidence of repair.  

Now, I only purchase trees that are mailed directly from the Czech Republic, and preferably from the city of Jablonec nad Nisou, the historic and current center of Bohemian glass production (and the headquarters of Preciosa).  I must be able to see images of the back and base of a tree.  I also look for trees with uranium glass (also known as vaseline glass), due to their actual uranium content which glows under ultraviolet light (you may have encountered this in pieces of Depression glass).  Though they lack color (and I have no intention of putting black lights in my curio cabinets), at least I know the stones are truly vintage.  

Where To Find Your Own

While I'm not going to give away the name of my favorite seller who I've connected with in Jablonec nad Nisou, I will dazzle you with a few online sources for trees.  

Czech Christmas is the online retail shop of an antique store in Prague.  They have a huge assortment of standing trees and brooches at reasonable prices.  The site mentions that their trees are handmade of real Czech crystal and pot metal, but were mainly produced in the second half of the 20th century.  That timing confirms what I observe - many have designs I've not seen in very old trees, and many have extraordinarily lined up stones with no gaps.  If I particularly loved one, I would purchase, but I don't think they date as early as the 1950s.  However, it's all personal preference!

The French Tangerine is a blog and online shop, I think in the United States.  She is upfront about how she sources her trees (and marks up the prices) and acknowledges that some are old, some are new - she just chooses to resell what she likes.  The pieces for sale on this site are truly amazing and fun to look at.  They also come with "amazing" prices.  

Kusaida is a seller on Ebay out of the UK.  This is where you'll find modern creations such as rainbow color schemes.  They list nearly all of their items as vintage / estate.  Hmmm.  Still, a gorgeous selection to peruse.  I'm assuming the really high prices are in part, like the French Tangerine, due to resell markups (especially with the exchange from GBP to US Dollars).  

Whether you refer to these trees as Bohemian, Rhinestone, Czech glass or something else - I hope you enjoyed the sparkle to this year's festival and perhaps even learned a little something about them!

For Further Reading

 - A Brief History of the Czech Republic
 - The Origin of Rhinestones
 - How Bohemians Got Their Name