Treasure Chest Thursday: Old World Metal Art Ornaments

A couple of the prettiest Christmas ornaments in my collection are these two brass "Old World Metal Art" 1979 dated ornaments, by Kristin Kjorlaug Inc. (originally Kristin Company).   These must have been among the very first ornaments I bought for myself, for my first Christmas tree in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1979.  The first is a snowflake; the second is called "the little Mary."

I still have the original sleeve one of the ornaments came in, along with the original documents.  Here are some of the images from the pages, which tell a little about the company.

I found some examples of different snowflake designs from later years for sale online.  I don't remember what I paid for these in 1979, but now they seem to sell for about $8.50 each.

"The little Mary" was apparently designed by another artist called Pat Greer.  I was unable to find much information about her.  However, I found a lot of information about Kristin Korlaug herself on her granddaughter's website.  Here is what she wrote:

Kristin Kjorlaug was the artist name of my dear Norwegian grandmother. In 1884 her grandfather brought the name Kjorlaug from Norway to America. Kristin was a Norwegian name that she adored. Not only did she sign her artwork with this name, but she also named her brass art company The Kristin Company in 1972— a company where my grandfather, an engineer, chemically etched her artwork on brass sheets, then clipped and polished them to sell as ornaments. They ran this company together until 1987. 

Based on this information, other hints I found on the granddaughter's Facebook page, and the Edina, Minnesota location of the company, I determined that the original Kristin Kjorlaug was Dorothy Ann Kjorlaug Cummings, 1923-2011.  Her husband was former Honeywell aeronautical engineer Kimball Curtis Cummings Sr., 1921-2020.

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