Christmas Pyramids

Although, from all appearances, the Erzgebirge Christmas Pyramid resembles other stationary Christmas Decorations, such as the "Lausitz Pyramidenleuchter" a Pyramid shaped candle holder, the "Thuringia Reifenbäumchen" a stylized tree shape, consisting of wooden hoops in various diameters, or the "Bavarian Klausenbaum" a Pyramid constructed with wooden rods placed in apples, the apple at the tip of the Pyramid bearing a candle.

 

The construction of the moving parts of this revolving Pyramid from the Erzgebirge is very different from all the other types mentioned. It is certain that the imagination of the woodworking craftsmen was inspired by the movements of the horse gins from the mines. In festive glow, the upward moving warmth from the lower circle of candles turns the different levels of groups of lathed or carved figures.

In the area around Seiffen there are hardly any records of Christmas Pyramids being made before 1850. Many of the pieces, consisting of three to seven levels, which make up the wonderful collection in the Seiffen Toy Museum, were all made at a later date. Some of them were not made until the last century and even those still in family possession cannot be dated any earlier. Each of them was initially unique and had been made in the toy maker's family to decorate his own home during the Advent period.

The Erzgebirge pyramids were not made on a commercial basis until later, in the first decade of the twentieth century.

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