L is for the Little Baby Jesus; It's a Baby!

Of all the Nativities, in all the scales, from all the makes, in all the world, in the last seventy-odd years, which may contain figures of interest to plastic-figure collectors, it is arguable whether this is not the most exquisite, nay; finest example of them all.

The Louis Marx Nativity set.

Quite a large set too, with 15 pieces, against the mean of 8'ish. We only get three kings (I blame the carols and hymns!), but five separate animals with a carried-sixth; a lamb, some sets give you a carried lamb or a separate sheep!

The post-natal familial-group along with the archangel Gabriel. That's like the top job in the whole of everything, ever, isn't it? Impregnating virgins, appearing in the sky above shepherds (and mangers), you don't mess with an archangel; they'll turn you to a pillar of salt or something!

The Little Baby Jesus is separate in this set, most sets have him moulded (or glued) into his manger; usually some kind of basket or shoe-box which never saw action as a manger, except perhaps as a mouse-manger . . . do mice have mangers?

Two wise men and an interloper! I didn't realise until I was sorting the images and I wasn't going to shoot them again - the kneeling guy is a pesky shepherd!

The camel is a nice sculpt (as is the whole set), but very unlikely to have been in the Holy Land in the months before Ano Dominie! Bactrian camels (Asia) have two humps, Arabian camels have one, while this is clearly a modern hybrid, a mistake a lot of Nativity sets make.

For some reason, this line-up wouldn't photograph without glare, so I've had to stop the contrast right-down and raise the shadows to the max to get them viewable, leaving them looking like they are floating in the firmament! I think it's because it was a longer line-up so I was holding the camera further away?

Anyway; the missing wise man with his present in front of his knees, joins the beasts and the other shepherd. The donkey had to have his front legs glued back on for the photographs, and I'm not sure if they are both the right way round!

Examples of both the base markings and the exquisite detailing on this set. Kent Sprecher's site reports that there was a US re-issue in a colour similar to this (bottom of page), but these are the original 'early' British Marx issue from Swansea in a very-chalky plastic which is quite brittle now, but holds (or displays?) the fine etched detailing superbly, and gives them a cool but heavy or solid feel that makes them a joy to handle.

The 'stamp' lookalike or 'wax-seal' base mark on this early Marx stuff is getting hard to read with my eyes, so I knocked-up this; in case you're in the same boat!

Obviously; the inset graphic (bottom right corner) is a simplification of the central cipher.

Thought I'd better add a bit of colour! From the left Marx's Mary; an unknown Italian rubber Mary, apparently made specifically for the UK market (I'll look at it in another post); a Hong Kong copy of a (probably larger) Italian original; Jean Hoeffler from Germany; a modern mail-order set's Mary and Joseph; Art Plastic's larger scale Joseph (we've seen the smaller one link . . .  er . . . no we haven't, I thought we had, I'll sort that out; but it may be next year now!) and Marx again.

Too-bright, but as good as I could get them without further intervention? The shepherd is missing the top of his crook, and finding one intact is about as likely as finding Lone Star musketeers!