Our Story
The Origins
Many of the American Christmas traditions we know and love come from long-standing German practices. Christmas trees, originally symbolizing the Tree of Life, were lit with candles and adorned with fruits, sweets, and small trinkets. As the 19th century progressed in America, the trees evolved into decorated splendors of light and color. They were a brilliant contrast to the dark, cold nights of December.
Beginning around 1880, a number of makers cast faceted ornaments made of a mixture of tin, lead and bismuth. The molds, made out of brass and gemstones, are dipped quickly into the surface of the liquid metal to produce a shining replica in relief. These ornaments were painted with bright colors that made them appear to be set with gemstones.
The Gustav Years
Gustav Mayer (1845-1918) was a German immigrant working as a confectioner for the New York Hotel trade. He became most famous for his dessert wafers, and used that success to move to Staten Island in 1870 and open his own shop. He had many sideline business ventures, including the “Sparkling Brilliant Ornaments.”
He made the ornaments for around 30 years until the dawn of electric Christmas tree lights out-shone the sparkling tin and they fell out of fashion. Most of the ornaments tarnished and bent and were thrown away. All but a handful of the molds, which were hidden in the back of a desk, were scrapped in the war effort of WWII.
A New Family Takes on the Business
Bill and Janet Rigby became friends with Gustav’s two daughters, Paula and Emilie, who were well in to their hundreds at the time, and purchased the remaining molds from them. They figured out the casting process and began to reproduce the ornaments again on the original molds, one hundred years after Gustav started the business. They started Zinn Brilliant Ornaments in the mid 1980s, selling ornaments from their porch in Staten Island. Their ornaments have always been made out of pure tin, so they never tarnish or lose their sparkling brilliance.
“If it had been up to me, the molds would have stayed in a box on the shelf. It was Janet who convinced me to try to figure out how to use them.”
Bill and Janet moved up to Cooperstown, NY in the 1990s, where the ornaments have been made ever since. Production has been taken over by their daughter Emilie (named after Gustav’s daughter), who will continue the tradition for the next generation. Emilie designs and produces a new collection each year, plus a limited edition Ornament of the Year, which is a practice started by her parents. Past Ornaments of the Year are on display at her retail store in Cooperstown, NY.
