Today I'm curious about haloes.  I've been looking into their origins
and meaning as elements of sculptural and pictorial art and find that
they long predate Christianity.  My research has led me down some
interesting paths.  I have found some completely useless sites like
this
http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-26264,00.html
and some much more knowledgeable-sounding ones like this.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11080b.htm
I don't really need to see more of the same.

What interests me at the moment is the fact that, unlike a great deal
of other artistic and religious iconography, the halo is a symbol that
is universally understood in our culture, so recognizable that it is a
familiar emblem in cartoons, advertising, and even "smiley" emoticons.
 Even if its significance has departed somewhat from its original
meaning in art, it instantly communicates an idea so consistently
interpreted in our culture that it never needs explanation.

I am curious about two things with respect to haloes:

1.  When and how did the halo enter the popular culture as a symbol
used in secular contexts, with its ties to its religious applications
stretched pretty thin?

2.  When and where did the halo begin to be depicted (usually
humorously) as something with an independent, separable existence--not
an emanation of radiant light around the head of a saintly or divine
figure but an object that could be dropped, lost, worn askew, and
polished?  I am aware that the ringlike depiction itself (that is, a
circular or elliptical line, or sometimes even a triangle or square,
rather than a filled disc) goes far back, but in religious art it has
never been rolled like a hoop, tipped like a hat, eaten like a
doughnut, or tossed like a Frisbee.

Specifically, I am wondering if it was ever depicted with this
characteristic of independent material reality prior to the
publication of Charles Tazewell's story "The Littlest Angel" in 1942
or the delightful film based on it, which I saw as a child (and which
is not the 1969 remake).

As usual, I do not price questions high when I'm asking just for fun,
but I do try to recognize responses that represent considerable
effort or sheer brilliant ingenuity.

Thank you,
Archae0pteryx