Designer baubles: festive decorations in porcelain, gold, silver
In the darkest season of the year, balls of light to renew the oldest festive tradition, from the Roman Saturnalia to the courts of the 19th century. Precious objects, chosen from historical manufactures.
With their fragrant and impeccable liveries, they are a reassuring presence in the bare winter landscape: fir trees - especially white fir (Abies alba) - have been a symbol of rebirth in the darkest season of the year since antiquity: between 17 and 23 December, the ancient Romans, on the occasion of the Saturnalia, decorated their homes with fir trees to propitiate health and youth; at the same time of year, in the heart of Europe, pagan peoples honoured the winter solstice by decorating homes with fir branches. It was in Northern Europe - first in the Baltic countries, then in Germany - that the 16th century saw the rise of the Decembrian tradition of festive dressing: first in the squares, then in the palaces of rulers, finally in private homes. At the end of the 18th century, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, consort of King George III of the United Kingdom, imported the custom to the English court, but it is Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, beloved husband of Victoria of England, who is credited with bringing the tradition of festively decorated trees into the public domain in the mid-19th century: a famous 1848 print depicts the royal couple together with their children admiring a richly ornamented fir tree resting on a table, with toys and (unwrapped) gifts arranged around the base. The couple was soon imitated all over the world.
Even today, decorating the Christmas tree is a practice that restores the profound sense of the vernal festive season, although in many cases the firs are but true reproductions of the real thing. As for the quality and quantity of the ornaments, the saying few but good applies: it is better to focus on precious artefacts, which restore centuries-old symbols and traditions; they will be the building blocks of a collection to be implemented every year, in which each element evokes a memory, a thought, a story.
Porcelain, with its candid lightness, lends itself perfectly to festive spheres for the tree, even more so when adorned with refined decorations. The German company Meissen, the first porcelain manufacturer in Europe to produce porcelain, has recently launched a Christmas collection, the Christmas Original, in which red and gold decorations reinterpret the famous onion motif created by Meissen craftsmen in 1730 on oriental suggestions - and never waned since. Two pendant balls, or baubles, have been added to the series this year: in the first, small stars in relief on the white porcelain are enlivened by a ribbon decoration in gold and red (€119); on the second, a chrysanthemum is painted, surrounded by leaves, buds and curls - not an extravagance: in oriental iconography, the source of inspiration for the decoration, the flower is a symbol of happiness, life, longevity and royalty (€159).
Porcelain is also the material of choice for Royal Copenhagen, the historic Nordic manufacturer that celebrates its 250th anniversary this year and that, for the occasion, has added to its collection three new baubles with the characteristic slightly flattened shape that extends into the ribbon ring (249 euros): on the striped texture of the porcelain, the fine hand-painted decorations, typical of the Danish house, stand out thanks to the intense and festive red colour, which in this case replaces the classic blue for which the brand is famous throughout the world.
From porcelain to silver and the precious techniques used to work it: for the French company Christofle, the ornaments for the 2025 tree are the Bouquet Givré spheres, in two versions in silver (155 euros) or in gilded metal (220), in which the engraving and fretwork work of the master silversmiths has transformed the surface into a florilegium of poinsettias, candied oranges, cinnamon sticks, holly, fir branches, edelweiss and pine cones. Silver and gold are also materials of choice for Buccellati, which this year presents them side by side in a single ornament: a circular, two-dimensional chiselled pendant in which the golden corolla of a poinsettia emerges embossed between thin silver rays.
