Souvenirs » Suveniri | 75 Lajfstajl Lifestyle Tekst/Words: Jelena Pantović Fotografije/Photography: Depositphotos If Thomas Edison had designed a better light bulb, the snow globe wouldn’t have come to be. The way ErwinPerzy’s family tells it, back in1900, their ancestorwas working in Vienna as a mechanic when a surgeon came to him with a problem. Although the surgeon had electric light bulbs installed inhisoperating theatre, thenewly invented product didn’t cast great light. He wanted to knowif Perzy couldmake thembrighter. So, Erwingot to work. While hunting for inspiration, Perzy noticed that shoemakers had stumbled onto an interesting trick: by filling glass globes with water and placing them in front of candles, they created tiny spotlights in their shops. When Perzy tried the trick with a lightbulb, he discovered the brightness wasn’t improved. But what if he addedsomething to thewater that the light couldbounce off? Perzy startedwithwhite semolina flakes. He poured them into the glass globe, but they only soaked up the water and floated very slowly to the bottom. This effect reminded him of snowfall. He made a miniature replica of the Basilica of the Birthof theVirginMary, placed it in his water-filled globe, sealed it, andmounted it to a gypsumbase that he painted black. And the first snowglobe was thus born. At least, that’s the story Austrians like to peddle. But what about the snow globes that appeared a few decades prior, in an entirely different country? According to collectors, the first snow globes were showcased at the 1878 Paris Universal Exposition by a local glasswarefirm.Thewater-filledglobes each featured a littlemanholding anumbrella and awhite powder imitating a snowstorm.Thenext iterationof the snowglobe came 11years later, againat theParis Expo.This time the globe featured a tiny ceramic versionof the then just-unveiledEiffel Tower, with thewhole ball able to fit into the palm of a hand. Though Perzy—who patented his globe in 1900— didn’t invent the snow globe, he and his brother were responsible for catapulting the souvenir into the position it holds today. Seizing on the invention, the pair opened a shop in Vienna. Today, that shop – the Original Vienna Snowglobe Factory – is still run by a Perzy, Erwin Perzy III, and still produces snow globes. But it’s easy to forget that Perzy was also an artisan. His items were painstakingly hand-crafted. This ensured that while his snowglobeswereexquisiteandpopular, theywereneither cheap nor widespread. For the snow globe to go global, M I N I H I STORY OF MEMOR I ES Innocent kitsch of the snowglobe Shake it andwatch the beautiful snowstorm! We present to you one of the best-selling gifts of the festive season Filmovi Džindžer Rodžers i Orsona Velsa lansirali su četrdesetih godina snežne kugle u orbitu popularnosti The 1940s’ films of Ginger Rogers and Orson Welles launched snow globes into the stratosphere of popularity ti. Sve je to dovelo do procvata, ali bio je potreban film da, kao mnogo puta pre i kasnije, doda malo magije. Snežna kugla postala je slavna posle filma Kiti Fojl Džindžer Rodžers, u kojem mlada Kiti trese snežnu kuglu u kojoj se nalazi lik devojke na sankama. Prodaja je posle filma porasla za 200 odsto. Sledeće godine Građanin Kejn Orsona Velsa osigurao joj je slavnu sudbinu. Snežnu kuglu sa malom zavejanom brvnarom napravila je Perzijeva kompanija za tu monumentalnu uvodnu scenu. Čarls Kejn umire sa rečju „rosebud“ (pupoljak ruže) na usnama, a iz ruke mu ispada snežna kugla i razbija se. Legendarno! Pedesetih godina prošlog veka inovacije u plastici značile su da su snežne kugle mogle da se prave još jeftinije. Do osamdesetih su još bile veliki deo industrije poklona, ali su takođe postale oličenje kiča, verovatno zato što je sve i svašta moglo da se stavi pod staklo i primora da trpi snežne mećave. No to nije ugrozilo današnje tržište snežnih kugli, a kompanija Ervina Perzija Tre eg je i dalje zdrava. Bečka radnja proizvodi više od 200.000 kugli godišnje. To je možda znak koliko je snežna kugla postala deo kulture, ali i kako nevini kič može da bude izvor radosti spakovane u čudne, ponekad jezive, ali uvek divne kugle.
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