All that glitters is not gold? That may well be true—and yet this set of Lauscha glass ornaments brings the festive glow of delicately nuanced gold and caramel tones to your Christmas decorations. In traditional glassmaking, the Christmas baubles are mouth-blown “in front of the lamp” (the gas burner). They owe their particularly uniform color finish to the Liebig silvering process, which has been used in Lauscha since 1867. In this process, silver nitrate dissolved in an aqueous solution is poured into the ball. When heated, it forms a wafer-thin film on the inner wall of the ball, “mirroring” the surface. On the outside, aniline dye dissolved in nitrocellulose lacquer is applied; it contains neither cadmium nor other heavy metals.

Lauscha, a small town in Thuringia, has been associated with glass production for over 400 years. The first workshop was founded there in 1597, laying the foundations for the prosperity of the Thuringian glass industry, which is world-famous today. Specifically made for Christmas trees, all of these Lauscha miniatures are hand-blown. Subsequently, they receive a wafer-thin layer of pure silver on the inside (also by hand), a lacquer layer and a glitter finish. A white decorated tree strikes a chord of “ice and snow and fire” and draws on ancient pagan as well as Christian symbolism of the light ceremonies around the winter solstice. The various balls that come in reflex, crystal clear and ice glass design, as well as the ice glass blackbird from our assortment, belong to this tradition. Red and gold-coloured baubles represent another traditional way of decorating the Christmas tree.

Certain manufacturing steps are carried out by hand. Slight dimensional and color deviations may therefore occur.