Ornament Traditions

Chirstmas at the Hunter House is upon us again. The house is busy with people figuring out ways to decorate the house to everyone's delight. Our decorations are unique since we always focus on the Victorian Era. This year is no different. Many people don't realize that a lot of our Christmas traditions come from Germany. As you may know already, Queen Victoria married Prince Albert. Albert was from Germany and brought many of the Christmas traditions with him when he came to England. To name just a few: the Christmas tree, the carol Silent Night, and Nutcrackers. This year we have decided to make our decorations all about German traditions. To kick things off, we will be having a German Christmas market in our house. This will be Saturday and Sunday, November 20-21. There will be local vendors selling their wares and German goodies available. One of the items available at the market, will be genuine Olde World Glass Ornamaents.

Glass ornaments are one of the biggest traditions of Germany. Blown glass ornaments have been made in Germany since the 1500s. It was in the Victorian Era in 1870 when they were first exported to Britian. America also imported German blown glass ornaments after F.W. Woolworth discovered them on a trip to Germany in 1880. In those days, the inside of the glass ornaments were made to look silvery by using either mercury or lead. As people discovered that mercury and lead were not healthy to use, they changed the inside to be a combination of silver nitrate & sugar water to protect the makers and the owners of the ornaments. The majority of glass ornament makers lived in an area in Germany called Lauscha.

The glass makers in Lauscha improved their craft for many generations, but the industry became in danger of becoming obsolete after World War II. Once the war was over, the Allied Forces divided Germany amongst themselves. Each country gaining power and control over one section of Germany. Lauscha is in East Germany, which became controlled by the Soviet Union. The Soviets believed that the traditions of Germany needed to be wiped out in order to ensure that they had learned their lesson after the War. Glass Blowing was one of many past times the Soviets sought to destory. The molds that were used to make the ornaments for generations were found and destroyed. Many in Lauscha hid the glass molds and still others that were trying to keep their family heritage escaped to Neustadt (a city in American occupied Germany).

Today, there remains a popular German glass company that still makes ornaments. The company is called Inge-glas ornaments or is often referred to as Glas Inge. It is named for a lady who remained in Lauscha Germany and managed to save nearly all of the glass molds her family had for generations before her. When her family escaped Lauscha and went to Neustadt, she stayed behind. She broke all of the glass molds she had in half. She would send a box full of one half of each mold to her grandson, which a note telling him they were toys. When the Soviets looked through her mail, they only saw her sending broken molds to her grandson to play with. Later, she would send the second half of each mold in the same manner. Her son and grandson would them put the molds back together. In this way, she helped save the German glass making tradition. Her son and grandson started making ornaments again and selling them both in Germany and abroad. Neustadt became the new center for German glass blowing.

If you have an Inge-Glas ornament, it may be marked with a star crown. This emblem was stamped on every ornament they made until 2000. In 2000, they set up distribution sites in other countries besides Germany and did not keep the same emblem. Today, there is not an emblem on any of their ornaments. However, they remain a collector's item. Each year a new ornament is created to represent the traditions of today.

I'm Feeling Sad

Some days it feels as though there is a problem or a crisis in the lives of everyone I know. What a huge pity party we could throw! Then there are days when everyone I know is just rolling along, living their lives, things are good.
Life is good, so many say, and I will agree. However, I have just discovered that a special gal died fairly recently. I must have been out of town, or our newspaper perhaps did not carry the obituary as she was living in Richmond, Virginia.
It is hard to dscribe the sadness I felt when I realized that author Emyl Jenkins passed away in April. It was not sadness so much for me, but for us, all of us who read her writings and would continue to read them, looked forward to more to read. For all who called her friend, or even acquaintance.
I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Emyl as she wrote Southern Christmas. The Hunter House Victorian Museum is featured there and it was a treat to spend several days with her. We had the opportunity to share our lives, our stories and our love of The South; we found we were kindred spirits.
Emyl was gracious and generous; she was humorous and hospitable; she seemed almost family to me.
Her warm and gentle spirit will be missed in this world. I still feel sad about that, but if we will, we can carry forth her spirit.
If you have not had the chance to meet Emyl through her books, especially Southern Christmas and Southern Hospitality, do! If you love old treasures, read her appraisal books, and her fiction Stealing With Style set in and amid antique treasures.
I am so thankful that Emyl walked through my door and briefly into my life.

Shakespeare: The Victorian Idol

William Shakespeare is arguably the most quoted and most immortal writer in all of history. He wrote most of the phrases we use even in the course of today's speech. To name of few, the green-eyed monster, the long and short of it, and give the devil his due. Shakespeare wrote during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, a woman with significant power. As a result his plays have female characters that are strong willed, free thinkers, and often times rebellious. When Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837, England had another powerful woman at its helm. A woman who was not bound by the same social rules as an everyday, average woman. In Shakespeare, Victorians found willfull and strong female characters that mirrored their monarch. They loved the idea of Shakespeare's independent women. One Victorian writer was so enthralled by these characters that she imagined their lives before Shakespeare wrote about them. She even wrote a book, Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines, which became a popular book for young girls. The editors of the time period also tried to preserve the "innocence" of a young girl and thus produced editions of Shakespeare's plays where any phrase that could offend or ruin a young girl was removed.

Not only did young people like the master bard's plays, writers of the Victorian era looked to the works of Shakespeare for guidance and inspiration. For many, the draw of Shakespeare's works came from the fact that his plays cover such a wide range of genres and human emotions. His works show not only tragedy, history, and comedy; but also love, betrayal, revenge, murder, fantasy, sorrow, etc. It wasn't until the Regency and Victorian eras when the idea for the novel became a reality. Those that wrote the novels we remember and respect today, often copied or quoted Shakespeare throughout their works. Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Herman Melville are three widely famous authors that used Shakespeare as a guide. In Jane Austen's first novel, Sense and Sensiblitiy, Marianne Dashwood quotes Shakespeare's sonnet 116 to describe her love for Willoughby. Marianne uses this sonnet to justify her decision not to hide her feelings in anything she does. Later in the novel, the same sonnet is used to describe the loss Marianne feels after she is set aside by Willoughby. Charles Dickens fashioned his characters using Shakespeare's model for character devlopment. Many of his characters are satirical or parodies for the social occurences in his time. The title for his work Twice Told Tales is a quote from Shakespeare's King John. Lastly, Herman Melville's character of Captain Ahab is often referred to by critics as a Shakesperean tragic character. In his works, Melville wrote almost like a playwright by using sililoquies instead of dialogue. Other writers also quoted Shakespeare in their work, but to list them all would take a really long time. But to give you a general idea as to how often the bard was quoted in this time period, let me tell you that George Bernard Shaw called literature and society's dedication to Shakespeare "Bardolatry".

As the Victorian era came to an end in 1901, the novel was in its glory and authors were continuing to quote Shakespeare in their work. As the novel progressed into silent movies and later into films, Shakespeare's plays and sonnets remained the pinnacle works to adapt. Over the years, there have been countless productions of his plays on the silverscreen. However, recently there has been the idea to take Shakespeare to a younger and cooler audience. Leading to adaptations that have Macbeth taking place in a restuarant; Othello taking place in a high school; Romeo & Juliet with handguns; and The Twelfth Night at a boarding school socceer field. I guess what you can take away from this posting is that no matter what time period comes next, Shakespeare's works will stand the test of time somehow. Every generation since he lived has bent his work to their own cultural inclinations.

As a side note, this blog was inspired by our Shakespeare on Love picnic. It will be held, Tuesday evening, July 13 at 6:00pm. We still have places available - please call the museum for reservations. 757-623-9814.

Picnics and Parades ~ An Old Fashioned Memorial Day

Today it seems as though Memorial Day is the beginning of summer, rather than the summer solstice on June 21. Memorial Day marks the opening of pools and beach rentals. That is not the way our grandparents and theirs observed the day.

Memorial Day or Decoration Day was a day filled with parades and picnics. The entire town or city followed the marching bands and military units into the oldest of cemeteries. There they listened to music and speeches and then made their way to their family plots and unfurled a blanket and unbuttoned the picnic hamper.

The cemetery was almost a public park with natural areas and scenic vistas and a variety of sculpture. It was designed to be peaceful and quiet, well except for those bugles and trombones on parade days. Memorial days were most likely the busiest of visiting days in the cemetery.

With all of the festivity and then the work of tidying up the lots and placing flowers on the graves, visiting with neighbors, sustenance was a necessity.

In Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management (1859), Isabella Beeton wrote of picnic menu items including: sweetened stewed fruit with plain pastry biscuits, cold plum pudding, cold meats, pigeon pie, lobster, fresh jam puffs, baskets of fresh fruit and cheese. She also includes breads and butter for tea. Beverages should include ale, wine, brandy, lemonade and soda water.

She warns of items not to be forgotten: cork screws, a bottle of vinegar, a stick of horseradish and a bottle of mint sauce. And of course, wine glasses, teacups and saucers and lump sugar and milk. (This info comes from a wonderful reference by Susan Williams: Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America)

The Victorians used convenient hampers and even make-shift ones of boxes, partitioned on the inside into compartments. Today it is much the same; all manner of baskets and hampers and totes can hold our picnic items. If you are in the market for a new tote of sorts, check out Picnic at Ascot, Inc. They have back packs and collapsible market baskets. The Impulse Wine and Cheese Set consists of: 2 cotton napkins (5 designs from which to choose), 1 corkscrew, 1 wood cutting board and one cheese knife. It closes up into a neat 8 1/2 X 12 packet and weighs, empty, one pound. The neatest item I saw was an ice cream tote!! Now you can take along your half-gallon of Bryers and it'll stay cold! No need for an ice cream maker.

One of the most popular picnic items today must be fried chicken. If you want something other than fast food fried chicken, here's a recipe ~ the secret is soaking the breasts overnight in buttermilk and frying in your grandmother's seasoned cast iron skillet. This comes from the humorous book Some Day You'll Thank Me For This: The Official Southern Ladies' Guide to Being A 'Perfect' Mother by Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays:
6 chicken breasts buttermilk 2 eggs 2 cups whole milk 2 cups flour
salt and pepper to taste pinch of garlic powder 1/4 t. baking powder
fat for frying ( Crisco, vegetable oil or combination)
Soak breasts overnight in buttermilk.
Beat eggs and milk; dip chicken in mixture.
Combine flour, seasonings and baking powder in a brown grocery bag and shake to mix.
Shake the chicken one piece at a time until well coated.
Heat enough of the fat in the skillet to almost cover the chicken.
When you drop the chicken in, the fat should sizzle.
The art if frying chicken involves the grease, which must not burn the chicken but cooks it at an even, medium-hot level.
Do not crowd the chicken when frying.
Turn only once, when golden brown on one side.
Remove from the skillet and drain on a brown grocery bag that has been covered with a layer of paper towels, approximately 20 minutes.

It's not fast food, but I can smell it frying now!

And They're Off...

Anyone who follows horse racing knows that the Kentucky Derby was May 1st. As the Derby is an American tradition which started in the Victorian Era, what better way to celebrate the fastest two minutes in sports than with a festive afternoon tea filled with all the delights of Churchill Downs. There's just one problem, when we decided to have the tea we realized we didn't know quite as much about the Kentucky Derby as originally thought. So I sat down to do some digging on the subject. Imagine my surprise when the research proved to be one of the most interesting days I've spent at the Hunter House Victorian Museum. I thought I'd be learning about the history of the race, the food served there, and the motivation behind women wearing the most elaborate and outlandish hats to such an event. Instead, I spent the afternoon delightfully learning about the history of the word 'dude'.
So, I guess now you're wondering how I got from the derby to 'dude'. Well, I started with reading about how the race was started by the grandson of William Clark, that's right half of the Lewis and Clark team that explored America. Col. M. Lewis Clark traveled to Europe where he experienced the thrill of horse racing. Upon his return, he decided to create a horse race that would capture the intrigue of Americans. Clearly, he succeeded. However, knowing the history behind the race lead me to ask the question "why drape the horse in a blanket of roses?" I then started in search of the answer. This tradition started when a New York social elite came to the race, bringing with him one red rose for every woman in attendance at the race. This social leader, Evander Berry Wall, had the distinction of being labeled 'King of the Dudes'.
Being a child of the 1980s myself, I have been using dude for pretty much my entire life. I had never thought that the word was used in the late 1800s. Obviously, I had to find out why Mr. Wall was a 'dude'. I found that the word dude first appeared in print in the 1870s as a derogatory word. When Mr. Wall became King of the Dudes, a dude was an "ill-bred and ignorant, but ostentatious man from the city who was unfamiliar with life outside a big city." It was taken further when dude ranches were created as a place for a 'dude' to go outside a city and learn about cowboy life. Outside of dude ranches, the word fell out of use until the 60s, when it was resurrected by surfers as a way of greeting. The word has evolved again since then. Now, not only is it used as a greeting but it is also used to express emotions. By simply saying the word 'dude' in a different tone of voice, someone can express sympathy, support, or even disapproval. However, today people do not use the word as an insult.
Even after all that research, I'm still not quite sure how the word evolved from an insult to what it is now. However, I do know that the word isn't likely to go away anytime soon. After all, it has infiltrated our whole system of pop culture. Ever heard of "Dude, Where's my Car?", "Hey Dude", or "Dude, Looks Like a Lady"?

Don't forget about our "Run for the Roses" tea, Sunday, May 16,2010 at 2:00pm. We still have spaces available. Admission fee is $15.00 per person. Please call 757-623-9814 for reservaions.

Painted China

I know how much fun I had just coloring in the Rose of Sharon at the top of this poem with my watercolor pencils; how much more delight the china painters must have when they create such delicate and exquisite designs on their porcelain.
Imagine, having quiet hours in the morning after breakfast or solitary hours in the afternoon to sit alone at the work table, brush in hand and a palate of rose and sage and buttermilk.
“And what shall I paint this morning, the cluster blooms of the Lady Banks Rose crowning the arbor?”
I have a passion, many say obsession, for china. I want my china plates and tea cups to be beautiful and I want some in every pattern, a new pattern everyday. I do not want to hide them behind cupboard doors or in the back of the pantry. I want to see them and admire them; to me they are art. And yes, I do have plates hanging on my walls, even in my bathroom.
None of my dear old aunts painted china. My grandmother was an artist and several others in the family had (have) artistic talents so we all came to appreciate such beauty even as we did not create it ourselves.
And now I have the opportunity to learn this Victorian era past time, right now in fact, as there are several artists from the China Painters of Tidewater in the museum’s master bedchamber and nursery demonstrating their craft and skill for our visitors. From my third floor office I can hear chatter and laughter from the ladies and guests below.
Suzie Tuberson has agreed to teach me how to paint holly, a favorite design of mine. She, and the others, assures me that I (and you) need not be artists in order to paint beautiful porcelain.
When Suzie first approached me with the idea of an exhibit/special event with the museum, I immediately thought of tea cups and saucers and plates. I did not consider larger paintings on tiles or portraits and lamps. I have seen some amazing pieces in the last two weeks.

Charmed, I'm Sure

I am just about to purchase my seventh charm bracelet, actually eighth counting the very first bracelet from my youth. Several gals I know are collecting the new fashionable bead charms.
Friends of the Hunter House Victorian Museum have recently begun collecting teapot charms. A Charming Little Tea was held at the museum a couple of weeks ago and guests received a toggle clasp (what a great invention!) bracelet and then had the opportunity to purchase charms fashioned into teapots from glass beads. A Virginia artist creates these delightful charms ~ check out Tiny Teapot Jewelry at www.teapotjewelry.com.
So now, I have another bracelet, thank goodness because I have several charms for it already. I enjoy looking for the sentimental charms - souvenirs of places I have visited, mementos from special occasions, charms for my family's story.
The most recent charm I have purchased is a baby carriage; it will go on the family bracelet as I am expecting my first grandchild this summer.
Speaking of summer, I have a beach bracelet with seaside charms. When I cannot be on the beach, I can finger my bracelet and remember the sun and the sand and the shells and the cottage. In my mind I'm goin' to Carolina...