If you have been collecting dragon collectibles for any length of time I’m sure you have noticed that many of the sites seem to be selling the same dragons.

I know there are so many more dragon collectibles out there.   I have spent hundreds of hours searching for them. You can find dragon glass and dragon sculpture hidden in some interesting places. Like the wonderful carved meerschaum dragons, from a tobacco pipe site I came across the other day.  Or these beautiful hand blown dragon glass pieces, from a wedding cake topper site.

Don’t forget to always check the links in the right hand sidebar for new dragon collectibles. You never know when there will be new dragon figure, dragon sculpture, dragon glass, and dragon figurines released unless you do.

Be sure to check out the rest of my blog for some interesting facts about dragon history and myths. Some tips on displays, inspired by some designer trade secrets I have picked up over the years.

You can help me help others in the search for dragons to add to their collections, leave a comment and tells us where you have found some great dragon sculpture or dragon glass. Any dragon collectibles for that matter.

I’m sure you will find Dragon Collectibles useful in your search for new dragons to add to your collection. I will do the searching so you don’t have to. Just bookmark this site and come on back. I will add new links as I find them.

Books and movies are great things, each has its strengths and weaknesses.  Reading a good book is almost always better than watching a movie.  A book that is well written allows your mind to create the pictures.  You get much more feel for the characters and the story from a book than from a movie.  You get to look into the characters mindset more deeply, giving you more insight into the actions a character takes.  I guess that’s why most people will always tell you “I thought the book was better than the movie.”

I do love a good movie.  There are lots of great movies, I just have never seen one that was better than the book.  Some do come close, “Lord of the Rings” for example.  That could just be me, I never really warmed up to the writing style of J.R.R. Tolkien.  Anne Mc Caffrey on the other hand has a style that I find engaging and easy to follow.  She writes the type of books you find hard to put down.

For a great dragon collectibles story, one that will just make you happy, read The Dragonrides of Pern.

GO to Amazon and check out the “look inside” once you get there.

When it came time for the trader to set sail for his home, he invites the merchant to load up his wares and travel with him.  Our merchant, always looking for a bigger and better market, takes the trader up on his offer.  After weeks at sea the ship arrives in trader’s homeland.  The merchant is amazed with the hustle and bustle of this port city.

After a couple of days of selling his wares, his trader friend tells him of a village a short distance away.  He tells him the people there would love what he is selling.  That it would be a great place for him to find merchandise to purchase before the trip back to his land.  The merchant decides this would be a great idea, packs up and hits the road.  This is a wondrous land with many things the merchant has never seen before.  He is enjoying the walk and taking in the sites as he travels when he hears a rustling noise coming from the underbrush.  He stops to listen, hears the rustling again, decides to go closer to the bushes to investigate.  When, all of a sudden, bursting from the undergrowth coming straight at him is a giant frilled lizard.  Startled, the merchant runs.  After a few strides, he looks over his shoulder and finds the frilled lizard is not chasing him any longer.  It is standing by the side of the road, hissing and acting very menacing.  He remembers the stories of the dragons in this land.  Having never seen such a creature before he quickly decides, this must be a baby dragon, and it would be wise to leave it alone.  Heart pounding, he decides to head back to the port city.

Dragon Collectibles wonders if this could be how a great dragon legend started.  Let us assume for the moment, frilled lizards could have been much bigger 2,500 years ago.  History tells us that the average height of people in general was less than today.  Our merchant, not wanting to look the fool will embellish the story he tells of the encounter.  Think of a small child being told the story of the horrific encounter by his Grand Father.  Good old Grand Father holds his hand up next to small grandchild, indicating the dragon figure was as a bit taller than the child.  Now that image of the dragon being taller stays with the child.  That child grows up and tells the story to his grandkids, the difference being now the dragon figure is taller than the adult telling the tale.

I think an encounter with a 15 foot King Cobra would make an even bigger tale.  Thus, a Dragon is born.  Generations of storytelling, with the embellishments that happen over time would turn a chance encounter with an everyday animal into a Great Dragon Collectibles legend.

In ancient times people might wear a dragon charm to ward off a bad dragon or to pay tribute to another.  A Lord might commission a dragon painting, to tell a story of an ancestor (or himself) and how the dragon was defeated.  Because the dragon is a powerful symbol another powerful Lord might have a dragon sculpture or even a dragon fountain in the courtyard.  Back then it was all about perception.  You needed a strong symbol to show the people who was in charge.  If it was frightening, all the better.

The reasons people collect dragons today is just as varied.  The Chinese dragon for example, still holds great power in Chinese culture.  people in India still perform rituals in honor of the dragon.  Today we have many more choices in the type of dragon we collect.  You might find a stained glass dragon at a craft show.  You might find a dragon painting at a yard sale.  or, you could buy some dragon art prints (those are cheaper than the original paintings).  Just a side note on that – prints have come a long way in quality – check some out if you haven’t recently.  There are many more types of dragon collectibles, plush, stuffed, carved… Go… find them.

The Red Dragon of Wales is an old Western European dragon figure, one that has remained unchanged for centuries.

We know the Chinese revere the dragon.  Dragon Collectibles was wondering who else.  The Welsh, that’s who.  You can find this dragon all over, from dragon glass decals to the Welsh Flag.  I would say just about every sport has a team sporting this dragon figure.  While it’s used widely either as a team logo or as part of the flag, the Red Dragon of Wales has changed very little in the hundreds of years it has been depicted.

It is very likely the Romans brought the Red Dragon figure with them during the occupation of Britain in the form of the Standards carried by the Roman Cavalry and Infantry of the time.  The ancient Romans as did many other cultures believed that Draco was a very powerful figure.  Because the people associated the red dragon with roman authority.  It’s not hard to see why the new ruling class adopted it as a symbol of their new authority.

Here at Dragon Collectibles, we think this is the place most of the western European dragon legends started.  The region at this time had many clans who ruled over various areas.  One school of thought has the English dragon evolving more from the dragons of North Africa.  Over the centuries, the dragons became bigger and fiercer in the ever import need to be better than ones predecessor.  They became associated with greed because of the actions of the many different ruling families, who were more interested in wealth and power than the well being of the people.

As we know from other posts, the modern day dragons seems to be a composite of many dragons.  Either because of the fancy of an artist, or the need of a ruler to have a strong symbol of power.  Dragon Collectibles is happy to see this dragon figure standing up to the test of time, and being a dragon glass decal or sports logo.  Come to think of it, we need more Dragon Collectibles being used like this in everyday life.

There thousands of beautiful dragon collectibles out there ready to be found.  Collecting dragons can be great fun, showing them off is better.  In this post I want to give you some suggestions on how best to display your collection.  How to add some authority to it as well.

Many collectors tend towards a specialty, such as dragon glass or dragon figure or figurines.  Some may prefer dragon sculpture while others may prefer a dragon painting.  No matter what type of collection you have, there are ways to get your friends to say “oh wow” when they see your dragons.

The biggest mistake I see people make when displaying any collection, is trying to display all the dragon collectibles in a space that is too small.  Let me ask, do you like large crowds or people pushing and shoving?  I don’t.  Well, when you have too many pieces in a display, they get lost in the crowd.  It takes away from the beauty of any single piece and makes the collection look too busy.  You may be thinking to yourself “I still see the beauty in it” and I’m sure you do.  You love those dragons. What about your friends?  They may not be as big a fan of dragon collectibles as you and I.

A couple suggestions.  This one is so hard to do….put some away.  You can switch them out every couple months or so.  Try to theme them with the seasons.  Split one big display into two or three smaller groupings.  If your a specialty collector, there may not be enough verity for your friends to appreciate.  Don’t get me wrong, that’s fine.  But, interior decorators will tell you that you need an anchor or focal point.  You also need height to help direct the eye.  I suggest if your all about dragon glass, try finding an over sized piece or even a dragon sculpture.  The same holds true for dragon figure collections.  That covers the anchor piece.  Now height, the feature that helps direct the eye.  This could be a dragon illustration on the wall behind your collection or a couple smaller dragon art prints on each side.  That all depends on how your display area is set and what you like.

Lastly lets talk about weight or authority.  I consider this to be an important part of any display, dragons or otherwise.  I try to find something that relates to the collection.  Something that most people would be familiar with.  There is some really great dragon art work out there.  An example would be using a famous painter such as “Leonardo da Vinci”.  In my view, who better to add authority, his attention to detail is renown.  In his study of the dragon, he did some dragon illustrations that would be perfect for any collector.  I like the “Dragon Fighting a Lion”.  You can find the reproduction in many sizes, framed or unframed, to best fit your space.  Antique dragon pieces would fit this bill as well.  This lets people know that dragon collectibles are around to stay. ]]> http://www.dragoncollectibles.org/dragon-collectibles/add-wow-to-your-dragon-collectibles-display/feed 1 http://www.dragoncollectibles.org/dragon-collectibles/dragon-collectibles http://www.dragoncollectibles.org/dragon-collectibles/dragon-collectibles#comments Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:00:59 +0000 admin http://www.dragoncollectibles.org/uncategorized/dragon-collectibles There are many types of dragon glass, figurines, and sculpture.  Those are just a few of the dragon collectibles people enjoy and find interesting.  Myth, legend, folklore, and history can be just as fascinating.

Ancient cultures from all over the world have myths and legends about dragons.  Dragon history can be seen in ancient art all over the world. In today’s world, Dragon Collectibles can be a dragon sculpture or a dragon glass piece, to name just a couple.  We collect dragon artwork today for the beauty of it.  Or for the majesty and strength of the dragon figure portrayed by the artist. In ancient times people collected or created the dragon artwork for much more practical reasons.  Whatever the beliefs of that society dictated.  Protection from evil, good health, fertility, a good harvest to name but a few. Dragon history can be revealed to us on many ancient objects.  Pottery, tapestries, sculptures, paintings, and many others.  Many of these are collectible in their own right, but very expensive.  Lucky for us, there are reproductions, not to mention all of today’s artists who create new dragon art for us to enjoy.

As I mentioned, dragon artwork is a great place to learn the history and folklore of dragon collectibles.  I’m sure you know the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words” many an old painting will tell a story that gives us some knowledge into the myths and folklore of the time they were created. It is interesting that dragons are portrayed as malevolent in one culture while benevolent in another.  I have heard it said many times that legends and myths are born of facts.

Dragon Collectables is my journey into the world of dragons to try and find those facts.  A journey I hope you will join as I examine the legends surrounding the wonderful creature we call dragon.  Who knows what we will find.