The big boom for snow globes came, as it did for so many other things in the 20th century, after a little product placement. In the 1940 Ginger Rogers vehicle Kitty Foyle, young Kitty launches a flashback scene when she shakes a snow globe containing the figure of a girl on a sled. According to Connie Moore and Harry Rinker in Snow Globes: A Collector’s Guide to Selecting, Displaying and Restoring Snow Globes, sales of the keepsakes skyrocketed 200 percent after the film came out. The next year, Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane also used a snow globe—containing a little log cabin and made by Perzy’s company—for that monumental opening scene: When publishing titan Charles Kane dies with the word “Rosebud” on his lips, and the snow globe he’s holding drops from his hand and shatters. The 1940s also witnessed the dawning of a new era in advertising ubiquity, and brands began making snow globes to advertise their products. Other popular themes included World War II iconography, such as a soldier at attention.
Easily the most famous creators of strange snow globes are Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz. The couple’s art generally features grisly and melancholy miniature scenes that are photographed close up for drastic effect. This image is from their long-running Travelers series, all of which specifically take place inside of snow globes. Extra info on custom snow globe.
Collecting Snow Globes: Snowglobes have become an increasingly popular collectible for both antique and novelty globes. Actor, Corbin Bernstein may be the most prolific collector with about 8,000. Bernsen began collecting snow globes in the ‘80’s. “There’s something that happens to a collector, this internal voice that says, ‘I want to have one of each that is in existence,’” Bernsen says. French collector, Mireille Sueur built an extensive collection trolling flea markets, gift shops and tourist sites. Her first words of advice, “make sure you know how to limit yourself”.
The snow globe was invented by accident when a mechanic tried to improve the light bulb. Shaking snow globes are synonymous with Christmastime, but they came about by accident. In 1900, a surgical instruments mechanic in Vienna named Edwin Perzy was trying to improve the brightness of the light bulb. He was inspired by shoemakers of the time who would mount “a glass globe filled with water in front of [a] flame” and attempted doing the same thing with the lightbulb. Unfortunately, he discovered that process didn’t work so well. His son told the BBC what happened next: “One day he found a white powder, semolina, used for baby food. And he poured it into the glass globe, and it got soaked by the water and floated very slowly to the base of the globe.” This reminded him of snow falling. Next thing you know, the first snow globe company, Original Vienna Snow Globes, was created in 1905. And it’s still in business today! Source: https://www.qstomize.com/collections/custom-snow-globe.
