• Redding Connecticut Holiday Ornament, The Conservation Oak, View 1
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Redding Connecticut Holiday Ornament - The Conservation Oak

Redding Connecticut Holiday Ornament - The Conservation Oak

$28.00 USD
$28.00 USD
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The Conservation Oak. Look closely at the grass. From across the room it's a meadow at the foot of an old oak. Up close, the blades spell a word. Redding has been reading its land that way for a very long time.

This one is for giving. Hang one, and send the rest to the friends and neighbors who keep the woods the woods - the trail tender, the easement donor, the neighbor who mows the meadow late for the bobolinks, the couple who walk Saugatuck Falls every Sunday. Send one down the hill, too, to friends in the shore towns, where open space was discovered about the time the last of it sold. Spread the word. It's right there in the grass.

This was farm country first - pastured hillsides, stone walls, a limekiln at the north end that shipped plaster powder to New York, charcoal burners at the south. When the Erie Canal opened the West, the farmers followed it, and the forest crept back over the walls they left behind. By the 1930s Redding was woods again, with fewer than two thousand people living in them and no particular plan to keep it that way.

The plan came from the town itself. In 1887 Redding residents talked the state into creating its first state park, at General Putnam's winter camp. In 1965 they founded a Land Trust. When the Great Ledge above Devil's Den went on the market in 1988, the whole town chipped in to buy it. The trails - sixty miles of them - are cleared every year by volunteers. Today nearly forty percent of Redding is protected land, among the highest shares of any town in Connecticut, and the regional vision for keeping New England forested is run from a foundation on Lonetown Road.

The oak on this ornament is nobody's tree in particular. It's the one that got to grow.

Printed on a three-inch faceted crystal glass round, white-backed so the deep spruce engraving holds against a lit tree. Drawn in the manner of an 1880s wood engraving, with a single red ribbon tied around the trunk and CONSERVATION worked into the grass. The faceted edge catches light from every angle. Arrives boxed - your choice of white or gold gift box at checkout.

3-inch (76 mm) round crystal glass ornament · faceted gem-cut edge · white-backed print for crisp contrast · red ribbon hanger · your choice of white or gold gift box, included · free U.S. shipping.


QUICK FACTS — REDDING CONNECTICUT CRYSTAL ORNAMENT — THE CONSERVATION OAK

Series: Crystal Glass Ornament

Art: The Conservation Oak, original Merlin Classics engraving printed to the glass

Blank: 3-inch (76 mm) round clear crystal glass ornament, faceted gem-cut edge

Print: white-backed for contrast; red ribbon hanger

Packaging: white or gold gift box, chosen at checkout

Made to order in the USA



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Wear Local. Feed Local. Stay Classic.

Product FAQs

How does your sizing work?

Every item is made to order, so please check the size chart on this page before you buy. Women's fitted tees run small; size up for a looser fit. Caps are one size with an adjustable strap.

How are items made and when will they arrive?

We make each item to order using premium blanks, embroidery and soft-hand prints. Production takes 2-5 business days (weekends and holidays excluded), then 4-10 days in transit via USPS, UPS or FedEx to U.S. addresses; most orders arrive within 6-15 business days. You'll get a tracking link the moment it ships. Any current shipping offer is shown in the bar at the top of every page and applies automatically at checkout, no code needed.

How do I send a gift?

Enter the recipient's address as the shipping address and your own as the billing address at checkout. Nothing ships with a price; the package includes a plain packing slip. Tracking goes to your email, not theirs. For birthdays and holidays, order two weeks ahead to be safe.

What's the return policy?

Made-to-order items can't be returned or exchanged for size or color, so please use the size chart and photos before ordering. If anything arrives defective, misprinted or damaged, send a photo and your order number within 30 days and we'll replace it or refund you.

How do I care for my item?

Apparel: wash cold, inside out, with like colors; no bleach; tumble dry low or hang dry. Embroidered pieces: iron inside out to protect the stitching. Caps: spot clean. Printed glasses and water bottles: hand wash only, no dishwasher, so the artwork lasts. Mugs and engraved glasses are dishwasher safe. Any item-specific care notes are in the description above.

Who makes this?

Merlin Classics is a small Connecticut brand making original retro designs for the towns people love. Every piece is printed, embroidered or engraved to order in the USA, and the business supports hunger relief in the communities our collections celebrate.

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Then the army itself arrived. Putnam chose the Redding hills for the winter of 1778–79 because from here a division could cover the Danbury stores, the Sound and the Hudson Highlands at once. New Hampshire men under Enoch Poor, Moses Hazen's Canadian regiment and two Connecticut brigades under Samuel Holden Parsons and Jedediah Huntington built their huts in three valleys. On December 30 the Connecticut line, unpaid and half fed, formed up to march on the legislature at Hartford; Putnam rode in and talked them back to their huts. In February a spy and a deserter were executed on the hill still called Gallows Hill. The division marched out in the spring, the chimneys fell, and the woods closed over the camp.

Why is Redding called Connecticut's Valley Forge? Because in the winter of 1778–79 Major General Israel Putnam quartered a division of the Continental Army here — about three thousand men in three camps of log huts — short of bread, blankets and shoes. Joseph Plumb Martin, a Connecticut private who wintered in Redding, remembered the season as one of starving and freezing. The main camp is now Putnam Memorial State Park.

Why People Visit Redding

People come to Redding for what is not here: no highway, no strip, no crowd. They come for a Revolutionary War camp you can walk alone on a winter morning, for sixty miles of trails, and for the hills that drew Mark Twain, Charles Ives and Edward Steichen out of New York.

Redding Connecticut Merlin Classics Retro Vintage Logo Featuring an Old Oak and Connecticut Est. 1636