Golden Oldies

In years past, Christmas trees were swagged with lengths of mercury glass beads—either multicolored or composed of one color.  The glass beads were created by the same process used to make any other glass Christmas ornaments: a heated glass rod would be blown into a metal mould.  In the case of the beads, the mould was long and skinny, creating several (about eight) interconnected beads at once.  A silvery metallic liquid (originally mercury, later silver nitrate) was injected into the tube to create a reflective, mirror-like base color. The desired color of the bead could be realized either by using a colored glass rod or by coloring the glass topically after blowing.  The interconnected row of beads was then cut-apart into individual (or double) beads.  For this reason, such original beads will show a little rough "neck" where it was once connected to its neighboring bead.

The six-foot-long garland of warm golden beads, shown above, was made in the Twenties or Thirties.  They would look wonderful hanging in a doorway or archway, wound-around a wreath, or (of course) swagged between the branches of a Christmas tree.  Click on the photo above to learn more about them.