The Joy of Collecting (Part Three)

We're getting down to the last three!

1. Walter Scott Lenox founded his ceramics company in 1889. Since then, Lenox has produced high-quality glassware, china tableware, and fine collectibles.

I'm not entirely sure when the company began offering angels at Christmastime, but this one, the "Guardian of the Millennium," was their 1999 offering. At her side, the New Year's Baby sends a peace-dove from his hand, while she carefully holds a world globe and watches over it with gentle eyes. I don't know if I've had anything about peace doves yet, but if not, it's one for the list.

It's a beautiful sculpture, don't get me wrong, but I find it aggressively kitschy, like those "Precious Moments" figurines. Its only appeal is to anyone who collects angel figurines.

2. Caithness Glass returns with a second paperweight. Sculpted by Colin Terris, it features an abstract "dancer" that's meant to symbolize the joy of the impending celebrations. It reminds me of the Futurist movement from the early 20th Century, but infused with a decidedly 21st Century sensibility.

The dancer's dress bears the colors of the British flag, and her head is a "bubble" inside the solid glass that looks very much like a crystal ball--a way to see the future.

I like this one--it deals with the millennium in a more unusual way than most of the other things we've seen previously.

3. Halcyon Days first sold collectible enamel boxes in 1950. These are but three of their Millennium issues. The first is a "time capsule" that displays important things from the last hundred years: a cellular phone; space travel; a computer; the DNA double helix; a camcorder; advances in medicine; and a satellite, among other things.

The second 1S 4 FR1CK1N' N3RD depicts a Millennium bug attacking a computer monitor. The screen reads, "The Millennium Bug Bytes [sic] Into The Year 2000."

The third is a quiet, pastoral scene of a green field at sunrise (a reference to the old British hymn "Jerusalem"? "And did those feet in ancient times walk upon England's mountains green...").

In the foreground, there's a bloom of flowers which are called "angel's trumpets." As I mentioned before, the color violet is an uncertain, but positive, hue; that the flowers are angel's trumpets adds to its positive connotation.

Okay...This is a good return to form. I think, for the new year, that I shall resolve to post a little more regularly than I have been.