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!

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.

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!

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?