Christmas Past

There was one more ornament from Regensburg, Germany. By the time my friend and I returned to the little shops, Anne had gathered my selections, including this one that she said is probably 100 years old. What I wouldn’t give to know more about this amazing old penguin. Her husband Leo had come back from the post office. They were still looking for an old clip-on style penguin that Anne said should have been with the penguins or with the other clip=on ornaments. She searched  high and low. We even went back to the first shop, where Leo found some more penguins that weren’t ornaments. And we went around the corner to where Anne had a display window on one of the main streets to see if it was there. “I think someone may have taken it,” she said. “It happens.” She wanted to look some more and she and Leo needed to pack all my ornaments, so Jose and I went to a nearby beer garden for a sausage and beer lunch. When we got back, all the penguins were neatly packed in two cardboard boxes, but there was no clip-on penguin. I gave Anne my address in case it ever turned up, but I haven’t heard from her. I was worried about getting all these ornaments home in one piece, especially this old antique. I even had to go through a complicated second check-in in London, because I accidentally packed a treasured Swiss Army knife in the suitcase with the penguins. But, as you can see, it all worked out and the old blue glass penguin has a prominent spot on my penguin tree, this year the blue tree.

Antique blue glass penguin with tinted feet eyes and beak

Acquired: July 1, 2009, Regensburger-Tändlerei, Regensburg, Germany

Number: 0650

Size: 5.25 inches tall

Price: 45 euros

Merry Christmas to all

This is another one of the handmade ceramic ornaments from Anne and Leo Klosters’ shops in Regensburg, Germany. Frohes Fest is German for Happy Holiday, but no matter how you say it, My Penguin Tree wants everyone to have a Merry Christmas. And here are all my penguins, tree by tree.

The winter fun tree at the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton. All skiing, all skating, all sledding.

The big tree in the living room. It's all glass and class.

The blue tree in the tv room. I <3 this tree!

The little tree and front windows with all the stuffed animal and fabric penguins.

The wood tree in Jenny’s room upstairs.

The fun tree (all the rest of the ornaments) in Becky’s room.

Red clay ceramic Frohes Fest penguin

Acquired: July 1, 2009, Regensburger-Tändlerei, Regensburg, Germany

Number: 0657

Size: 4.5 inches tall

Price: 14.50 euros

Just like old times

Anne Kloster wasn’t able to tell me much about the ornaments except that some were considerably old. I hope some day that I can find out more about the penguins I found at her shop in Regensberg, Germany.  This glittery bulbous penguin is almost certainly from the mid 1980s, because I have two other glass ornaments that are exactly the same shape. 

The only difference is the paint job. I don’t know exactly when I got the first two, but it seems like I’ve always had them. At least one of them was a gift, I think.

Another ornament I hope I can identify is this Christopher Radko penguin. I’ll have to see if I can dig up some old Radko catalogs in order to find out what year it was made. It can’t be more than 25 years and it’s probably made more like 10 or 12 years ago. Just a guess.

Glittery bulbous glass ornament with red eyes and beak

Acquired: July 1, 2009, Regensburger-Tändlerei, Regensburg, Germany

Number: 0655

Size: 4.75 inches tall

Price: about 19.80 €

Two bulbous glass ornaments

Acquired: mid 1980s, probably at least one a gift

Number: 0159 0160

Size: about 4.75 inches tall

Well-dressed glass Christopher Radko genteleman

Acquired: July 1, 2009, Regensburger-Tändlerei, Regensburg, Germany

Number: 0653

Size:

Price: 49 euros

The mother lode

When Anne opened the door to her other store across the street, I could tell I was in someplace special. While the souvenir store was filled with trinkets, this store was filled with antiques. Dolls, dishes, lamps, toys. Everywhere you looked was another treasure. She led me down a narrow hallway, narrow because the walls were lined with overburdened shelves, and into a small dark room. When Anne switched on the light all I could see were stacks of glass cabinets all around us from the floor to the ceiling. The middle of the room had a block of stacked cabinets too, leaving a narrow path to walk around it. Some of the cabinets had doors, others pulled out like drawers, and all of them were full of Christmas tree ornaments. Here are some of the penguins we found.

There are some more that I’ll be posting over the next couple of days, and there were some that I knew I already owned. I think some of the handmade ceramic ornaments in yesterday’s post came from the second store. It’s where Anne told me about not being able to compete with the Chinese manufacturers. “Where did you get them all,” I asked. “I was going to open a museum, but the economy hurt the tourist business,” she said. The Klosters had been collecting ornaments for about as long as I have been collecting penguins and I was surrounded by the results. I don’t know how much time had passed, but it was longer than a walk around the block would take. I told Anne I had to go find my friend at the café and that I wanted to look some more. When I got to the end of the street, José was standing in the plaza, hands on hips, waiting and wondering when I would show up. “It’s bad,” I told him. “I think I found the mother lode.” And we headed back to the shop.

Acquired: July 1, 2009, Regensburger-Tändlerei, Regensburg, Germany

Smoky glass parent and chick

Number: 0646

Size: 5 inches tall

Price: 19.50 euros

Tall glass pair

Number: 0647 0648

Size: 4.5 to 5 inches tall

Price: 25 and 29 euros

Glass pair huddled on ice with Santa hats

Number: 0649

Size: 4 inches tall

Price: 29 euros

Glass family on plastic or glass ice floe

Number: 0651

Size: 4.75 inches tall

Price: 59 euros

Small penguin with white glitter belly and blue scarf

Number: 0652

Size: 2 inches tall

Price: 6.50 euros

Glittery silver blue penguin with bulbous nose

Number: 0654

Size: 3.75 inches tall

Price: 14.80 euros

Homemade penguins

After spotting one penguin ornament and thinking that I was finished shopping, Anne Klosters, the shop owner, began to show me others, including some of these hand-painted ceramic ornaments that she and Leo, her husband, made themselves.

“We stopped making them when we could no longer compete with the cost of Chinese-made ornaments,” she told me. I don’t remember exactly which of the ornaments she found first, and it’s possible she showed me a couple that I already owned, but after I had five or so penguins selected, Anne said, “We have more in our other shop.” First we had to “close up” this store, because Leo had just stepped away to the post office. Closing up meant turning out the lights and attaching a chain across the open door. Then we went to the other shop a couple of doors down on the other side of the street.

Acquired: July 1, 2009, Regensburger-Tändlerei, Regensburg, Germany

Small red clay penguin looking back with yellow feet and beak

Number: 0656

Size: 2.5 inches tall

Price: 4.90 euros

Thick white ceramic cutout with green scarf and orange feet and beak

Number: 0659

Size: 2.5 inches tall

Price: 5.50 euros

White ceramic penguin with orange feet and beak

Number: 0660

Size: 2.5 inches tall

Price: 4.90 euros

Red clay cutout penguin with red scarf and orange feet and beak

Number: 0661

Size 3.75 inches tall

Price: 4.90 euros

Tip of the iceberg

The trip to Rothenburg ob der Tauber proved to be a bonanza for penguin ornaments, but that’s only the first half of the story. On the drive back to Prague, we went a little out of our way to visit another medieval city. Regensburg, while not preserved in the same way as Rothenburg, offers a lot of worthy historical features, including beautiful views along the Danube and the gothic Cathedral of St. Peter. It was late morning when we arrived, just in time for a pipe organ recital at the church, not a shabby way to take a break in the middle of a long drive. After the concert, we sat at a café across the plaza for a leisurely glass of wine or two. While my friend José finished his wine, I decided to take a look at the shops in the narrow streets behind us, just to see what might be there. It didn’t look promising, but I went down one more alley and found a little store filled with trinkets, some that looked like Christmas tree ornaments. I ducked through the small door and right behind me followed a short woman.

“Guten Tag,” she said.

“Hello,” I replied.

“Where are you from?” she asked me.

“United States.”

“Probably just looking, eh?” she half-asked and half spoke under her breath.

“Well, I see what I want.” I was pointing above her cash register, because at that moment I spotted this glass penguin ornament. My shopping mission was accomplished, or so I thought. Then the floodgates opened.

Glass penguin on a clear circle

Acquired: July 1, 2009, Regensburger-Tändlerei, Regensburg, Germany

Number: 0658

Size: 3 inches diameter

Price: 9.80 euros

An old friend

Maybe my favorite find at Käthe Wohlfahrt’s in Rothenburg ob der Tauber is the wood pullstring penguin on the right. When I saw it at the store I recognized an old friend that I had bought about 25 years before at the United Nations gift shop in New York. This might be the only time I intentionally bought a duplicate of an ornament that I already owned. Later that year, when I began to unpack the ornaments and set up the tree, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the new pullstring ornament was different in a number of ways. Despite the orange feet and some of the painted details, I still think of the new penguin as a duplicate of the old one.

Famo wood pullstring penguin, made in Austria

Acquired: 1980s, United Nations gift shop, New York

Number: 0039

Size: 5.25 inches tall

Wood pullstring penguin

Acquired: June 30, 2009, Käthe Wohlfart, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany

Number: 0626

Size: 5.25 inches tall

Price: 12.95 euros

Crystal clear

I had collected a basket full of penguin ornaments at Käthe Wohlfahrt’s in Rothenburg ob der Tauber and found this last one right before I got to the checkout counter. It’s unlike the other ornaments I bought that day, and actually unlike any other in the collection. It’s clear blown glass so it captures light and reflections in fascinating ways.

Clear blown glass penguin

Acquired: June 30, 2009, Käthe Wohlfahrt, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany

Number: 0641

Size: 3.75 inches tall

Price: 3.50 euros

Clip art

I was happy to find this penguin, the only clip-on ornament in my collection. I guess the clip-on is usually reserved for flying birds that perch on tree branches, not for their flightless friends from the south.

Painted clip-on glass adelie penguin

Acquired: June 30, 2009, Käthe Wohlfahrt, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany

Number: 0640

Size: 3.25 inches tall

Price: 3.50 euros

Golden boy

A few of the ornaments I found at Käthe Wohlfahrt’s in Rothenburg ob der Tauber were medium sized, like this big-headed molded glass penguin. It takes a front and back shot to show it in all its gold, glittery glory.

Molded glass penguin with heavy gold glitter trim on Santa hat

Acquired: June 30, 2009, Käthe Wohlfahrt, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany

Number: 0627

Size: 3.5 inches tall

Price: 6.95 euros

Small wonders

A running theme at Käthe Wohlfahrt seemed to be tiny ornaments. This came in handy, as you’ll find out later, when it came time to pack for the trip home from Prague. All of these little penguins were on display throughout the store and organized by style in baskets and pigeonholes. I had to check each room to be sure I had all the penguins. I even overdid it and wound up with a couple of tiny figurines that turned out not to be ornaments. Oh, well, they make a nice accent on the breakfast counter.

Acquired: June 30, 2009, Käthe Wohlfahrt, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany

Tiny stepping penguin

Number: 0631

Size: 1 inch tall

Price: 1 euro

Four flattish skier, parents with chick, and holding candy cane

Number: 0632 0633 0644 0638

Size: 1.75 inches tall

Price: 2 euros each, top penguin 2.95 eruos (unexplained difference)

Three with tree, wreath and trowel

Number: 0635 0636 0637

Size: 1.5 inches tall

Price: 1.85 euros each

Three tiny molded glass with skis, present and tree

Number: 0642 0643 0644

Size: 2.25 inches tall

Price: 3.95 euros

Puffy blown glass penguin

Number: 0645

Size: 1.5 inches tall

Price: 4.50 euros

Old World charm

Sometimes the penguins find me. On a side trip to Bavaria from Prague a couple of years ago, I found myself on the way to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a restored walled medieval city that attracts tourists from around the world. After booking a hotel online, I did a search for Christmas shops and came across Käthe Wohlfahrt’s, a legendary store that specializes in traditional German ornaments. It turned out to be next door to the hotel. Käthe Wohlfahrt is more than a Christmas shop. It’s like a Christmas museum where you can shop as you admire the exhibits. One of their trademarks seems to b a penguin pulling a gift-laden sled carrying a Christmas tree, of which I have several examples.

Acquired: June 30, 2009, Käthe Wohlfahrt, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany

Glass sled puller

Number: 0639

Size: 3.5 inches tall

Price: 16.50 Euros

Wood sled pullers

Number: 0628 0629 0630

Size: 2.75 inches tall

Price: 11.95 Euros each (10.95 for blue ornament)

Former key ring

This little plush penguin came to me from Germany thanks to my friends Tim and Nancy Anderson, who bought it on a trip to Berlin. It has a label that calls it a “Button in ear” (Knopf in Ohr) animal. Penguins have no ears, so this one’s label is buttoned to a wing. There was a key ring, which I removed. I was in Berlin later on for about 24 hours and didn’t have any luck finding a penguin ornament. I found a toy shop that made and sold wooden figurines. They had penguins. They had ornaments. Just no penguin ornaments. I also went to the zoo thinking there might be souvenir shops nearby. No such luck. I didn’t actually go in the zoo because it was late in the day, but I think there was a gift shop inside. In all this futile search, I saw a lot of Berlin during my short stay. I’d like to go back and try again.

Steiff “Button in Ear” plush penguin with brownish beak and feet

Acquired: January 24, 2007, gift from Tim and Nancy Anderson

Number: 0356

Size: 4 inches tall