About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Saturday, December 24, 2022

F is for Friedel

Mentioned in passing here at Small Scale World once or twice, always - as sharper-eyed Loyal readers may have noticed - in connection with the sheep, as someone on one of the animal forums ID'd the sheep years ago, so I knew them as being the droopy-eared ones!

3 Kings; 3 Wise Men; Ass; Birth of Christ; Birthdays; Bisque Decorations; Bisque Fairings; Bisque Statuettes; Cattle; Ceramic Figures and Animals; Christ's Birth; Crèche; Creche; Creshe; Crib; Crib Toy; Donkey; Fairings; Friedel; Jesus Christ; Joseph The Carpenter; Krip; Krippen; Little Baby Jesus; Lowing; Made In Germany; Made In West Germany; Manger; Mary & Joseph; Mary Mother of God; Nativity; Nativity Crib; Nativity Set; Noël; Noel; Plastic Toy Figures; Porcelain Nativity; Sheep; Shepherds Watch Their Flock; The Christ Child; Three Kings; Three Wise Men; Toy Figures; Toy Figurines; W. Germany; Watching Shepherds; West Germany;
This set probably dates from the 1950's, it's missing a thin, crinkly type, cellulose-film window, there were a few fluttering-tags left, but it looked better with them removed! 13-piece, 12-item count, is par for the course and it's what you might call a composite set, being a mixture of wooden, plastic and slip-cast bisque components, all on a bed of dyed wood-straw.

3 Kings; 3 Wise Men; Ass; Birth of Christ; Birthdays; Bisque Decorations; Bisque Fairings; Bisque Statuettes; Cattle; Ceramic Figures and Animals; Christ's Birth; Crèche; Creche; Creshe; Crib; Crib Toy; Donkey; Fairings; Friedel; Jesus Christ; Joseph The Carpenter; Krip; Krippen; Little Baby Jesus; Lowing; Made In Germany; Made In West Germany; Manger; Mary & Joseph; Mary Mother of God; Nativity; Nativity Crib; Nativity Set; Noël; Noel; Plastic Toy Figures; Porcelain Nativity; Sheep; Shepherds Watch Their Flock; The Christ Child; Three Kings; Three Wise Men; Toy Figures; Toy Figurines; W. Germany; Watching Shepherds; West Germany;
The Holy family on the left and the three wise men or Magi on the right (another poor shot, sorry!), you can see how the figures are slip-cast from a pourable ceramic solution, like fairings (or slush-cast lead).

Like the Art Plastics stuff out of Hong Kong, they (or some of them; the 'Kings' and shepherd) had paper labels covering the holes, but they were a thin tissue or newsprint (UK readers think; chip-paper!) and have long since been pierced, probably by the very small-peoples' fingers they were trying to protect from the sharp edges of the casting!

3 Kings; 3 Wise Men; Ass; Birth of Christ; Birthdays; Bisque Decorations; Bisque Fairings; Bisque Statuettes; Cattle; Ceramic Figures and Animals; Christ's Birth; Crèche; Creche; Creshe; Crib; Crib Toy; Donkey; Fairings; Friedel; Jesus Christ; Joseph The Carpenter; Krip; Krippen; Little Baby Jesus; Lowing; Made In Germany; Made In West Germany; Manger; Mary & Joseph; Mary Mother of God; Nativity; Nativity Crib; Nativity Set; Noël; Noel; Plastic Toy Figures; Porcelain Nativity; Sheep; Shepherds Watch Their Flock; The Christ Child; Three Kings; Three Wise Men; Toy Figures; Toy Figurines; W. Germany; Watching Shepherds; West Germany;
Two droopy-eared sheep, a grazing one, and rather nice cow & donkey sculpts (in a composition style) join the polymer Little Baby Jesus who gets a hand-made wooden crib which does actually look like a manger (first in five posts!). The Shepherd is another ceramic 'fairing'.

The manger was lined with moss, which has dried and worn-off, just like the moss on the floors of the wooden stables they would have gone with, indeed some may even have been boxed next to them on the self and marked Friedel?

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