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A chronicle of woodcraft from the Ore Mountains

Contents

  1. IThe Ore Mountains
  2. IIFrom Ore to Wood
  3. IIIThe Craft
  4. IVThe Workshops
  5. VThe Pieces
  6. VIChristmas
  7. VIIStories
  8. Your Piece
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ChapterV

The Pieces

Die Stücke
The seven kinds side by side on a wall shelf: a smoker, a pyramid, a nutcracker, a candle arch, an angel and a miner, a shaved tree and ring-turned animals.
The seven kinds together on a long shelf.

Seven forms carry the Erzgebirge’s name around the world. One began with the candles of the mining towns’ churches, others on the turners’ lathes of Seiffen; all of them are still made in small workshops in the mountains.

Each entry tells where the piece comes from, the forms it takes, how it is made, and how to use and look after it.

Catalogue

Catalogue of the pieces

  1. A wooden smoker in the shape of a miner in black uniform and peaked cap, holding a brass lamp, his round mouth open.
    No. I

    Der Räuchermann

    The smoker

    A little turned figure that puffs fragrant smoke from an incense cone hidden inside.

  2. A one-tier Christmas pyramid: a nativity on a turned platter, four white candles, a wooden vane wheel on top.
    No. II

    Die Weihnachtspyramide

    The Christmas pyramid

    A carousel of figures on tiers, turned by nothing but the warmth of its candles.

  3. A nutcracker king in a red robe and gold crown, with white beard and scepter.
    No. III

    Der Nussknacker

    The nutcracker

    Stern kings, soldiers and foresters with a lever in the back and a jaw for walnuts.

  4. A light wooden candle arch with nine white candles; under it a cut-out village with a church, spruce trees and two small miners.
    No. IV

    Der Schwibbogen

    The candle arch

    An arch of lights for the winter window, first forged in iron in 1740.

  5. A light-bearing pair: an angel in white with gold wings and a miner in black, each holding two white candles.
    No. V

    Engel und Bergmann

    Angel and miner

    The candle-bearing pair, a miner in parade dress and an angel in white, since the 1830s.

  6. A shaved tree of pale linden, its fine curls rising in tiers like a small spruce.
    No. VI

    Der Spanbaum

    The shaved tree

    A little tree curled from one piece of linden, shaving by shaving.

  7. A small group of ring-turned animals: a horse, a cow, a calf, a sheep and a goat.
    No. VII

    Reifentiere

    Ring-turned animals

    A herd split from one turned ring of spruce, a craft found only around Seiffen.