Collecting Easter Memories: Hop To Your Favorite Antique Store

Before wifey replaces the Easter décor lovingly displayed around the house with the next season’s selections (whatever that might be), I felt we should explore the collection we have and entice you to start or keep your own collection growing.

The Easter Holiday evokes fond memories of our childhood, with the Easter Bunny bringing wonderful chocolate bunnies, yellow Peeps, Jelly Bellys, chocolate covered marshmallow and cream filled eggs. The holiday was preceded by the creation of colored and decorated Easter eggs, stored in woven wooden baskets with colored “straw” cushions.

Easter takes a back seat to the more prolific Christmas and Halloween collectibles market for decorating or display. Although the selection may be more limited, the colors of pale pink, green, yellow, lavender and blue brighten and bring a touch of spring into the home.

The bunny, a symbol of fertility and spring dating from pre-Christian time, was introduced into this country in the mid to late 1800s with migration of German settlers into Pennsylvania. The edible bunny soon became a popular treat made of pastry and lots of sugar.

The tradition of eggs, and chicks and bunnies for Easter is well documented in post cards from the beginning of the century with many produced by German printers. Today they present a wonderful opportunity for collecting, and while some post card collectors prefer clean backs, I enjoy reading the “To and from” and the hand written greeting or message of love and consider the dated canceled stamp an important part of the sense of time and travel these cards have journeyed. These can be easily displayed on small plate stands on a shelf or in a collage framed on the wall.

Baskets made of different materials are found at antique stores at this time of year, as are paper cutouts, child’s plates and bowls decorated with bunnies and chicks.

Figurines are the biggest variety of collectibles and come in many sizes from all sorts of manufacturers in materials ranging from bone china to papier mache’, and in forms that include baskets to hold candies and even in the form of tea pots.

Candy molds and Easter lamb cake molds are another dimension to Easter collecting. The lamb cake was usually chocolate with white frosting and topped with white cocoanut shavings, and green died shavings formed its bed. The lamb’s eyes were jelly beans and a leftover Valentine candy heart formed its mouth. Mom knew how to extract the cake from her cast iron mold, and please our eyes and taste buds.

The candy molds rest nicely opened on a shelf or counter top or hung on a wall, and can be displayed all year long with a collection of primitive kitchen items.

Our bunny mold was purchase from the estate of a confectionist in Green Bay, Wisconsin many years ago and has been displayed in season. The chocolate egg mold from the Droste Chocolate Co. in Holland, was purchased a short while ago in Rockford, Illinois at the recently re-opened State St. Mall. These heavy metal molds are not common, but as any collector will attest, the harder the search the greater the reward.

May the Bunny bring you sweet rewards, and your collections grow on chicken feed.