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If Thomas Edison had designed a better light bulb, the snow globe wouldn’t have come to be. The way Er- win Perzy’s family tells it, back in 1900, their ancestor was working in Vienna as a mechanic when a surgeon came to him with a problem. Although the surgeon had elec- tric light bulbs installed in his operating theatre, the new- ly invented product didn’t cast great light. He wanted to know if Perzy could make them brighter. So, Erwin got to work. While hunting for inspiration, Perzy noticed that shoemakers had stumbled onto an interesting trick: by filling glass globes with water and placing them in front of candles, they created tiny spotlights in their shops. When Perzy tried the trick with a lightbulb, he dis- covered the brightness wasn’t improved. But what if he added something to the water that the light could bounce off? Perzy started with white semolina flakes. He poured them into the glass globe, but they only soaked up the water and floated very slowly to the bottom. This effect reminded him of snowfall. He made a miniature replica of the Basilica of the Birth of the Virgin Mary, placed it in his water-filled globe, sealed it, and mounted it to a gyp- sum base that he painted black. And the first snow globe was thus born. At least, that’s the story Austrians like to peddle. But what about the snow globes that appeared a few decades prior, in an entirely different country? According to collectors, the first snow globes were showcased at the 1878 Paris Universal Exposition by a local glassware firm. The water-filled globes each featured a little man holding an umbrella and a white powder imi- tating a snow storm. The next iteration of the snow globe came 11 years later, again at the Paris Expo. This time the globe featured a tiny ceramic version of the then just-un- veiled Eiffel Tower, with the whole ball able to fit into the palm of a hand. Though Perzy—who patented his globe in 1900— didn’t invent the snow globe, he and his brother were re- sponsible for catapulting the souvenir into the position it holds today. Seizing on the invention, the pair opened a shop in Vienna. Today, that shop – the Original Vi- enna Snowglobe Factory – is still run by a Perzy, Erwin Perzy III, and still produces snow globes. But it’s easy to forget that Perzy was also an artisan. His items were painstakingly hand-crafted. This ensured that while his snow globes were exquisite and popular, they were neither cheap nor widespread. For the snow globe to go global, the snow globe Shake it and watch the beautiful snowstorm! We present to you one of the best-selling gifts of the festive season MINI HISTORY OF MEMORIES Innocent kitsch of
Filmovi Džindžer Rodžers i Orsona Velsa lansirali su četrdesetih godina snežne kugle u orbitu popularnosti The 1940s’ films of Ginger Rogers and Orson Welles launched snow globes into the stratosphere of popularity
ti. Sve je to dovelo do procvata, ali bio je potre- ban film da, kao mnogo puta pre i kasnije, doda malo magije. Snežna kugla postala je slavna posle filma Kiti Fojl Džindžer Rodžers, u kojem mlada Kiti trese snežnu kuglu u kojoj se nalazi lik devoj- ke na sankama. Prodaja je posle filma porasla za 200 odsto. Sledeće godine Građanin Kejn Orsona Velsa osigurao joj je slavnu sudbinu. Snežnu kuglu sa malom zavejanom brvnarom napravila je Perzi- jeva kompanija za tu monumentalnu uvodnu sce- nu. Čarls Kejn umire sa rečju „rosebud“ (pupoljak ruže) na usnama, a iz ruke mu ispada snežna ku- gla i razbija se. Legendarno! Pedesetih godina prošlog veka inovacije u pla- stici značile su da su snežne kugle mogle da se prave još jeftinije. Do osamdesetih su još bile veliki deo industrije poklona, ali su takođe postale oličenje kiča, verovatno zato što je sve i svašta moglo da se stavi pod staklo i primora da trpi snežne mećave. No to nije ugrozilo današnje tržište snežnih kugli, a kompanija Ervina Perzija Tre eg je i da- lje zdrava. Bečka radnja proizvodi više od 200.000 kugli godišnje. To je možda znak koliko je snežna kugla postala deo kulture, ali i kako nevini kič mo- že da bude izvor radosti spakovane u čudne, pone- kad jezive, ali uvek divne kugle.
Tekst/Words: Jelena Pantović Fotografije/Photography: Depositphotos
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