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.

The Difference Between Real Collectibles and Created Ones

QUESTION: I have a 1939 New York World's fair desk calendar that has little knobs that change the date, month and a 1934 Chicago world's fair dish which could be silver plate with the federal building, electrical group, hall of science and travel and transport buildings embossed on the bottom.  Do these items have any value other than as keepsakes?

ANSWER: What you have are real collectibles. And while they may not be worth a fortune, they still have value in the collectible market. Unlike created collectibles, like decorated plates and such, objects like these, as well as those from 19th to mid-20th-century advertising, etc, can grow in value as the supply of them dwindles through breakage and deterioration. This is the cause of your uncertainty.

Collecting is one of the oldest hobbies. King Tut of Egypt collected walking sticks. Heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post collected Faberge originals. Franklin D. Roosevelt and King George VI of England collected stamps. There are also coin, doll, cup, and spoon collectors. All of them had one thing in common—the love of collecting unique and beautiful objects.

Why do so many people collect these objects? There’s a basic human need to possess items that have stood the test of time—items that have become a part of history.

Many people have the desire to own beautiful things but for mostly economic reasons, this isn’t possible. Up to the latter part of the 20th century, collecting valuable items has mostly been the hobby of the wealthy. To make it possible for the growing post-war  middle class to feel the same thrill of collecting as the rich, gift collectible manufacturers began to create items with implied value which the average person could afford and which, in time, were supposed to increase in value.

Collectibles manufacturers like the Franklin Mint began by minting special coins and producing figurines and plates. Eventually, people collecting these items grew into the largest group of collectibles collectors.

Part of the incentive of collecting is the inherent value of the object. While speculation was the motivation for collectible purchases in the late 1970's, most collectors today buy for the appeal of the item.

To keep the collecting public buying, manufacturers produced objects in series. This gave some people the incentive to purchase every piece in the series. The sad thing is that while the manufacturer guaranteed the value of the object with a certificate of authenticity, and that the value would definitely increase, they really had no control over the market they had created for their wares.

Another ploy of these manufacturers was the term “limited edition.” What this meant was that they'd produce only a certain number of each item, thus creating a built-in appreciation value. However, the number was often vague. For example, they guaranteed to produce ceramic items for a certain number of firing days, but no one knows just how many pieces they produced each day. Some of the more sought after items, such as Hummel figurines, had editions of 2,000 to 10,000.

In order to make their “collectibles” attractive to this new group of collectors, manufacturers made sure each piece evoked a nostalgic response in both men and women. The former liked the manly aura of collectible coins, military figurines, and model cars—the sportier and more luxurious the better. The latter like the beautiful images that adorned porcelain plates and delicate figurines, reminiscent of Meissen ware.

One of the most popular of the collectible figurine series was "Stormy Weather," picturing a little boy and girl huddled under an umbrella. The Goebel company introduced at least five new pieces a year, which kept collectors satisfied and the company in the black.

Collectible plates, which took up where magazine illustration left off, became the second most popular collectible. Some depicted characters from fantasy and fiction as well as adventurers, T.V. and film stars, and scenes of the past. Many were reminiscent of the old Saturday Evening Post covers. To create a cache for their collectibles, companies took on names such as the Bradford Exchange, giving collectors the impression that what they bought was an investment.

The plates created by Royal Copenhagen became some of the most popular. These familiar blue and white plates featured scenes from Danish life. Along with Hallmark and others, the company also produced collectible Christmas ornaments.

Ironically, these collectibles weren’t cheap. For all money they spent on them, collectors could have been buying real collectibles. These are objects tied to a certain event or period in history, such as 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair collectibles. Hundreds of companies produced over 25,000 different souvenirs in larger and smaller quantities for the Fair. Even early Coca-Cola advertisements and paraphernalia have value. Later manufactured Coca-Cola items, on the other hand, do not.

For more information on the created collectibles market, be sure to read this article, "9 Completely Worthless Collectibles."