Powley Case
Voyageur Articles
January/February, 1999
Steve’s Christmas ornaments are a site to behold
by Tom Spaulding
What fun it is to sit in Steve Powley’s kitchen so that
you can watch the faces of first time Christmas visitors as
they come through the Powley front door. As the snow is stomped
off the boots, and coats and scarves are removed, the faces
work through a panoply of wonder, surprise, astonishment,
amazement and sheer delight. Every wall, ceiling and door
in every room of the house, including living room, hallway,
stairwell, bathroom, kitchen and dining area is covered, absolutely
covered, in Christmas balls-big ones, little ones, red ones
and green ones, long narrow ones, round ones, everywhere.
Steve, who says he started collecting them at about the age
of eight, must surely have one of the largest collections
in Canada. Not one square foot of vertical or horizontal surface
in that house (except for the floors) is without its pinned
up decorations.
Some pieces in the collection must be quite rare. There are
glass balls that are as much as four hundred years old, and
dozens of countries are represented. The older and more valuable
are hand painted. Some are molded in the shape of animals.
Steve indicates a pair of glass, hand painted Santas. One
is happy and the other not so happy. Steve says the happy
one comes from Poland and the not so happy one was produced
in Russia. As he tours the collection it is apparent that
he has become an expert in this unique hobby. He will point
to one and tell you its probable age. He says that in many
cases it’s the colour that can provide the clue for
determining age.
“This may be the last year we do the whole house like
this”, he says. “It’s taking too much time.”
His family nods their agreement at this. They tell us that
it took over two months to put the decorations up this year.
And just how many of these rare and remarkable glass objects
are there in the collection? Steve thinks he now has about
8,500. For obvious reasons he will not discuss the value of
the collection or where or how it is stored in the off season.
But every year, from the middle of December to the beginning
of January, the Powley home interior is transformed into a
sparkling, colourful—indeed magical-place. Don’t
stop now Steve! |
