Holiday Antiques: Basics of Christmas Feather Trees

Video Transcript

"So, goose feather trees, they're a lot of fun to collect, they can be very expensive and there's a lot of reproductions out there. You'll find there's more reproductions than the older ones. You can figure you're going to pay $100.00 per foot, anywhere from the turn of the century up to the 1950's and 60's really collectible. They, the larger ones, I've had them in the shop 5 feet, can range, the last one I had in here went for $550.00 to $750.00 depending on the condition, but 5 footers/$500.00, you can keep that in your head, a $100.00 a foot depending on where you're from and depending on the region and the condition. So, I've got a couple of examples here for you today, here's a nice one that's pretty much, this German paper bell form and you'll find it in different forms, too. You'll find it in ivy leaf, poinsettia design and there's a lot of different designs with the paper taper top on here and underneath you can see on the bottom is a wooden base. A lot of times they're stamped and this one is also stamped. That helps you identify, this is actually goose feathers with little berries on the end. Some of these trees come in almost like this Charlie Brown with 4 branches or 5 branches and you branch them out, their layers. Also, you can find these feather trees with very bushy, full, like twice as much leaves coming out, goose feathers coming out here so you find it much bushier. So, you can find from this type, very simple, single four stems to a bushier, it just depends on what you like. You'll find them in the round base containers like this earlier feather tree here, this one has some discoloration on it you can see. When that happens the goose feathers dry out and you loose some of the berries, the color on the berries will fall off, so this one does have a little bit of condition problems but all in all it's a pretty nice looking little feather tree."