The mother lode

When Anne opened the door to her other store across the street, I could tell I was in someplace special. While the souvenir store was filled with trinkets, this store was filled with antiques. Dolls, dishes, lamps, toys. Everywhere you looked was another treasure. She led me down a narrow hallway, narrow because the walls were lined with overburdened shelves, and into a small dark room. When Anne switched on the light all I could see were stacks of glass cabinets all around us from the floor to the ceiling. The middle of the room had a block of stacked cabinets too, leaving a narrow path to walk around it. Some of the cabinets had doors, others pulled out like drawers, and all of them were full of Christmas tree ornaments. Here are some of the penguins we found.

There are some more that I’ll be posting over the next couple of days, and there were some that I knew I already owned. I think some of the handmade ceramic ornaments in yesterday’s post came from the second store. It’s where Anne told me about not being able to compete with the Chinese manufacturers. “Where did you get them all,” I asked. “I was going to open a museum, but the economy hurt the tourist business,” she said. The Klosters had been collecting ornaments for about as long as I have been collecting penguins and I was surrounded by the results. I don’t know how much time had passed, but it was longer than a walk around the block would take. I told Anne I had to go find my friend at the café and that I wanted to look some more. When I got to the end of the street, José was standing in the plaza, hands on hips, waiting and wondering when I would show up. “It’s bad,” I told him. “I think I found the mother lode.” And we headed back to the shop.

Acquired: July 1, 2009, Regensburger-Tändlerei, Regensburg, Germany

Smoky glass parent and chick

Number: 0646

Size: 5 inches tall

Price: 19.50 euros

Tall glass pair

Number: 0647 0648

Size: 4.5 to 5 inches tall

Price: 25 and 29 euros

Glass pair huddled on ice with Santa hats

Number: 0649

Size: 4 inches tall

Price: 29 euros

Glass family on plastic or glass ice floe

Number: 0651

Size: 4.75 inches tall

Price: 59 euros

Small penguin with white glitter belly and blue scarf

Number: 0652

Size: 2 inches tall

Price: 6.50 euros

Glittery silver blue penguin with bulbous nose

Number: 0654

Size: 3.75 inches tall

Price: 14.80 euros