Shiny Brite Christmas Ornaments - Old And New

World War II saw the beginning of Shiny Briteornaments a day and sent them to other
Christmas ornaments. Americans loved the gleambusinesses for decoration. Their largest customer
of Christmas trees decorated with glass balls. Inwas Shiny Brite, the company established by Max
the 1930s, most of those decorations wereEckhardt.
imported from Germany and Japan. Max EckardtEckrdt continued to produce ornaments under the
was an American businessman who had beentrade name Shiny Brite all through WW II. In
importing German Christmas tree ornaments1944, when wartime rationing made it impossible
since 1907. He recalled how WW I had damagedfor him to get silver or lacquer, he decorated the
his business, and by 1937 he could see that hisclear glass balls with thin stripes painted in pastel
thriving business would probably be interruptedcolors. Cardboard folded hangers and, later,
again. Like any good businessman, he developed aglued-on cardboard caps replaced the shining metal
strategy to deal with the difficulty.caps used previously.
Many glassblowers from the famousAfter WW II ended, Shiny Brite became the
ornament-making areas in Europe had emigratedbiggest U.S. manufacturer of glass Christmas
to America and worked for Corning Glass. Inornaments. The brilliant colors were typical of
1937, Corning manufactured electric light bulbsthose exuberant years. The metal caps of these
with a "ribbon" glassblowing machine, for whichpostwar decorations were stamped "Shiny Brite
they were the patent-holder. The machine couldMade in US". They were packed in boxes labeled
blow 2,000 light bulbs per minute, even though it"American Made".
was working below capacity. Eckardt realized atThe line stopped making glass ornaments in 1962.
once that the machine could be modified to makeThese vintage Shiny Brite decorations are
beautiful Christmas tree balls.desirable to collectors.
By late 1938, Corning Glass had started toToday, families are thrilled with Christopher
experiment with ornament molds. In 1939Radko's reintroduction of the line. Radko bought
Woolworth's, the biggest seller of imported glassthe rights to the Shiny Brite name, and began
decorations, ordered 235,000 ornaments made byproducing accurate reproductions of the
Corning. They, too, understood that war wasdecorations in 2001. Even the boxes look almost
coming, so they were looking for a domesticthe same as the vintage ones, except that the
supplier. They marketed the new, simplerphrase 'Christopher Radko presents' has been
successfully that Christmas.added. Now everybody can still have a Shiny Brite
In 1940, Corning Glass made about 300,000Christmas!