Design 13801 -- Striezelkinder
Beautifully handcrafted figures
Approximately 5.9 inches tall
Striezel is another name for the well-known German Christmas bread also called "Stollen," and the Christmas Market in the German city of Dresden is called the Striezelmarkt. The Striezelmarkt started in 1434 and is the oldest Christmas Market in Germany. Since 1809 the Striezelmarkt has been important for the toymakers in the village of Seiffen in the Ore Mountain (Erzgebirge) region of eastern Germany. In that year the toymakers received permission from the city authorities of Dresden to sell their toys and wood items at the Striezelmarkt. Children often helped the toymakers sell their products, in order to earn enough money to eat and make their existence at Christmastime a bit easier to bear. The children offered puppets, Pflaumentoffel (little chimney sweepers made from dried plums), tinsel, matches, and paper lanterns for sale, and attempted to awaken the compassion and charity of the market visitors.
The talented hands of the children put together the little chimney sweepers out of dried plums. In 1853 the Dresden artist Ludwig Richter (1803-1884) memorialized the children in his woodblock cutting called "Clearance Sale Due to Going out of Business." The children are huddled together against the freezing cold, patiently waiting for buyers of the last chimney sweepers. This print became a symbol of the Dresden Christmas Market. The wooden figures of the children, based on Richter's print, were designed in 1930 by Max Schanz and Max Auerbach. These wooden figurines won a gold medal at the World´s Fair in Paris in 1937.
Design 13801 -- Striezelkinder
Beautifully handcrafted figures
Approximately 12.9 inches tall
Ludwig Richter's wood block print from
1853
Clearance Sale Due to Going out of Business