Antique Christmas 1900s GERMAN SANTA CLAUS w Composition Reindeer w Brush TREES

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Antique Christmas 1900s GERMAN SANTA CLAUS w Composition Reindeer w Brush TREES:
$395.00

Up for sale is an Early 1900s German made Composition Reindeer, Old German Santa, and German Sleigh with the German toys and an early old set of Bottle Brush Trees. The overall length of the sleigh with the 2 reindeer lined up in front of the sleigh is 18 1/2 inches long. This whole set appears to be in great vintage condition. It all says, a very long ago Christmas display that was well taken care of through the past 100 years or so.
The Santa has I believe a composition body with a clay face and hands. There are no chips to the face, but the finger tip on the left hand has one chip and there are two tiny flea bite chips to the top finger on the right hand that is clutching the remains of a tree. The Santa is wearing felt clothing with his coat done in red with white trim and his pants in a blue felt color. Santa is 4 inches from the top of his Santa hood to his black boots in a seated position. His face is hand painted and nicely done to include white eyebrows and red rosy lips. He has a nice thick white rabbit fur beard. His black boots have the remains of partial blue and white label that I believe was a German paper label. His left boot has a chip to the top toe area. On the backside of his coat there is a black smushed area that may have been a stamped mark of Germany, I am not certain but it is so centrally located in the middle of the white area which makes me believe it was a label. He also wears a little white cord at his waistline as a little belt. Next to him in the sleigh is a green sprig of a feather like tree. This may have been added( I don\'t know) since the sprig of a tree in his hand is just a stick with no branches.
The most Wonderful Team of Reindeer lead his sleigh. They are 5 7/8 inches long from tip of the nose to the tail; and 4 inches high at the antlers. Their Antlers are metal with a thick coating of original painting to them. The Reindeer have wooden stick legs that are molded somehow onto the Composition Bodies. ( German Craftsmanship of the early 1900s ) Their paint is exceptionally well done. No chips to the bodies of either reindeer. Using my jewelers loupe, I can see fine hairlines to the top of their legs where the body and the stick legs begin. They still have their RED leather harnesses over all these years, but the harnesses do show wear and are in fair condition. Both harnesses have small metal rivets that connect one reindeer to the pegs on the front of the sleigh and the reindeer that connects to the sleigh has 2 small pegs on his shoulder area so that the 2nd reindeer can be connected to him via the red harness on that 2nd reindeer. Both reindeer are featured with brown glass eyes. I have seen reindeer like these stamped with \"Germany\" on their underside. These 2 reindeer don\'t have that stamp on their underside, but since the pegs to the harness connect them to the pegs of the sleigh and the sleigh has a stamp of \"Germany \" on the underside, I feel the factory stamped it in just the one place as a set.
The sleigh measures 7 1/4 inches long by 2 1/4 inches wide. The body looks to be made of wood with a coat of original white paint covering it. The sides are covered with a very light coat of mica flakes. In the back of the sleigh sit Santa\'s original toys which consist of a little round Package that is wrapped in paper with a red and white twine string. The other 2 toys are the cutest little gray sheep that are made of cast metal and painted. Their noses show a small opening, that I believe is factory made when casting the metal form. One little sheep has a bigger opening on his tail area and I feel that this is from factory casting as the edges of the hole have the original paint to the edges of the hole. The toys are seated on a ball of tissue paper to elevate them so they can be seen in the sleigh.
The three bottle brush trees came with this German Christmas sleigh and reindeer and I don\'t know if there are original to the sleigh display, but they were with the set when I purchased it. They stand 6 inches tall, the next one almost 5 inches tall, and the smallest one 3 inches tall. They are all old and a faded green in color, covered with a white snow that looks like a painted on substance. All 3 have brown wooden bases with a blacked colored bottom. I see no factory marking on them.
This German Christmas display was acquired from an estate of an Antique Dealer in our Area and I have owned this wonderful set for about 12 years. I have kept it displayed in one of my china cabinets year round because I just can\'t handle packing it away. Every time I walk past it, it brings a smile to my face. But time has come when we will move to a smaller place and treasures must be parted with. Any questions please email us. Thank You for viewing and do view our other items as we list them.