We now carry Wendt and Kühn Angel Orchestra Ornaments

Posted on December 04, 2012 | 0 Comments

This year we have added to our offerings Christmas ornaments from several German workshops. The Wendt and Kühn classic Orchestra Angels from Grunhainichen, Germany, in the Erzgebirge are a favorite.

We first discovered the clip-on Orchestra Angels in the 1970s in a wooden basket sitting on the floor in front of the check-out counter at a Crate and Barrel. There in that basket they lay in a bit of a heap, one atop the other. My first impression was how undignified for such exquisite, classic Angels created in Germany. Each one of them was distinctly a work of art. Yet, this was during the period of the Soviet Union, and they were made, of course, in East Germany. At that time, the workshops of the Erzgebirge were still allowed to create their traditional items, but individual ownership was quashed under the auspices of the equivalent of collectives. Interestingly, we spoke with a customer recently who had also found the Erzgebirge hand-shaved trees (Spanbaum) in a basket on the floor of Crate and Barrel. At least Crate and Barrel kept us supplied. Now we stock both the trees and 15 of the most classic clip-on Angel orchestra instruments: