V is for Variations on a Seasonal Theme

We haven't had a Nativity scene this year, something I'd better rectify while it is still Christmas (I've just re-named two posts from 2020 to 2022, so there's back-up in the long-queue!), with this nice little leftover of . . . probably the 1950's or early '60's.

Which reminds me; 1979 (which is where the 'modern age' began with first Thatcher's election in May and then Regan's at the end of the following year, then Kohl and Mitterrand a year later) is now closer to 1939 than it is to today, while 50 years ago it was 1971 . . . just to make you all feel old!

89¢; would that be the '60's? Dexter's distributed by Lee Wards (seemingly known as Leewards despite the errant capital!), who were a US chain of craft and haberdashers', now owed by Michaels. I'm guessing Dexter's is a phantom brand of Leewards?

Quite a complicated set-up for retailing a set of Hong Kong polymer shite, with a separate pull out tray, divided in such a way everything gets displayed fully, must have been a nightmare to pack! The little metallic-foil laminated paper label says Dexter's Angels, despite only one angel being obvious, so it may have started life with another set?

The Christian family and the diminutive angel! Joseph is about 30mm. The angel has attachment/glue points on the reverse, the reason for which we will look at in a minute, but selling them broken down as craft items, it makes sense that a small piece - 8x10mm - might have some anchor points.

The contents of the other two obvious 'sections' of the tray includes three wise men (it doesn't have to be three), the shepherds (two) and their flock and a couple of barn inhabitants who went hungry that night as there was a soggy baby in their manger! We also get a tiny star!

I think they are all loosely based on larger European (probably Italian) sculpts and I think we've seen a bright-pink, soft ethylene copy of that cow as a Christmas Cracker prize in the past here?

The tray basically contains a kit of parts which - back in Hong Kong - is also used in-whole or in-part for other seasonal novelty items, among which is this Art Plastics set, also from my collection - which I thought we'd seen here before, but somehow the images went to the dongles years ago without being used? Art also produced some of the bigger 70/80mm sets which were straight copies of Italian 'Prespi' sculpts, but not the same as these.

These are better painted and finished (and more realistically coloured) and are probably '1st generation' to the Dexter's 2nd? You can see only the family and shepherds are used and you can see why the angel has the mounting points, it's so it can be attached to the pinnacles of these stables, despite there not being one here; I have seen them so attached!

While here, we have the three Kings as a hanging bauble for Christmas trees on the right, while more of the set are used with the candle nativity - which may have been home-made/garage-manufactured from the Dexter's set, although the little baby Jesus is a different sculpt? Other baubles probably had vignettes of the nativity family and shepherds for a set of three?

I've also seen them as wall hanging relief scenes and in snow-globes, while an equally large range of flat copies exist of this set, if not two or three sets of pirated flats which we will look at another year.

So it was a very versatile set that got a lot of dollars and pounds back to what is now - of course - the troublesome China! We are the architects of our own destruction, or at least our leaders have been.