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An Interview with Antique Christmas Decorations Collector Dolph ...
Dolph Gotelli is a professor emeritus of design at the University of California, Davis. Gotelli is well known in the Christmas community for his elaborate exhibits and seasonal displays, which feature items from his collections of ephemera, Santa Clauses, and Christmas-related toys. Recently, we spoke with Gotelli about Christmas in the Victorian era, which is his specialty and chief passion. A member of the Golden Glow of Christmas Past , Gotelli can be contacted via his website, DolphGotelli.com .
I grew up in a home without any antiques. As a small kid, I started decorating my parents’ home for Christmas . I don’t know what influenced me, perhaps being alone and living in a rural environment might have had something to do with it because I engaged in a lot of fantasy play. I made a lot of ornaments out of stuff that I had lying around, and I decorated using things that I found in the garden.
Through the years, I became more interested in Christmas decorations and met a few collectors, but my interest really took off when I was attending San Francisco State University. The major stores in the city had incredible glass ornaments.
One store that really went all out was Podesta Baldocchi in downtown San Francisco. It’s one of the city’s oldest and most famous florists. They would create their Christmas displays just before Thanksgiving—people would stand in long lines to get into the store just to see them. Podesta Baldocchi would fill its store with fresh, 14-foot silver-tip trees, maybe 20 of them, and each tree would be decorated in a special theme with its own ornaments. Craftspeople would work all year to make ornaments just for them. Glass ornaments came from Italy; some were made by local craftspeople. I had a friend who made some special sequin ornaments every year for the store.
The Emporium used to import wonderful glass ornaments, and that’s really how I got started. As I traveled, I got even more involved. At some point I joined Golden Glow of Christmas Past, and the rest is history. I’ve been collecting ever since.
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