Clay Face Chenille Santa Atop Vintage Glass Christmas Ornament

Collectibles : Holiday, Seasonal : Christmas : Vintage

 

Rare and wonderful, this old chenille Santa Claus ornament was probably made in Japan. A classic clay face chenille Santa with read cotton beard is mounted to the top of a mercury silvered gold glass Christmas ornament along with a chenille candy cane, mercury bead spikes, and lacquered holly leaves and berries. The ornament is attached to a mica snow frosted ring so it can stand by itself, though you could easily hang it on your Christmas tree as well. The entire ornament is about 4" tall.

Santa's face is wonderfully detailed, right down to his forehead wrinkles. The red chenille has typical age fading, and the lacquered holly and berries have some wear as shown. The glass ornament has a pearly, near-transparent effect from normal age degradation of the inner mercury silvering. It's an older ornament, made before World War II. You can always tell by the quality of the molded clay face (plastic faces were used more often on the post-war versions). Whether you collect antique chenille Santa figures or just unusual and scarce vintage ornaments, you won't find this one again any time soon, I'm sure.

Item ID: 5609