Elf Collection | Pristine Condition | Designed by Robert Simpich
Someone's coming up the path after dark, and Laternchen has stepped out to bring them in.
The lantern is the whole story. It's a six-sided iron-black cage with a looped handle, and every pane is painted a different depth of amber — some panes gold, some near-orange — with a dark mottled pattern floated over the glass so the light looks like it's moving. Hold it up to a lamp and you'd swear there's a flame in there. That's paint doing the work of fire, panel by panel, on an object smaller than a thimble.
He carries it the easy way: arm out, elbow loose, other hand planted on his hip. Nobody stands like that unless they've done this a hundred times. His face is doing the rest of the welcoming — black bead eyes crinkled up, that long nose, ears standing out from a great white curl of hair and beard that frames him like a ruff. The black felt hat is cut in points and worn back off the forehead, the way a hat sits on someone who's been out a while.
The clothes are plain woods-wear and better for it: soft brown suede coat, sleeves turned back over pale mitten hands, tan breeches cut in a zigzag at the knee, and a long wool scarf in rust, red, purple and tan — real woven plaid, fringed at the ends, knotted once at the chest and left to hang. His boots are sculpted, oversized, and curl at the toe, and the left one is signed on the sole. The other sole still wears its gold foil label: Simpich Elf · Laternchen · Handmade.
The name is German for little lantern — the same shop habit that gave the chef elf the name Kuchen. Bob named these characters for what they do.
Laternchen was designed by my grandfather Robert "Bob" Simpich, and he's one of the elves Bob drew up early on — a foundational character in the line rather than a late addition to it.
Here's the detail I like best, and it's the kind of thing you only catch when you've handled a lot of these: the lantern in his hand is the same lantern the Lantern Man carries. Same mold, same amber panes, one held by an elf and one by a full-size character doll. The shop built a part and used it where it belonged.
Condition is excellent, which matters more here than it sounds. Elves lived out on shelves and mantels year-round, so most of them come to me with sun in the suede and the color gone flat out of the wool. This one's plaid still reads sharp, the amber in the lantern is still bright, and the paint on his face hasn't gone chalky.
Cast from Bob's design, then hand-painted and dressed in hand-sewn clothing in the Simpich doll shop.
Elf Collection | Pristine Condition | Designed by Robert Simpich
Someone's coming up the path after dark, and Laternchen has stepped out to bring them in.
The lantern is the whole story. It's a six-sided iron-black cage with a looped handle, and every pane is painted a different depth of amber — some panes gold, some near-orange — with a dark mottled pattern floated over the glass so the light looks like it's moving. Hold it up to a lamp and you'd swear there's a flame in there. That's paint doing the work of fire, panel by panel, on an object smaller than a thimble.
He carries it the easy way: arm out, elbow loose, other hand planted on his hip. Nobody stands like that unless they've done this a hundred times. His face is doing the rest of the welcoming — black bead eyes crinkled up, that long nose, ears standing out from a great white curl of hair and beard that frames him like a ruff. The black felt hat is cut in points and worn back off the forehead, the way a hat sits on someone who's been out a while.
The clothes are plain woods-wear and better for it: soft brown suede coat, sleeves turned back over pale mitten hands, tan breeches cut in a zigzag at the knee, and a long wool scarf in rust, red, purple and tan — real woven plaid, fringed at the ends, knotted once at the chest and left to hang. His boots are sculpted, oversized, and curl at the toe, and the left one is signed on the sole. The other sole still wears its gold foil label: Simpich Elf · Laternchen · Handmade.
The name is German for little lantern — the same shop habit that gave the chef elf the name Kuchen. Bob named these characters for what they do.
Laternchen was designed by my grandfather Robert "Bob" Simpich, and he's one of the elves Bob drew up early on — a foundational character in the line rather than a late addition to it.
Here's the detail I like best, and it's the kind of thing you only catch when you've handled a lot of these: the lantern in his hand is the same lantern the Lantern Man carries. Same mold, same amber panes, one held by an elf and one by a full-size character doll. The shop built a part and used it where it belonged.
Condition is excellent, which matters more here than it sounds. Elves lived out on shelves and mantels year-round, so most of them come to me with sun in the suede and the color gone flat out of the wool. This one's plaid still reads sharp, the amber in the lantern is still bright, and the paint on his face hasn't gone chalky.
Cast from Bob's design, then hand-painted and dressed in hand-sewn clothing in the Simpich doll shop.
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