Monday, December 19, 2011

Holidays - A Scandinavian Scene

Hello! As far as I know, I don't have a drop of blood from any Scandinavian country in me, but that hasn't stopped me from assembling the following scene on a kitchen windowsill:

Charming figures, are they not? All of them came from thrift stores, with the majority purchased as a $3.00 bagful earlier this year. All but the two small figures on either side of the round basket-like container are from Sweden. Most were dated on the bottom - either a stamped-on year from the company or else a hand-written date. Dates range from 1967-1992.

Time for some close-ups:

The figure with the green sled loaded with logs has the label Bo-Strom 1972 on the bottom. A brief check on eBay suggests that it has collectible value. The small Santa-like figure is from the Danish company Holline. The hand-decorated "God Jul" ornament was purchased at a church rummage sale last month for 25c. 

The basket-like container, which holds a skier and some skis, was $1.00 at a thrift store two years ago. It has the label of the company, Butticki, on the bottom. It's probably also considered a collectible but I don't know what year it had been made. The little troll-like figure next to it is from Finland. 

This little grouping rounds out the windowsill scene. 

As an aside, that $3.00 thrift store bag also included three figures from Japan, three labeled Steinbach (Germany) and two figures whose country of origin in unknown.They were all made in a style similar to the Scandinavian items shown above. 

Edit: upon close inspection, one of the three Japanese figures is actually labeled Goula Spain. (it looks quite similar to the Japanese two, hence the assumption that it was also made there). Goula appears to be collectible as well.

Now, I have to be honest - some of the figures in this bag had broken arms, a ski missing or whatever. In some cases, I was able to re-glue a broken part, but other figures will remain in a less-than-perfect state. For something that was purchased at thrift store prices, that's okay by me!

God Jul everyone!

No comments:

Post a Comment