Town and Country

Town and Country Hallmark Ornaments

(1999-2004)

Town and Country is a six-piece pressed-tin series sculpted by Linda Sickman from 1999 through 2004. Instead of following a recurring character, it builds a small community through houses, shops, public buildings, and rural landmarks. Roof shape, signs, porches, windows, and chimneys explain what happens inside each place.

1999 Farm House, Town and Country #1 opens the series with a private country home. 2000 Bait Shop With Boat, Town and Country #2 shifts toward a small business and adds a boat, immediately widening the imagined town beyond houses. 2001 Fire Station No. 1, Town and Country #3 introduces a civic building whose bay doors and station identity suggest people and equipment even when no emergency is shown.

The fourth release, 2002 Grandmother's House and Covered Bridge, Town and Country #4, is unusual because it contains two ornaments. The house and covered bridge create a wider landscape than one building could provide and make the country half of the title especially visible. A missing bridge would therefore remove half of the numbered pair, even though the house can hang by itself.

2004 Hometown Church, Town and Country #6 closes the series with a church and a separate sign. Its steeple gives the finished group a strong vertical landmark, while the sign supplies a small piece of street-level detail. Seen in order, the farm house, bait shop, fire station, grandmother’s home, covered bridge, and church suggest roads and neighbors that Hallmark never had to sculpt. Snow and painted trim unite the set, but every structure has its own public or private purpose. The six-year run works as a balanced village because it balances home life, commerce, community service, travel, and worship. Pressed tin gives the buildings crisp walls and roof planes while recalling older metal holiday decorations.