Snow globe
A snow globe is a container made of glass or plastic filled with water, in which there are also small particles that stir up when shaken and then slowly settle like snow. The balls contain small figures or miniature landscapes that are “snowed in” when shaken.
history
It is not known when the very first snow globe was made. A forerunner was a glass ball filled with water in which birds swam. The alchemist Leonhard Thurneysser had them made by the Grimnitzer Glashütte in 1572 . One of the oldest historically known snow globes was seen at the Paris World Exhibition in 1878 . The subject was a man with an open umbrella.
At the end of the 19th century, the Viennese surgical instrument mechanic Erwin Perzy reinvented the snow globe, so to speak, and was the first to patent the "glass globe with snow effect". Perzy had actually specialized in the manufacture of surgical instruments. At the surgeon's request, he wanted to develop a particularly bright light source, for which he made experiments with what is known as a cobbler’s ball. It consists of a spherical glass bulb filled with water, which is placed in front of burning candles so that it intensifies the candlelight. Perzy added glass shavings to the water to increase the reflection .
The swirling chips reminded him of snow and gave him the idea of the snow globe. He built a tiny model of the Mariazell basilica , placed it in a glass ball, filled it with water and added semolina as snow. He gave this model to a friend who owned a souvenir booth, where it met with keen interest from customers. In 1900, Perzy opened a company with his brother Ludwig to devote himself entirely to the production of glass spheres. This business still exists today and is now run by Erwin Perzy's grandson of the same name. For the production of the figures in the balls, the company developed an alloy that is also sold as a New Year's Eve cast for lead casting .
In the 1950s, polystyrene took the place of glass for some manufacturers ; the “snowflakes” are now mostly made of a plastic mixture. Additives to the water prevent algae from forming. Modern production methods have made the snow globe a mass product that is traded as a popular souvenir in many cities and regions. With newer models, evaporated water can be refilled with a syringe.
Motifs
The motifs of the snow globes are very diverse and not always wintry; there are landscapes, churches or religious motifs, snowmen, fairy tale and comic characters, horror motifs, angels, etc. They often have a function as souvenirs or children's toys. Snow globes have become a popular collector's item for lovers. Probably the best known collector was Walter Benjamin .
Towards the end of the 1980s, a “smog ball” containing black precipitation was available as a Berlin souvenir.
In the course of the Covid pandemic in 2020, when the Perzys shop had to be closed like everyone else, snow globes with a toilet paper roll inside were also made, based on the hamster purchases for toilet paper, which were already being sold in online shops.
The snow globe in various media
literature
- In cryonium. The experiments of memory by Matthias AK Zimmermann , the story revolves around an enchanted 1001-piece snow globe collection that guides the mysterious processes in a castle.
- In The Arena of Stephen King is inexplicably and how slipped out of nowhere a ball through a small American town and cut off from the outside world.
- In Snow Globes on the Beach by Kate Racculia, the protagonist develops the desire to become a ball maker, like her grandfather before.
- In Hugo Ramnek's Die Schneekugel , the snow globe is used as a metaphor for the story of a small family in a bilingual area that is about war, persecution and language struggle.
- In The Snow Globe Disaster. And all this just for a kiss from Mascha May, a teenager hides a note with her most secret wishes in a snow globe, which she then loses and which she has to get back.
art
- The artist duo Martin & Muñoz has created a multitude of snow globes with dystopian and utopian motifs.
Movie and TV
- In the 1941 film Citizen Kane by Orson Welles , a snow globe is one of the two main motifs in the film that remind the main character of his lost childhood.
- The 2007 film The Snow Globe is all about an enchanted snow globe.
- In the ORF talk show Wir sind Kaiser , guests bring a snow globe with a penguin as a gift .
Computer games
- In Fallout: New Vegas , snow globes with different themes are the most valuable collectibles.
Snow globe museum
In Vienna there is an extensive snow globe museum that shows the history of the snow globe and various types of snow globe.
Individual evidence
- ↑ A unique piece from Vienna - the snow globe ( memento from July 31, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) on ORF Volksgruppen from December 8, 2006
- ↑ Wiener makes snow globes with toilet paper on ORF April 13, accessed on April 14, 2020
- ↑ Berliner Gazette: In der Schneekugel: How literature can remember, create and re-measure virtual spaces
- ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung: From the horror of the snow globe
- ↑ What are you reading ?: A fantastically magical story about snow globes and love
- ↑ Wieser Verlag: Die Schneekugel / A novel in stories
- ↑ Arena Verlag: The snow globe disaster. And all just for a kiss
- ↑ Internet presence of the artist duo: Walter Martin & Paloma Muñoz
- ↑ Snow globe in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- ↑ https://www.wien.info/de/orte/schneekugelmuseum Schneekugelmuseum on Wien.info
literature
- Ulli Ludewig: The snow globe, the fully air-conditioned travel souvenir , Marburg / Lahn, Jonas Verlag 1983, ISBN 3-922561-20-9
- Erwin Perzy: The history of the Viennese snow globe , 2nd edition, Vienna 2010.
- Juliane Seger: private cosmos to shake, plea for a kitsch object in religion today , April 1984, pp. 75–78
- Juliane Seger: Snow Globes, Colorful World in Glass , Fackelträger-Verlag, Hanover 1985, ISBN 3-7716-1459-7
- Bernd Bersch: The fairy tale of the snow globe inventor in dictionary - Hunsrück is called Honsreck. 2nd revised edition, Contrast-Verlag, Pfalzfeld 2017. ISBN 3-941200-63-1 , ISBN 978-3-941200-63-0 .
Web links
- Snow globe museum in Vienna
- How to stir by shaking - article about snow globes in NZZ Folio magazine
- Entry on Snow Globe in the Austria Forum (in the Heimatlexikon)
- History of the snow globe