In 1856, Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I was enjoying a mountain trek with his new bride, the Empress Elisabeth, a Munich-born beauty known as "Sisi." He picked a few edelweiss blossoms from amongst the craggy rocks and presented them to his beloved with the words, "First in my life that I picked myself." From that point onwards, the popularity of the flower was assured—as a symbol of immaculate and everlasting devotion (and, more broadly, emblematic of the rugged purity of the Alps and her people). Sisi wore nine edelweiss blossoms in her hair while sitting for her famous portrait by Winterhalter. For his part, the Emperor had edelweiss blossoms embroidered upon the collars of his Imperial-Royal Mountain Troops. The flower is also admired in the mountains of Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland. In America, the edelweiss is most associated with the song in Rogers & Hammerstein's The Sound of Music.
The tenacious flower perseveres in challenging mountain regions, blooming in the late Summer (July through September). The flower petals are spiky and fuzzy. The Latin name, Leontopodium nivale translates to "Snowy Lion's Paw." And the name Edelweiss is the German for "noble" and "white."
The Swiss hand-carved trinket box, shown above, bears a hand-carved edelweiss "finial" atop the cover. Let this little box be a symbol of one's pure and everlasting devotion—whether in the mountains or not. Click on the photo above to learn more about this handsome box.
Though our Greenwich Village store is now permanently closed, LEO Design is still alive and well! Please visit our on-line store where we continue to sell Handsome Gifts (www.LEOdesignNYC.com).
We also can be found in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania at The Antique Center of Strabane (www.antiquecenterofstrabane.com).
Or call to arrange to visit our Pittsburgh showroom (by private appointment only). 917-446-4248