A Juicy Solution

QUESTION: I was visiting my grandmother the other day and noticed that when she needed some lemon juice for a dish she was preparing, she pulled out a funny looking contraption, placed half a lemon on it, and pushed down on the lemon while turning it slowly. The juice from the lemon flowed into a grove at the bottom. She then poured the juice into her pan and continued cooking. What is this device called and did everyone use them back in the day?

ANSWER: Younger Americans think lemon juice comes from those cute plastic lemons---or from fancy and expensive electric stainless steel appliances that sit on their kitchen counter. Many have never had to squeeze juice by hand, but it wasn't so very long ago when that's exactly what everyone had to do in order to have the lemon juice for a dish or a refreshing glass of OJ. But instead of an electric appliance, people used a reamer.

The French made the earliest reamer, registered in 1767, of nickel silver and porcelain. First produced in Europe, reamers later appeared in the U.S. European reamers were  some of the finest ever created, including those produced by the finest china companies, such as Limoges, Royal Bayreuth, R.S. Prussia, and Meissen.

Though Charles L. Tiffany offered a reamer at his Tiffany and Company store in New York in the early 1880s, the first juice extractor patented in the U.S. was on May 30,1865. This was actually a wooden juice press.

The hand-held lemon squeezer created by George Cornford patented the first hand-held, clear glass lemon squeezer on August 19,1884, and it resembled a darning egg. 

Before the turn of the 20th century, more inventors patented designs for their own juice squeezers. R.E. Bristow of Rockford, IIlinios, registered "The Ideal" on January 31, 1888. John Easley of Manhattan registered a hand-cranked reamer on July 10, 1888, which was the first of his many patents until 1900. In fact, reamer designers of the early to mid 1880s created intricate mechanical designs culminating in the creation of a model that first cut the fruit in half and then extracted the juice.

But these were too sophisticated for the average user. By the late 1880s and early 1890s, designs reverted back to single-piece glass reamers. The registered patent designs of Thomas Curley, whose design was called, what else, the "Curley." Easley came out with a three-piece model, and the Holmes Company gave the world the “Holmes,” which was made of glass. Still the design that finally remained for years to come was Arthur Bennet’s “Lemon Squeezer,” patented on February 16, 1909.

This one brings to mind the classic juice reamer. Made of one piece of glass, the "Lemon Squeezer" had a pointed, grooved center for twisting the fruit on to remove its juice. The juice ran into the shallow dish below the reamer part. The "Lemon Squeezer" also had a handle to 'hold for pouring and a spout.

The first reamers or juicers were for extracting lemon juice for cooking or for flavoring, not necessarily for juicing oranges for making orange juice. Though oranges are available year round now, in 1900 they were exotic and expensive.

But that changed in 1907 when Sunkist, established as the trademark for the California Fruit Grower's oranges, appeared on the market. By 1916, Sunkist began offering glass reamers as a way to promote their oranges. But orange juicers and lemon juicers weren’t the same. Lemon juicers didn’t need a "bowl" or area on the juicer to hold a large amount of juice, but the orange reamers did, which brought about a major change in the style of reamers.

Sunkist was the leader in design changes. Besides offering reamers with "juice receptacles," many of the Sunkist reamers also had embossed lettering, spelling out "Sunkist Oranges and Lemons" or "Sunkist-California Fruit Grower's Exchange.” Sunkist vigorously promoted them through department and variety stores, grocery outlets and by mail-order. Sunkist continued to offer reamers, many made by the McKee Glass Company, until 1961.

By the 1920s and 1930s, reamers became more colorful with the introduction of Depression Glass. In 1922, the Fly Glass Company introduced Pearl Glass, and by 1925 reamers could be purchased in a variety of colors, from Vaseline glass to amber, pink, and emerald green glass. The Great Depression produced more glass reamers  than ever before or after.

There were other produced in the 1930s, including the 'Servitor," the "Handy Andy," and the "Jiffy Juicer."  Though china reamers had been produced in Europe years before, it wasn’t until 1927 when Goebel registered their German ceramics and chinaware in the U.S. Though Goebel didn't begin making ceramic juicers in the U.S. until the late 1920s, ceramic reamers had been produced in America from 1910 and continued through 1938. In fact, by the end of the 1930s, the production of colored glass reamers had declined. 

The end of the reamer era occurred in 1939 as frozen orange juice hit grocer’s freezers.  Today, glass and ceramic reamers are the most popular with collectors.

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The Egg and I

QUESTION: On a trip to England several years ago, I discovered the joys of eating a soft-boiled egg for breakfast. Of course, the waitress served my egg standing straight up in an egg cup. I became fascinated by these unique little pedestals and purchased several to take home as souvenirs of my trip. After I got home, I started to notice them at flea markets, so I began to buy more. Now I have over 50 of them. How did the egg cup come to be? Who invented it? And why isn’t it used widely here in the U.S.?

ANSWER: While Americans aren’t as keen on eating soft-boiled eggs as their British counterparts, egg cups have won the hearts of many collectors.

Egg cups come in many types, styles and categories, from delicate hand-painted works of art to outrageous caricatures made to represent everything from members of the British royal family to current cartoon characters. Manufacturers use many different materials to produce egg cups, including glass, wood, stone and even plastic.

Egg cups have been used in British cultures for centuries. Though people commonly refer to them as egg cups, they can also be called egg holders. Either way, they’re shallow dishes designed to hold a boiled egg in its shell. Wealthy persons living along the East Coast of the U.S. used them until the mid-1960s, essentially imitating the breakfast habits of their British cousins. But their use never really caught on with the middle class, who instead discovered prepared foods.

Historians believe the Romans were using egg cups before 79 A.D. Clearly, eggs cooked in the shell can be unmanageable without a small receptacle to hold them in place.

The most common egg cup, designed to hold a single egg, is called a single. Less common are doubles. Doubles have a cup on either end, a small one to hold a single egg, or if user turns up the larger end, it will hold one or more eggs out of the shell or the egg of a larger bird such as a duck or goose. There are also bucket egg cups, which  have no pedestal, “Hoop” egg cups resemble napkin rings and can be “straight” or “waisted.” Americans often mistaken them for wide napkin rings. Side-by-side doubles and flat oval egg cups, designed to hold an egg lying on its side and used more often for hard boiled eggs, can be more difficult to find. Egg cups can also come in sets of four to as many as a dozen, on a single matching serving piece for family use. Some egg cups include a spoon and/or a small scissors, often referred to as an egg decapitator.

In Britain and many European countries egg cups are still a standard part of a place setting of china. Since they’re still used in the average home, the easier to find. And since they’re used widely, egg cups from most of the major makers, such as Goebel in Germany, Carlton Ware, Staffordshire, Adams and numerous others in England, are readily available.

Figural egg cups, featuring cartoon character, such as Bugs Bunny, Sylvester, and Tweety Bird, are popular with collectors. Other categories include commemorative, political, advertising, holiday, caricatures, transportation, children's, and black memorabilia.  Any of these categories may be made from glass, porcelain, pottery or ceramic. Metals used for egg cup production include gold, silver, copper and pewter. Stone such as marble and many varieties of woods also may be used to produce egg cups.

Egg cup collectors, called pocillovists, must do their homework in order to know what’s available and to watch out for misrepresentation. Because egg cups aren’t an everyday item in the American household, many sellers who acquire eggcups from estates or family sales don’t know what they have and will misrepresent them as something else such as an open salt cellar. Sellers will occasionally misrepresent a common egg cup as something more rare. Serious egg cup collectors agree that chips, cracks, or other flaws are not acceptable.

The Internet has made egg tugs readily available to collectors and is responsible to some degree for the blossoming interest in the United States. However, prices tend to go up and down. Common egg cups can sell for less than a dollar while rarer ones can cost in the hundreds of dollars.

The Age of Innocence - Part 2

QUESTION: My mother collected Hummel figurines for a long time. Now I have her collection. Frankly, I don’t know anything about these little figures of children, other than what little I’ve read or heard. Can you give me some background about my Hummels? I’d like to continue collecting them, but have no idea where to start.

ANSWER: After delving into the life of Sister Maria Innocentia (a.k.a. Berta Hummel), the creator of the original drawings of children made into Hummel figurines (see Part 1 from last week),  it’s only natural to take a look at the other side of the story—their manufacture and distribution.

The Goebel Company., located in the southern part of Germany near the town of Oeslau-Rödental, just outside Coburg,, was the sole producer of Hummel figurines. Franz Detleff Goebel originally built a factory to make writing slates, blackboards, and marbles in 1871 beneath Coburg Castile in Bavaria. In 1878, the Duke of Coburg Castle granted permission for the him to build the first kiln to produce porcelain dinnerware, kitchen items, and beer steins, as well as bisque doll heads. He invited his son, William, to join him in running the company and changed the name to the F. & W. Goebel Company. The firm set out to produce luxury porcelain, including small sculptures in the Meissen Rococo style.

By 1909, Franz and William began seeing an opportunity to export their product. In 1911, F. W. Goebel Co. introduced its first line of figurines and began an international marketing campaign. As the company continued to grow, so did the lines of products the company produced. The international success of Goebel’s figurines caused the Goebel family to introduce the concept that figurines could be associated with emotion and not just be decorative objects. The firm became the first to market their artists as aggressively as they did their products. After several years of porcelain production, Franz's son William expanded the Goebel product line and changed the company name to W. Goebel Porzellanfabrik.

William believed that there were untapped opportunities in the United States, so in 1911, he sent his 16-year-old son, Max-Louis, to America, where he went to school and developed a passion for art like his father. When he returned to Germany, his father put him in charge of the business and the younger Goebel set about taking the company into the 20th century..

Max-Louis wanted to capture a larger market share, so, in turn, he sent his young son, Franz, to the United States in the early 1920s to study the American ceramic after market. It was a time of prosperity for Americans but a dismal time back home in Germany with political anarchy and runaway inflation. Franz knew that it was essential that his father expand the export markets of the W. Goebel Company in order to remain in business.

When Max-Louis Goebel died in 1929, it was up to Franz, his mother Freida Goebel, and his uncle Dr.Eugene Stocke to carry on the business. Having spent so much time in America, Franz instinctively knew that it was the greatest market in the world. He decided to develop a series of affordable ceramic figurines and selected children as the subject. He believed they would appeal to a broad audience. As the 1930s dawned, Franz  thought that in a world of political turmoil, customers would respond to a product that depicted the gentle innocence of childhood.

In 1933 he started his search for the art and artist whose work could be transformed into three-dimensional figures of children. While in Munich to see how his products were doing during the Christmas season, he stopped at a small religious art shop. On the counter stood a display of art cards by Sister Maria Innocentia. He was immediately drawn to these wonderful sketches of innocent children and enthusiastically took a few cards back with him to Coburg. He discussed the possibility of transforming the artwork of Sister Maria into ceramic figures with his two top modelers, Arthur Moller and Reinhold Unger. They thought it possible, but also thought it would be one of the most challenging and expensive projects ever undertaken by the company. Franz hired artists to “interpret” Sister Maria’s drawings by making them into three dimensional figurines.

He acquired rights to turn her drawings into figurines, producing the first line in 1935. W. Goebel was one of many mid-size porcelain firms competing in the U.S. market and Franz´s knack for novelty marketing caused the figurines to become popular among German immigrants on the East Coast.

Franz contacted Sister Maria at the Convent of Siessen and showed her clay models based on her drawings. She and the Convent of Siessen granted sole rights to the his company to create ceramic figures based on her original artwork. Sister Maria personally approved the sculpting and painting of each porcelain piece. The Convent would receive all royalties derived from the sales. Geobel determined that earthenware, pioneered by the firm in the 1920s, was the best medium for the new collectibles product line.

The first marketing challenge for the newly manufactured Hummel figurines came at the Leipzig Trade Fair held in March 1935. With the enormous risk the company had undertaken in the development and first production of the Hummel figurines, success at Leipzig was very important. Fortunately, the American buyers liked the figures and placed a number of orders. By the end of 1935, the W. Goebel Company had released several more figurines, expanding the line to 46. Sales of the figures on the international market during the 1935 Christmas season were brisk.

After World War II, the United States Government gave W. Goebel Company permission to resume production and export of Hummel figures. Production began slowly as many of the master molds and models had been lost or destroyed during the war. During the re-modeling process, Goebel artists made modifications that resulted in slight changes in the design of the figurines. 

The popularity of Hummel figurines grew as American soldiers stationed in West Germany began sending the figurines home as gifts. Nostalgia associated with the figurines and the U.S. soldiers buying them led to Hummel figurines becoming a popular collector's item. Popularity increased even more when the U.S. Army PX system began selling the Hummels. After Sister Maria’s untimely death at 37 in 1946, Franz Goebel carried on her artistic legacy by developing new Hummel pieces. A vibrant speculator market in Hummel figurines had developed by the 1970s when Hummel figurines skyrocketed in price.

Unfortunately, as with so many popular collectibles, there are lots of copies and fakes. To determine if a figurine is a genuine Hummel piece, you should look for the definitive mark of Sister M. I. Hummel incised on the bottom of every authentic piece. Sister Maria requested that her personal stamp of approval would appear on every piece and under the direction of the members of the convent. All Hummels have a mold number incised on the bottom of each figurine at the time of manufacture. Another definitive identifying mark is the official Goebel trademark on the underside of each figurine.

In January, 2009 Jörg Köster, managing partner of the Höchster Porzellan Fabrik Company, together with private investors took over the manufacture of Hummel figurines. Under the company Manufaktur Rödental, Hummel figurines are now being produced in Franz Detleff Goebel’s original building in Oelslau-Rödental near Coburg.

The Age of Innocence - Part 1

QUESTION: My mother collected Hummel figurines for a long time. Now I have her collection. Frankly, I don’t know anything about these little figures of children, other than what little I’ve read or heard. Can you give me some background about my Hummels? I’d like to continue collecting them, but have no idea where to start.

ANSWER: You’re in the same boat as a lot of other people who inherit collections from their parents. Some sell them off because they have no interest in them, but others, like yourself, want to continue collecting. However, since you weren’t involved in the original collection, it’s hard to pick up where someone else left off. One thing you must remember: Your mother’s Hummel collection is now your collection. And the first thing you need to do is learn as much as you can about your Hummels, so you can make educated decisions when growing or culling your collection.

Hummel figures have long been one of the world’s top collectibles, though interest in them has waned a bit in recent years. The artist who created these endearing figurines, Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel, was inspired by her love and understanding of children.

Born Berta Hummel on May 21, 1909, in the Bavarian village of Massing to Adolf and Viktoria Hummel, who owned a general store. She had two brothers and three sisters. When her father was young, he wanted to become an artist but gave that up to run the family business. To make up for it, he made sure that art and music were part of his family’s life. Berta’s mother gave her the nickname, “das Hummele,” which means the “little busy bee,” because Berta was always buzzing from one creative pursuit to another.

One of her teachers at the Massing Grammar School, Sister Theresa, encouraged Berta to pursue her art and helped her gain admission to the Institute of English Sisters, a boarding school in the town of Simbach, about 20 miles from her home. While there, Berta spent hours sketching the surrounding mountain countryside. It was then that her parents noticed the intensity of Berta’s commitment to her art work. 

From there Berta went to the Academy of Applied Arts in Munich in 1927. During this time, Germany was in political and economic upheaval. Although Berta’s attendance at the school placed great financial hardship on her family, she studied in one of the best art programs offered in Europe at the time. From the Academy, it was only a short walk to the Alte Pinakothek, one of the most famous art museums in Bavaria, where Berta discovered the old masters.

While Berta was living in the Holy Family Dormitory, she became close friends with two Franciscan sisters from a convent at Siessen,. near the town of Saulgau in the Swabian Alps. They told Berta about the art classes taught at the convent, and she began considering joining it.

Berta entered the Siessen Convent on April 22, 1931, where as a Franciscan postulate she taught art to young children. Berta Hummel received her habit of the sisters of Third Order of Saint Francis on August 20, 1934, and was given the name Sister Maria Innocentia. As a nun, the feelings of innocence would always be part of her artistic life.

Soon a small religious publishing house, ver Sacrum, became interested in her work that included religious illustrations with children. It was also at this time that people throughout Germany and the rest of Europe began noticing her work, due to ver Sacrum’s distribution of her art cards depicting children in religious scenes. She even collaborated on a children's book entitled, The Hummel Book, with Margareta Seeman, who wrote the verse.

Since Sister Maria had taken a vow of poverty, she had no interest in profiting from her art. Instead, the publishing house set up a trust fund to receive royalties, which could then be used by the convent to pay for religious activities. Ver Sacrum also agreed to give Sister Maria final approval on all items they produced, before production began.

The first M.I. Hummel figurines appeared on the market in March 1935. Her art appealed to the masses because people could see a little bit of themselves in her work.

But in 1937, the Nazis said  that Sister Maria’s art wasn’t consistent with their goals. But they let her continue to work on it, nonetheless. She continued to create art in her studio on the second floor of the Siessen Convent. However, in 1938 her health began to fail.

In October of 1940 the Nazis expropriated the convent and sent most of the nuns to their own homes and families. However, Sister Maria stayed behind with 40 other sisters. Food, living conditions and especially the heating of the convent buildings was less then adequate. And medical and art supplies  were nearly impossible to find.

During the fall of 1944, Sister Maria Irmocentia Hummel developed pleurisy, but she continued to live and work at the convent until the war ended. When her health would allow it, she would continue with her art. She provided inspiration to the other sisters who stayed on at the convent through those difficult times: The tubercular lung infection that took so much of her strength eventually got worse, and she became weaker. She died on November 6, 1946, at the age of 37.

Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel left a rich heritage of over 500 sketches and paintings. And her work lives on today in countless collections throughout the world.

NEXT WEEK: The other side of the story—the creation of the figurines, themselves.