2014 Carbonel Santons Nativity Sets - Size #2 (Elite)
Every year we build new Marcel Carbonel Santons (from Provence, France) Nativity Sets built around different stables. Saint Francis of Assisi is credited with creating the first nativity scene in 1223.
We always offer starter sets for Carbonel figures themselves (Mary, Joseph, and Jesus) and our Shepherd Gift set. Click here to see them in Size #2 (Elite) and here for Size #3 (Grande). All are a wonderful way to get started and to save some money.
Our one of a kind stable sets are available for Size #2. They include a stable, Santons figures, trees from the Erzgebirge, and Bavarian accessories. Enjoy the European tradition. Begin with a stable and the nativity figures. Over the years, add additional figures and Carbonel accessories, trees, and miniature accessories.
#1 - Charming Creche Set. This set includes Carbonel Ruin Stable with trees and eight figures: Mary, Joseph, Jesus, an Angel, three Kings, and a sheep. The accessories are from Bavaria and the Erzgebirge, Germany.
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- #2 -Wonderful Carbonel Nativity Set with German Accessories. This set includes a Courtyard Stable; Mary, Joseph, Jesus, three Kings, an Angel and a sheep. PLUS a sampling of accessories--all from Germany (the Erzgebirge and Bavaria).
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#3 - An exquisite creche starter set. Combine French Santons figures with a German stable and accessories. This set includes: eight Santons: Mary, Joseph, Jesus, three Kings, Angel, and a sheep. A detailed hand-made stable reminiscent of the European Alps from Bavaria. PLUS German trees and accessories.
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- #4 - Nativity Set with Carbonel Santons and Stable with German Accessories. This set celebrates the arrival of a Shepherd with his sheep - the shepherd was the first to arrive at the manger. The stable is the Stable with Trees - Étable No. 2 bis avec arbres. Eight figures: Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the Man with a sheep, three sheep, and a lamb. The accessories are from Bavaria and the Erzgebirge, Germany..
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#5 - A delightful creche set combining French Santons with a German Stable and accessories. A Bavarian stable - in the Alpine Tradition. Five (5) Santons figures: Mary, Joseph, Jesus, an Angel and a sheep. Accessories from Bavaria and the Erzgebirge, Germany.
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and finally #6 - Nativity Set with Carbonel Santons and Stable with German Accessories. Santons Stable with trees and four Santons: Mary, Joseph, Jesus and a sheep. The accessories are from Bavaria and the Erzgebirge, Germany.
Click on the images above to find these nativity sets in our shop. We ship online via the United States Post Office. For the bulk of the items we offer, USPS is definitely the least expensive way to ship. Nativity sets and Stables are one of the exceptions, due to weight and package dimensions. It is possible that our nativity sets would ship less expensively via United Parcel Service. Place a telephone order - 1-877-832-6077 for a UPS delivery.
The Shepherdess – the Twentieth (20th) Essential Santon for a Provençal Creche
The Shepherdess – La Bergere (French) – La Pastresso (Provençaux) is number 20 on the list of the top 20 Essential Santons for a Provençal Creche.
We included her in our very first entry on the 20 Essential Santons, the Shepherd being #1, at the very end of that post, as she is represented by the Carbonel workshops in four pieces, all tendering a lamb - two in Size #3
The Angel first announced the birth of the Saviour to the Shepherds. The Shepherds were the first to reach the manger, and summoned all the Provencal villagers to follow them. It is because Christ's birth was first revealed to the Shepherds (the Pastors) that the original nativity plays in Provence were called pastorals. "Filled with wonder, the shepherds made their way to the manger carrying jugs of milk, wheels of cheese and a precious lamb. On the way, they stopped at every farm and village to tell of the wondrous happening....Their jubilance and excitement was infectious and it was not long before everyone who could walk was on his way with a gift or to offer assistance." (Foley, p. 83-84)
The Woman with Cabbage and Garlic – the Nineteenth (19th) Essential Santon for a Provençal Creche
The Woman with Cabbage and Garlic – Femme au chou et a l’ail (French) - La Femo eme lou caulet (Provençaux) is number 19 on the list of the top 20 Essential Santons for a Provençal Creche.
The Carbonel workshop offers her in all four of the Santon sizes that we carry.
She carries a braid of garlic in one hand while holding a head of cauliflower with the other. Both of these vegetables are important to a Provençal tradition: l'aioli, a garlicky mayonnaise. As explained in Wikipedia: "In Provence, aioli (or more formally, Le Grand Aïoli) also designates a complete dish consisting of various boiled vegetables (uniformly carrots, potatoes, and green beans), boiled fish (normally, desalted salt cod), and boiled eggs usually served along with snails or mollusks, with the aioli sauce. Other commonly used vegetables are cauliflower, courgettes (zucchini) and raw tomato."
Garlic, of course, has also been important historically and to this day for its medicinal qualities.
Enjoy following our Pinterest Board on Marcel Carbonel Santons.
The Woman with a Bundle of Sticks – the Eighteenth (18th) Essential Santon for a Provençal Creche
The Woman with a Bundle of Sticks – Femme au fagots (French) – La Vieio au balus de bos (Provençaux) is number 18 on the list of the top 20 Essential Santons for a Provençal Creche.
The French word fagots is also spelled faggots and means a bundle of twigs, sticks, or branches bound together. Carbonel represents the carrier of fagots as an Old Woman and/or an Old Man, both with their backs hunched, indicative of their age and station in life. The humblest of humanity, they are symbols of poverty. Wood is not plentiful in Provence, so those in need eke out the most modest living, gathering and selling every twig they can to be used for kindling.
The old woman, called Misere, and also known as the Woodcutter's Wife, La Bouscatiero (Provençaux), walks with the aid of a stick.
She is often seen as accompanied by her husband, the Man with a Bundle of Sticks (Homme au fagots - French; Woodcutter, Lou Bouscatie - Provençaux), his trousers patched, a small bundle in his hand.
They share their happiness at the birth of Christ, presenting their modest gift - a bundle of twigs for a fire to keep the Christ Child warm.
The Woman Spinning Wool – the Seventeenth (17th) Essential Santon for a Provençal Creche
The Woman Spinning Wool - La Fileuse (French) – La Fielarello (Provençaux) is number 17 on the list of the top 20 Essential Santons for a Provençal Creche. It is common for her to be represented in the Santons world as either a young or an old woman. Carbonel has created both.
She is associated historically in Provence with the process of filature, and reeling threads of silk from a cocoon, i.e., as the "Reeling Girl, or Woman."
"In the 18th and 19th centuries Provence experienced a boom in sericulture that would last until the First World War, with much of the silk produced being shipped north to Lyon. Viens and La Bastide-des-Jourdans are two of the communes of Luberon that profited the most from mulberry plantations that have since disappeared.[34] Working at home under the domestic system, silk spinning and silk treatment employed many people and increased the income of the working class." - Wikipedia
Carbonel's older spinner works at a separate, wooden (depicted in clay of course) spinning wheel - Fileuse au rouet, available in Sizes #2 and #1.
The Fisherman - the Sixteenth (16th) Essential Santon for a Provençal Creche
The Fisherman is number 16 on the list of the top 20 Essential Santons for a Provençal Creche. He is a pivotal figure in Provence, whether he works with his nets in the sea, or, as an angler, casting his pole into a local stream. As a Santon, his origin is in the early nativity plays and creche-parlant. Foremost, he is a classic figure of the Port of Marseille and its very important fishing trade of the Mediterranean. Fish, whether freshwater or from the sea, are basic to the Provençal diet. The Carbonel Santons workshop has created variations of each.
The Fishermen of the sea are represented by the Fisherman with a net - Pécheur au filet (French) - Lou Pescadou (Provençaux), available in all 4 sizes.
and the Octopus Fisherman - Pécheur au poulpe, in Size #3
They wear a seaman's jersey, have the trousers rolled up to their knees, wear red cotton caps on their heads, and are barefoot.
The Fishermen of freshwater are represented by the Angler – Pêcheur à la ligne (French) - Lou Pescaire (Provençaux), available in all 4 sizes.
and the Seated Fisherman – Pêcheur Assis, in Sizes #2 and #1
These two seated anglers are perfect to place by the side of a stream, or next to the bridge.
Of course, one cannot think of the Fisherman without thinking of the Fishwife - number 14 of the top 20 essential Santons.
Frederic Mistral, a Provençal poet, a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1904), and a champion of the Occitan language (of which Provençaux is a dialect) of southern France, famously celebrated the Provencal fisherman in his epic poem of 1867, Calendal. In creating Calendal (the word "Calendula" is the Provençaux equivalent of "Noel" and was commonly given to each child born on Christmas Day), an anchovy fisherman from Cassis, Mistral invented "the Christmas fisherman." Calendal conquers monumental tasks, including inventing "ingenious fishing devices to bring all the fish of the sea into the port..." to win over his sweetheart, half-princess/half-fairy, Esterelle, a descendant of the Lord of Baux. The poem, a tribute to Provence, put Cassis on the map and sealed the importance of the Santon Fisherman. Calendal is commemorated in a statue by the harbor made of limestone from Cassis. As Mistral is often quoted: "He who has seen Paris and not Cassis has seen nothing."
Provençal legend tells us that before making his way to the manger, the fisherman first had to catch a fish to take as his gift. He "spent the night on the river, casting in vain. The water was cold and his hands were freezing,... A friend along the riverbank shouted the news of the Christ Child's birth. When a great trout overheard...." (Foley, p. 115) he took the bait deliberately, not to be left behind those wanting to see Jesus. Thus, the fisherman was able to successfully present the gift of his trade to the Christ Child.
The Hunter - the Fifteenth (15th) Essential Santon for a Provençal Creche
The Hunter- Le Chasseur (French) – Lou Cassaire (Provençaux) is number 15 on the list of the top 20 Essential Santons for a Provencal Creche. He is available in all four Marcel Carbonel Santons sizes.
He hunts the low, soft-leafed, scrublands of Provence - the "garrigues." His outfit is classic: a natty jacket, a broad-brimmed black hat and boots, his gun in one hand, a rabbit in the other, and his game-bag over his shoulder.
Like the infamous fisherman's yarn of the one who got away, the hunter spins his own tall tales and boasts of his exploits in his never-ending efforts to bag the perfect rabbit. It is a rabbit, or a hare, or perhaps a skewer of birds, that he brings as his gift to the Christ Child.
According to Daniel Foley, it was Santonnier Leon Simon (1845-1916) who introduced the hunter to the Santons creche.
For photos of the history and workshop of Carbonel enjoy our Marcel Carbonel Santons board on Pinterest.
