Where can I find a well made boat ornament?

Here, and the test for a well made one is whether the hull is finished on the side that faces the wall. Most are not. Ours carries its waterline the whole way around and its deck seams brushed on one at a time. My aunt Lucinda checked the back of hers before she looked at the front. She restores boats.

Is the Vintage Speedboat ornament right for yankee swap?

It is, and it tends to produce the trade that happens outside the rules. Somebody with no claim on it offers something for it mid-round, the swap pauses while everybody watches, and the pair shake on it. Nobody ever reverses that trade at the end of the game. Lucinda has been on both sides of one. She kept the boat.

Is the Vintage Speedboat ornament a good gift idea?

Yes, for anybody who has owned a boat, worked on a boat, or talked at length about a boat they intend to buy. The last group is larger than the first two combined. Lucinda gave one to a man who has been about to buy a boat since 2009 and reports that he was visibly moved. He has still not bought one.

What is the Vintage Speedboat ornament made from?

Blown glass, hand-painted, with a mahogany-toned hull, a chrome-effect windshield and white spray worked into the stern. The deck stripes are laid on individually, which is slower than masking and the only way they follow the curve of the hull properly. Lucinda asked what the stripes had been masked with and was pleased to be told nothing at all.

What size is the Vintage Speedboat ornament out of the box?

It measures 1.38 inches wide and 3.94 inches tall, so it is narrow and upright rather than long and low, and it hangs bow-up on the loop. That shape is useful, because it fits the vertical gaps between round ornaments where nothing else will go. Lucinda measured the gap first and bought the ornament second. Apparently that is the correct order.

How do I keep the Vintage Speedboat ornament safe in storage?

Wrap the bow and the windshield separately, since both stand proud of the hull and will take any knock first. Then pack it upright rather than on its side, which keeps the weight over the strongest part of the form. Lucinda stores hers inside a fitted cover she made, at roughly a fortieth of the scale of the other one. She enjoys the symmetry.

Do you have more travel and landmark ornaments like the Vintage Speedboat?

We do, and the collection runs to landmarks, vehicles and coastlines. This is the only one that moves across water, which makes it the odd entry in a group otherwise built for roads and skylines. Lucinda considers everything else in the range to be land transport and therefore a compromise. She has held that view for years.

Does the Vintage Speedboat ornament ship gift ready?

It ships in protective transit packaging designed to get a narrow glass hull through the postal system intact, which is a different job from presentation. Nothing about it is wrapped for handing over directly. Lucinda opened hers at the kitchen table with a knife and considerable ceremony, then complained that the packaging had been excessive. It had worked.

Chive glass speedboat ornament in brown with a paneled deck design.

Chive glass speedboat ornament in wood tone with a striped windshield panel.

Vintage Speedboat Ornament

Name: Vintage Speedboat Ornament
Brand: Chive Studio
SKU: ORN279
Price: 14.42 USD
Availability: InStock

$14.42

The Vintage Speedboat Ornament is a boat ornament done as a mahogany-hulled runabout, with a chrome windshield, a brushed deck seam and a curl of white spray at the stern. It carries far more height than width, runs close to four inches bow to stern, and hangs bow-up rather than level, which is how it earns its place: it drops into the vertical gaps between round ornaments that nothing else will fit. The deck stripes go on one at a time and the waterline runs true the whole way around, including the side that faces the wall, because a hull without one reads as a toy no matter how good the rest of it is. My aunt Lucinda spent four summers restoring a boat she has since piloted exactly twice and considers that a favorable ratio. The Royal Ontario Museum keeps scale models behind glass for the reason anybody builds one: at that size a whole vessel fits inside your attention at once, which it never does when you are standing beside the real thing.

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Vintage Speedboat Ornament