From the NOVA-Antiques Blog - Collecting Vintage Radios
One of the first things that I ever sold on eBay was a vintage radio that had been sitting around the house for a long time. I had picked it up at an auction in Buffalo and although I was not a newbie to buying and selling antique and vintage items, it was the first time that I had sold anything to anyone outside of the old neighborhood. For a few years after that, I went into a frenzy; scouring flea markets, estate sales, yard and garage sales in search of more vintage radios and then rotary phones that I could sell on eBay
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listed on our webpages. All information is provided as a service to our subscribers and clients. Although we try to verify
all listings for all events prior to publication, there are occasions where the time and place may have changed or the event did not
occur. It is a good idea to check with the owners, managers or promoters to make sure the event is being held before embarking
on a journey.
The Origins of Christmas Tree Lights
Lighting up a Christmas tree is believed to go back to mid-1600s but it wasn’t until the Germans
started attaching candles to the tree that it really took off across Europe. The early 1700s saw European people gluing candles
to their Christmas trees with melted wax or by pinning them to the tree. In the 1890s, the invention of candleholders made it
easier to light up the tree and the tradition continued to spread, but only among the well to do; candles were quite expensive at
the time.
It should be no surprise that Thomas Edison, the inventor or the light bulb, would have a hand in Christmas tree lighting. The
first light bulbs strung together for use on a Christmas tree were designed and created by Edward Johnson in 1882. Mr. Johnson
was an inventor that worked for what is known today as Con Edison, the electric company started by Thomas Edison. Mr. Johnson decorated
a tree in his home and by 1900 many of the large department stores of the day began lighting up their trees.
Christmas tree
lights were also quite expensive at the time and so lighting trees with candles continued to be a tradition for most families. It wasn’t until the 1930s that electric lights started to become the preferred method of lighting the average Christmas tree in the
U.S. Early Christmas tree light strings were produced first by GE and then later by the NOMA Electric Company. In the 1960s,
prices for electric lights were driven down by foreign imports and more people were able to afford to not only light up their tree,
but the outside of their homes as well.