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Who can walk past a snowdome and resist picking it up and giving a shake? Snowdomes, the plastic balls with the snow-filled miniature worlds inside, are perhaps the ultimate souvenir. They are capable of unlocking powerful memories - of the childhood trip to the Statue of Liberty or the White House or Disneyland. In the movies, it was a snowdome that made Charles Foster Kane recall his beloved sled, "Rosebud," in Citizen Kane.
Snowdomes - they are also known as snowshakers, snow globes, water globes, snowies, snowstorms, shakies and waterballs - first appeared in Europe in the 1870s as substitute paperweights. A glass bulb fitted snugly over a small ceramic figure was filled with water to create the dome. Bone chips, bits of porcelain, sand or even sawdust stood in for snow.
While snowdomes are sometimes thought to be "toy paperweights" they are not paperweights in the strict sense. The first glass paperweights appeared about 40 years before snowdomes and are not solid glass but hollow glass filled with water. Also, the paperweights are more dense and generally do not have a base like a snowdome does.
When the Eiffel Tower was built to commemorate the great Paris Exposition of 1889, the famous tower quickly found its way inside a snowdome and the snowdome became a popular souvenir. The first snowdomes in America appeared in the 1920s. These early American snowdomes were leaded glass orbs set on heavy black ceramic bases. Soon Art Deco models followed that featured Bakelite bases with thinner glass. Plastic snowdomes burst on the scene in the 1950s.
While snowdomes are typically associated with souvenir shops and tacky tourist traps, their forms are endless. Through the years many national and local businesses have used snowdomes as advertising promotions. Many have featured religious motifs and of course snowdomes have always been popular as Christmas decorations. They have been used to hawk votes in elections and during World War II there was even a series of snowdomes featuring General Eisenhower and General McArthur.
Newer snowdomes are leaving the staid tableau behind. They can include music boxes, moving parts, and even internal lights. Small electric fans can be built into the base so even shaking the snowdome isn't necessary anymore to make the snow fly. This design, since it doesnÕt disturb the tableau, permits elaborate and delicate creations inside modern snowdomes.
There is a lively collector's market for snowdomes. Today the older glass domes can fetch more than $25 in the collector market while the plastic models typically cost less than $10. Some in good condition can become quite valuable since snowdomes can break or the liquid often becomes cloudy. The advertising domes produced in limited editions are especially coveted by some collectors. The rise of the Internet has sparked a revived interest in snowdomes as collectors can display their snowdomes online and facilitate the trading of domes. Of course, it's also a great way for snowdome enthusiasts to display their collections and unleash the torrent of memories locked in every snow-filled little world.
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