Smoke gets in their eyes

It’s been a frustrating day. I have finally gotten up the momentum to sell those Hummel figures that I inherited from my mother. Last night I started doing some research on the web, trying to identify what I had and what I should put as the starting asking price for these pieces. It turns out most of them are worth far more than I appreciated. None would be appraised for less than $100, and one identical to mine had an asking price of around $450. I doubt I’ll get that much for any of mine, though I wouldn’t mind being surprised.

One of the things I’ve never liked much about Hummels is the colors. They always struck me as brown, dingy, drab. The cherubic Campbell’s Kid faces (the old fat Campbell’s Kids, not the new athletic ones) do nothing for me. The happy let’s-play-together-nicely-and-be-friends attitudes of the little statues don’t reflect any childhood I remember experiencing. I have to admit that I never sat on a fence playing my shepherd’s pipe while a friend sat by appreciating my music, nor did I ever carry any lambs around or play an accordion while a bird perched on it singing along. But it was mostly the colors that turned me off.

I was getting the little suckers ready to be photographed when I noticed a spot on the base of one of the Hummels. I did a quick web search and found that I could gently clean the piece by using a mild soap and a q-tip or soft cloth. Following the instructions that said, “DO NOT IMMERSE”, I used a soft toothbrush and q-tip to remove the offending spot. It was then I discovered that the base was not a brownish-cream unglazed color, but rather a white glazed base.

Ah, the legacy of decades of sitting on a smoker’s display shelf. I now know that the pictures on the web haven’t been retouched for color, and that modern Hummels are not brighter than the old-fashioned ones. These things I’ve inherited are absolutely filthy with smoke and nicotine from my mother and grandmother’s smoking.

I resigned myself to yet another step in the increasingly complicated process of getting these things ready for auction, and began to clean the piece I’d started working on in earnest. And hour later and I haven’t even gotten the grime off the base yet.

I wonder what they’re worth if I leave them filthy?