Let it snow

Nostalgic, magical and highly collectable, snow globes are curious objects of wonder that never fail to instil joy

- Ellie Tennant

Gazing at a mesmerising slow-motion blizzard, encased forever within a transparent dome, is a surprisingly powerful experience. One shake and the snow delicately falls, evoking childhood memories and delighting both young and old.

At first glance, these comforting keepsakes might seem to be trivial, trite trinkets. But, on closer reflection, they embody deep concepts and their appeal is far more complex than we might assume. Philosopher Benjamin Franklin was a keen collector of snow globes, which he felt played with the edge between life and lifelessness; after shaking, there is a flurry of life, which gradually recedes once again to stillness.

Literary theorist Paul Szondi referred to snow globes as sentimental 'reliquaries' that capture and preserve a moment or scene to be relived forever. This is particularly true, perhaps, with souvenir snow globes, which act as eternal mementos for happy holidays gone by.

Snow globes first emerged in France in the late 1800s. In his extremely thorough and lengthy report of glassware on show at the Exposition Universelle held in Paris in 1878, United States commissioner William P. Blake recorded that a French glass manufacturer exhibited: 'Paperweights of hollow balls filled with water, containing a man with an umbrella. These balls also contain a white powder which, when the paperweight is turned upside down, falls in imitation of a snowstorm.'