Chalet Apples are the “Best Medicine”

At times, it is fun to rework an adage to suit your purpose. So, here is one for those of you who love some “pun fun”:  “ A Chalet apple a day is a collector’s Hurray!”

  Chalet made a wide range of fruit in different styles and in all the Chalet colours. The apple figurine was one of the most popular.  There are variations and we are fortunate enough to have a catalogue page on which 3 styles are featured.

 Style 540. It may look more like a peach to many of us because of the crease but Chalet deemed it an apple.

This is the larger and heavier of the Chalet apple styles. It has an applied avventurina crystal leaf branching out from its stem. An orb of colour is suspended within its crystal form. It has rounded sides, a tilted stem, and a flat polished base. It was sold as a single or with the pear. It is usually etched “Chalet Canada.” As is this apple. Photograph courtesy of the Zhao family.

However, it has also been found with the small gold “Lead Crystal” sticker.

This apple is etched with the ”Chalet Canada” signature as well as retaining the small “Lead Crystal” sticker. Although both these first two apples have blue interiors, the colour placement and tone differ from apple to apple.

With this apple, I have a pear which retains a Chalet “Boutique Collection” hang tag. Therefore, I suspect the apples may have been marked with that indicia as well.

Note that the stem of the pear, as well as its leaf, in this set is also avventurina while the stem of the apple is not.

It has been found in many colours.

Blue apple in middle from the collection of 50 Shades member Roses Jjak and olive apple at bottom on right belongs to Jo Highland.

One style is not shown on the catalogue page above – the Chalet apple book end. It is very similar to the Style 540 apple but with one side having been shaved flat so that it may rest securely against an abutting surface.

Again, note the differing  colour placement of the suspended orb. This apple’s interior is almost completely coloured.

They come in the all the colours of the Chalet palette.

The book ends are typically etched “Chalet Canada” but have been found with the big black Chalet applied label as well.

The second style of Chalet apple, Style 544, was also mouth blown but the interior is completely hollow.

 I was told by the artists that the cranberry apple was in honour of the McIntosh apple which is grown in many orchards around Cornwall. At the 2010 exhibit, a former Cornwall teacher told me that she got at least one Chalet apple a year as a gift from a pupil.

 The cranberry apple may have a clear or light green coloured stem and leaf. The leaf on the cranberry apples is not avventurina. The coloured stems were not textured as were the clear.

The form with the coloured leaf and stem is very rare. Another from the collection of Jo Highland. Apple on right from the collection of Melissa Patterson.

An “eagle eye” top down view.

A “bottoms up” view. The base on this style of cranberry apple is flat and has a pontil mark. As shown here, the most typical marking is again - the Chalet “Lead Crystal” label.

The Chalet “McIntosh” apple was also done in clear crystal for Riekes Crisa distribution. Exceptionally scarce.

Flat base. The leaf is not avventurina. An apple is not shown in either of the two Riekes catalogs that I have.

The fourth style of Chalet apple is also inventoried as Style 544. However, it differs in that it does not have a flat base but rests on its side. In addition, it has a textured surface and coloured leaf and stem. Once more, it is marked with the small “lead Crystal” label.

An exceedingly rare form. Another from Jo Highland.

Chalet did an “apple ashtray” as well. Please see the ashtray article for details. This form is also included in the article on the Chalet fruit forms.

Smooth textured, flat based cranberry apples were also produced by Rossi in Cornwall.