SHINY-BRITE ~
America’s Most Nostalgic Christmas Ornaments

The first Shiny-Brite ornaments of the early 1940s were primarily simple spheres in a variety of sizes with silver nitrate ‘silvered’ interiors and lacquered in a rainbow of primary hues gold, red, cobalt blue, green and silver. Some were decorated with pastel-colored tempera paint in stripes or snow caps, or hand-painted flowers and arabesques in the style of German ornaments. There were also a few simple shapes offered at that time, including bells, reflector indents and pine cones.

Corning produced all the ornament blanks for Shiny Brite, as well as several other American ornament companies.

Patriotic colors were a popular motif during the early war years.

As World War II continued and necessary metals and pigments were restricted for war use, beginning in 1943 some Shiny-Brite ornaments became clear, with no shiny silvering. These were colored with clear pastel lacquers of green, red, pink, blue, gold, and lavender. Some were decorated with opaque enamel, usually yellow, pink, red, or jadeite green with contrasting stripes. Sometimes a sprig of tinsel was placed in the clear ornaments for a reflective quality, and some were printed with simple motifs. The ornament assortments offered during 1943 often included a mix of silvered and unsilvered ornaments, striped, printed, or plain, and some with a sprig of tinsel.

By 1944, there was no silvering or tinsel left, and metal caps and hangers also went to war. The caps were replaced with paper caps and string or paper hangers. Even after the war ended in 1945, metals were still rationed and it wasn’t until 1946 that metal caps and silvering began to return to Shiny-Brite ornaments.

1946 saw the return of silver nitrate, metal caps, and the introduction of a new Shiny Brite box featuring the image of Santa Claus shaking hands with Uncle Sam.At this time, the familiar, iconic, fluted steel Shiny Brite cap was introduced.

Post War 1940s began the ‘hey-day’ of Shiny-Brites. Uncle Sam was now on the ornament boxes shaking hands with Santa Claus~ a wonderful Victory symbol. Some of the lacquered colors used during 1946-1948 are exceedingly beautiful and hard-to-find. There were several shades of purple, lavender and violet, magenta and cerise, Champagne gold and Champagne pink, pale green, cobalt blue, dark red, dark gold, copper and medium blue, among others. These colors can be found on plain solid-color balls, miniature ornaments, or with printed scenes or glass glitter mica snow caps.

During the Post War era, the printed ‘scenes and greetings’ ornaments started to be produced in earnest. The initial motifs included ‘Merry Christmas’ with a garland, ‘Christmas Greetings’ with a bell, ‘Silent Night’ with a winter church scene, ‘Merry Christmas’ with poinsettias, snowflakes, and a Christmas tree sales lot. The scenes were available printed in simple solid-color balls, with deluxe variations printed over a wide band of color on a silver background with tempera paint pin stripes. On some versions, the printed scene was embellished with glass glitter frit or Venetian dew beading. The printed scenes and greetings was an exceedingly popular line produced well into the 1960s. During the 1950s-1960s, many, many different printed motifs were developed, including toys, nursery rhymes, several different with Santa Claus, reindeer, snowmen, snowy scenes, holiday greetings, and many more. At this time, some of the rarest and most coveted are the nursery rhymes, such as ‘Little Boy Blue’, ‘Little Miss Muffet’, ‘The Cat and the Fiddle’, and ‘Little Bo Peep’.

Also during the later 1940s and early 1950s, several new Shiny-Brite ‘fancy’ shapes were introduced – including tops, lanterns, pendants, reflector pendants, reflector ovals, bumpy reflectors and more. These were produced with simple Christmas-color stripes, and more deluxe variations included additional embellishments of tempera paint pin striping or heavy frostings of glass glitter mica "snow".

Pastel colored lacquers in shiny or satin finish were introduced during the mid-1950s, and included such tones as baby pink, baby blue, hot pink, aqua and rich gold. Reflectors and shapes with heavy glass glitter mica snow frosting were popular, especially with the new pastel and rich colored lacquers under the ‘snow’.

Shiny Brite tri-color bumpy indent reflector ornaments in jewel-tone Christmas colors packed in the "Red Deluxe" half-dozen window box. Shiny Brite's colorful Red boxes were usually reserved for their more costly 'deluxe' ornaments, generally sold at higher-end department stores and holiday shops.

The 1950s also brought more new shapes to the line, including small-size fancy shapes such as tops, berry clusters, bells, lanterns, etc. These could be had in single solid-colors or decorated with bands and stripes of Christmas colors or fashion decorator colors such as purple with orange.

During the late 1950s, along with continued production of American made Shiny-Brite ornaments in every type of style and decoration, Max Eckardt re-established his contacts in Germany, and began importing a deluxe line of hand-blown, hand-decorated glass ornaments from West Germany. These included sets of large hand-blown icicles and bells, snow globes with miniature figures, large, fancy reflectors, tree toppers, and a truly spectacular set of 'Victorian" wire-wrapped ornaments. These are all packed in colorful red and green printed boxes. interestingly, the contents of the West Germany boxes don't always match the contents inside this is particularly true of the tree topper boxes.

‘Modern’ glass ornaments hand-blown in the shape of snow globes with small winter scenes inside, comprised of spun cotton figures, brush trees, or glittered cardboard churches. These all came packed in bold red and green printed boxes.

A complete set of Victorian-style crinkle wire-wrapped ornaments hand-made in West Germany. These were inspired by antique German glass ornaments, popular during the 1890s-1930s. Each ornament is hand-blown, wrapped in crinkle wire and adorned with a small hard plastic pastel angel, typically used as cupcake ornaments.

At the same time he was importing hand-blown, deluxe ornaments from West Germany, Max Eckardt also began importing a variety of inexpensive ornaments from Japan, including glass miniature ornaments, spun cotton angels and pine cone elves, figurines, glitter houses, and more ~ all packaged in striking winter blue and aqua boxes.

As tastes changed during the 1960s so did the Shiny-Brite assortments. Due to the popularity of white trees, pink trees, and shining silver aluminum trees during the early 1960s, plain solid-color ornaments were favored more than fancy, decorated ornaments.

The tray is marked "Made in Western Germany", and the caps are fluted aluminum, also marked 'Shiny Brite, West Germany'.

Shiny Brite ornaments in blended pastel colors, produced specifically for J.J. Newberry's chain of 5¢ & 10¢ variety stores. Produced by Shiny Brite, packed in their original Newberry's 'NEWCREST' branded display box/tray. Shiny Brite called this teardrop shape 'DROPLET', as indicated on the bottom of the box.

Made in West Germany by Shiny Brite for Sears-Roebuck & Co.

A popular late 1960s decorative treatment utilized mod decorator colors in alternating bands of heavy glass glitter mica frosting and pinstripes of complementary hues, such as lime green with turquoise blue, bright yellow with orange, turquoise with purple and fuchsia pink with red. In assortments such as this, the balls were decorated in satin-finish lacquers with coordinating pinstripes.

Some of the new styles of decorated ornaments added during the late 1960s included deluxe satin-finish lacquers in deep jewel tones such as ruby red, garnet, sapphire blue, topaz gold and emerald green with patterns and arabesques embellished with silver or gold glass glitter mica.

By the 1970s, American manufacturers were fighting stiff competition from inexpensive imports, so to hopefully better survive, the Max Eckardt & Sons Company merged with Poloron in 1972. Poloron was a Styrofoam and blow-mold plastics manufacturer specializing in coolers, ice chests and outdoor lighted Christmas décor.

During the Poloron era of the 1970s, glass Shiny-Brite ornaments continued to be produced in many of the same treatments as during the late 1960s.

In order to compete with the cheap imports, Poloron upgraded many of the Shiny Brite motifs by producing them with deluxe satin finishes, deep, rich lacquers, and lots of heavy Venetian dew or glass glitter mica frosting. And to keep the retail prices competitive, the larger, costlier ornaments were sold in quantities of nine or six. Only the smaller ornaments were still offered in boxes of twelve.

Sadly, in spite of the valiant attempt to keep Shiny-Brite alive, the brand faded during the late 1970s and Poloron closed in 1981.

These are lovely ~ they are decorated with an early 1950s shiny Brite motif showing the Three Wise Men following the Star toward Bethlehem ~ a very moving scene.But Poloron enhanced the motif by printing it in rich gold over a wide satin band, augmented with red and fuchsia pinstripes ~ a true beauty!

The blended ombre' lacquers are deep and rich, in fanciful shades, and to make these even more breathtaking, they are covered in a thick coating of minute Venetian dew glass beads ~ truly splendid!