Practically Perfect Mary Poppins Snow Globe

The Walt Disney Archives has a stunning collection of familiar film props, costumes and artwork at the D23 Expo in Anaheim this weekend.  There are some wonderful treasures here, including the iconic St. Paul's snow globe from Mary Poppins.

For decades the glass globe with its miniature cathedral and birds has resided in the Archives in Burbank but, unfortunately, without its footed base.  The intricately filigreed brass piece might have been lost long ago— perhaps right after filming of the "Feed the Birds" sequence was completed in the 1960s.  I always felt a small twinge of sadness to see the incomplete globe, with a few of the little boomerang-birds trapped between the glass and the plug.

For D23's "Treasures of the Disney Archives," the Studio requested a replica of the lost base so that the globe could finally appear complete. Working from film frames and production stills, I attempted a "practically perfect" copy assembled from antique metal parts found around Los Angeles.  The glass neck fits snug inside a wool-lined "collar" so the globe and base may be easily separated, if necessary.  

If you didn't know the secret, the whole thing looks pretty great.  I hope the cathedral's "saints and apostles" that Mary Poppins sings about, are looking down and smiling.