Elf Collection | Pristine Condition | Designed by Robert Simpich
The present can wait. Smoke is having his pipe.
Look closely at the bowl: there's a wisp of white curling up out of it. Not painted — actual fiber, placed there and left to drift, so the pipe reads as lit and the whole figure reads as paused. That is a very small idea, very well executed. It's the difference between an elf holding a pipe and an elf enjoying one, and it's the reason he's named for the smoke and not for the pipe.
The pipe itself is a sculpted corncob, painted in reds and rusts with the kernel rows still legible on the bowl, clamped in his teeth at a comfortable angle. Above it his eyes have gone up and off to the side — the look of a man thinking about nothing in particular and in no hurry to stop. His beard and mustache are sculpted in deep white waves that fan out well past his jaw, and his ears stick out from under a hat brim wide enough to keep the weather off both of them.
That hat is the silhouette. Black wool felt, soft-crowned, brim floppy and generous — a farmer's hat, not a Christmas hat, and it makes him unmistakable from across a shelf.
The rest of him is dressed for a cold walk: a light blue suede tunic with the hem cut in points, deep wine mittens and leggings, and a long fringed plaid scarf in reds, rusts and charcoal wrapped once at the neck and hanging nearly to the hem. Turn him around and the scarf hangs as neatly down the back as it does the front — the shop dressed the side no one photographs. His boots are sculpted and painted a warm clay brown, curled at the toe, and the left sole carries the pressed © SIMPICH mark.
Under his right arm, tucked in and held with a mitten, is a small gold-wrapped package tied with a green ribbon bow. He's on his way to give it to someone. He simply stopped first.
Smoke is a later rendition of an earlier elf design — the character came first, and this example was made further down the line, which is worth saying plainly rather than implying an age the piece doesn't have.
Condition is strong: the blue suede hasn't gone gray, the plaid still shows its full range of color, the mittens are unworn at the tips, and the smoke wisp is intact — which is not a given, since it's the most fragile thing on him.
Cast from the original design, then hand-painted and dressed in hand-sewn clothing in the Simpich doll shop.
Elf Collection | Pristine Condition | Designed by Robert Simpich
The present can wait. Smoke is having his pipe.
Look closely at the bowl: there's a wisp of white curling up out of it. Not painted — actual fiber, placed there and left to drift, so the pipe reads as lit and the whole figure reads as paused. That is a very small idea, very well executed. It's the difference between an elf holding a pipe and an elf enjoying one, and it's the reason he's named for the smoke and not for the pipe.
The pipe itself is a sculpted corncob, painted in reds and rusts with the kernel rows still legible on the bowl, clamped in his teeth at a comfortable angle. Above it his eyes have gone up and off to the side — the look of a man thinking about nothing in particular and in no hurry to stop. His beard and mustache are sculpted in deep white waves that fan out well past his jaw, and his ears stick out from under a hat brim wide enough to keep the weather off both of them.
That hat is the silhouette. Black wool felt, soft-crowned, brim floppy and generous — a farmer's hat, not a Christmas hat, and it makes him unmistakable from across a shelf.
The rest of him is dressed for a cold walk: a light blue suede tunic with the hem cut in points, deep wine mittens and leggings, and a long fringed plaid scarf in reds, rusts and charcoal wrapped once at the neck and hanging nearly to the hem. Turn him around and the scarf hangs as neatly down the back as it does the front — the shop dressed the side no one photographs. His boots are sculpted and painted a warm clay brown, curled at the toe, and the left sole carries the pressed © SIMPICH mark.
Under his right arm, tucked in and held with a mitten, is a small gold-wrapped package tied with a green ribbon bow. He's on his way to give it to someone. He simply stopped first.
Smoke is a later rendition of an earlier elf design — the character came first, and this example was made further down the line, which is worth saying plainly rather than implying an age the piece doesn't have.
Condition is strong: the blue suede hasn't gone gray, the plaid still shows its full range of color, the mittens are unworn at the tips, and the smoke wisp is intact — which is not a given, since it's the most fragile thing on him.
Cast from the original design, then hand-painted and dressed in hand-sewn clothing in the Simpich doll shop.
