Ending this year with a very different type of gal by Galluba and Hofmann. This 4.5 inch tall little girl with her pet piglet is coated with finely ground bisque referred to as "snow." Such snow children, often referred to as "snow babies," were first made in Germany in the early 1890s and were popular Christmas decorations through the early years of the 1900s. Galluba produced a variety of such snow children figurines with different decorative treatments. Some like this example were tinted with a soft faint golden brown wash, giving the appearance of ivory or alabaster, while the snow is a faint gray or slate. Others were fully colored. Sometimes the snow covered just the base and was lightly sprinkled over the children's heads and shoulders and in other examples it completely covered the children's clothing. The snow might be left realistically white or, when it coated clothing, colored blue. As with all Galluba figures, the quality of the modeling and workmanship was always high. Her piglet pal holds a four-leaf clover, a sign of good luck, in its mouth. In Germany the pig itself was also considered a sign of good luck and prosperity. A person who is lucky might say "Ich habe schwein gehabt" (I have had pig). It is traditional to give gifts of candy pigs known as glücksschweinchen (good luck pigs) at Christmas and New Years and such propitious pigs were often featured on Christmas and New Year postcards. Underneath, this snow child and her swine are incised "4644." Galluba used a 4000 series number on its snow figurines. Not all lasses with lucky pigs are so sweet and innocent; earlier on this blog I posted some more adult-oriented examples of German glücksschweinchen.
Here is a colored version offered by Theriault's, sharing the base with a little boy. These charming children are 4.5 inches high and incised "4666."
