Cotton Batting Ornaments
Small cotton ornaments, made in Germany around
the turn of the century, were the traditional favorites of children.
Inexpensive and unbreakable, even the smallest child could help
decorate, which is why cotton ornaments often adorned the lower
branches of Christmas trees.
The manufacture of cotton wadding ornaments centered in and around
Lauscha, in the Thuringian mountain region of Germany. This is an
area where the industry almost totally concentrated on Christmas
ornaments. Made from sheets of puffy white cotton batting, glued and
tightly wrapped around a wire frame, they were assembled by hand in
people’s homes. Features were often hand painted directly onto the
cotton, or onto a composition “mask” face. Others had small scraps
of chromolithography applied, and some were adorned with crepe paper
clothing and accessories—hats, umbrellas, aprons, back packs and
skis, Dresden paper instruments—whatever sparked the fancy of these
imaginative German artisans.
In addition to the people and animal forms, icicles, fruits and
vegetables were among the most common. Lovely yet simple, they
sometimes appear quite realistic, and were often coated with glue
and sprinkled with crushed glass, making them sparkle on a
candle-lit tree.
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