Antiques – Decorating for Easter Can Change Your Life

I often hear folks say they wish it were Christmas all the year ‘round. Let’s add to that a similar wish for the exhilarating, life-affirming promise of Easter.
My yard looks like an Easter basket this time of year – pink flowering cherry, yellow forsythia, white plum blossoms, daffodils and fragrant hyacinth. I even like the pink tufts of onion grass and the dandelion flowers, and soon I’ll have the lilacs, crab apple blossoms and wisteria.
The month of “April” comes from the Latin word for “open.” For Jews the Red Sea opened and for Christians it was an open tomb. And this is the time of year the frozen ground opens up and surprises us again with the bright colors of new life.
These are the colors that should dominate your Easter decorating. And do decorate your home, be it ever so humble, this Spring. If you do, you’ll finally see how much your interior decor affect your mood, your attitude, your outlook on life, and, consequently, your life itself.
On the antiques market, Easter decorations run a distant fourth behind Christmas, Halloween and St. Valentine’s Day.. But the thing about Ester decorations is that they are relentless cheery; they can help but make feel good, make you smile.
In America, Easter has only been celebrated as a general, commercial holiday since the mid-19th Century. Like Christmas, most of our Easter traditions were brought to this country by German immigrants. The word “Easter,” in fact, comes from the name of the Saxon mother goddess, Eastre. The rabbit was sacred to Eastre and she was sometimes depicted with one.
So, bunnies are part of Easter decorating, but so too are other cute young animals, like nestlings, chicks, ducklings and lambs. The egg has been a symbol of new life since pre-historic times, and both the Egyptians and the Persians are known to have dyed them
All those traditional Easter decorations are charming, but you should also look for old items that weren’t specifically made for Easter but relate well, like any bird or animal figures in glass, ceramic, carved wood, or metals.
There are also many egg-shaped and egg-related items in the antique shops, including egg-gathering baskets. You can also find baskets in glass and ceramic; silver and silver plate baskets have become quite collectible lately.
All of these can add a touch of sophistication to your decor all year ‘round. And whatever you do, don’t forget the flowers.
Happy Easter. Happy Passover. Hoping for brighter days ahead, let’s decorate now for Spring.
Appraisals: Chick candy container, flocked paper, German, ca. 1910 ($500); Rabbit and cart candy container, wood and composition, German, ca. 1900 ($500); Peter Rabbit child’s cup and plate, tin litho ($300); Rabbit cake mold, Griswold cast iron ($300).
Also: Bunny on egg roly-poly candy container, tin litho ($235); Duck on egg roly poly candy container, celluloid, 1920s ($175); Happy Easter bunny cart, Wyandotte tin litho ($130); Chick in race Car, celluloid, 4-1/2″ ($125): Easter postcards usually range from $5 to $15 each.
Arthur Schwerdt, a certified appraiser is the author of “The Antique Story Book,” and co-owner of The August Farmhouse Antiques on Route 9 in Swainton. Send your comments, questions and appraisal requests to aschwerdt@cmcherald.com.