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David In Indy:
I have been collecting Hummels for years. Back about 20 years ago I had roughly 50 of them, but I was forced to sell many of them when I ran into financial trouble, but I still have about a dozen Hummels. Recently I've been thinking about building up my collection again. I used to buy myself 2 Hummels a year - one on my birthday and another one at Christmas. One year I lucked out when I was at one of the shopping malls. A friend and I arrived at the mall just after it opened and I noticed one of the jewelry stores was going out of business. When we walked in there, they had about 15 Hummels marked down to 80 percent off! I bought them all! lol

Anyway, Hummels are porcelain figurines made in Germany. They are all hand painted and most are of small children. They are absolutely beautiful. I love their cute little round faces and big bright eyes. Below you will see my small Hummel collection, just remnants of what it used to be before I sold many of them. Betty, a good friend of mine who owned the donut shop I worked at years ago got me interested in Hummels. She had about 250 of them - two floor to ceiling curio cabinets FULL of Hummels. She made several trips to Germany in the 1970s and purchased most of her Hummels there, where they are about half the price as here in the US. Betty passed away the same year as my Mom. She was born the same year as my Dad (1931) and she was an amazing friend. We took many trips together, including two trips to Quebec, Canada!

David In Indy:
Hummels are made by the Goebel Company located in Germany. They make many other things besides Hummels. To start off, since it is Christmas, I thought I'd show you three Goebel Christmas figurines I own. My Great Grandmother gave these to me for Christmas about 25 years ago.



They include a snowman, a Santa, and a nutcracker. The tallest one (Santa) stands roughly 3 inches tall. The snowman holds a wooden broom in his hand. The broom was lost for many years and we finally found the tiny broom down at the bottom of a box of Christmas decorations, so now the broom and owner have been reunited.

These figurines are NOT Hummels, but they are made by the same company, so I thought I would include them in this thread. :)

David In Indy:
This Hummel figurine is of the Baby Jesus. This is the only piece from the Hummel Nativity scene I own. Someday I would like to buy the complete set. The baby is about 2 inches long. My friend Betty gave it to me one Christmas.

You can buy the Nativity Scene with only the figures of the Holy Family plus the stable, or you can buy the complete set which includes the Wise Men, angels, the little drummer boy, several villagers and all the animals.




You can tell the age of the Hummel by the marking on the base. This marking with the Goebel name and a small bee just above indicates this particular Hummel was manufactured in the late 1970s to early 1980s. Goebel changes the mark every 5 to 10 years (or at least they used to). The black squiggly marks over on the right is the artist's initials plus the date (80 for 1980). The artist always initials each piece he or she paints. They don't always include the year though.

David In Indy:
My Great Grandmother gave me the following figurine (she gave me three Hummels in total) and it has a small story behind it. The name of the figurine is "Going To Grandma's".

My sister was born exactly one year and ten days after me. Mom and Dad took the two of us down to Cincinnati that Christmas so my Great Grandmother could see Susan for the first time. Before we left, Mom stopped off at L.S. Ayres (a local department store here in town. It no longer is in business) and purchased this figurine to give to my Great Grandmother. Many years later, she decided to move into a nursing home because she could really no longer take care of herself and keep up with the cleaning and other things. Each Christmas she gave me one of her Hummels as a Christmas gift. She wanted to make certain her Hummels stayed in the family and she knew I would take care of them. The very last Hummel she gave me was this one, the same one Mom and Dad gave to her many years earlier.

This figurine is roughly 5 inches tall...




Here is a picture of the base. You can see the Goebel mark is very different than the one on the base of the Baby Jesus. This mark is called the "stylized bee" and it indicates the figurine was made in the late 1950s to early 1960s. The brown stuff up near the top is all that remains of the original price tag. I think Mom paid $26.00 for it back in 1963.

David In Indy:
This is another Hummel my Great Grandmother gave me one Christmas. The name of it is "Which Hand?" and she is about 4 1/2 inches tall...

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