FabrikantGerman
Goebel
3 actieve items
The story of Goebel is inseparable from the story of a Franciscan nun. In 1933, Franz Goebel, third-generation head of the Bavarian porcelain company F. und W. Goebel, encountered a series of charming children's drawings by Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel, a young artist who had entered the convent in Siessen after training at Munich's Academy of Applied Art. Goebel saw what others had missed: these two-dimensional sketches of rosy-cheeked children, rendered with a deceptive simplicity that belied their compositional sophistication, could be translated into three-dimensional porcelain figurines. The licensing agreement he negotiated with the Franciscan order stipulated that every figurine must remain faithful to the original artwork, and that final artistic approval would rest with Sister Maria Innocentia herself.
The Hummel figurines debuted at the 1935 Leipzig Trade Fair. By year's end, forty-six models were in production. Sister Maria Innocentia died of tuberculosis in 1946, at just thirty-seven, but her artistic vision and the strict quality standards she had established carried the line forward for decades. Each figurine was handcrafted at the original Rödental factory in Bavaria, hand-painted and individually inspected. The trademark dating system, from the Crown Mark of 1935-1949 through the Full Bee, Stylized Bee, and subsequent variations, became a collector's roadmap, with the earliest marks commanding the highest premiums.
The company F. und W. Goebel had been founded on 30 January 1871 by Franz Detleff Goebel and his son William in Oeslau-Wilhelmsfeld, near Coburg in Bavaria. The original products were slates, pencils, and marbles; the first kiln was fired in 1879 with ducal permission, and porcelain figurines entered the catalogue by 1890. But it was the Hummel line that transformed a regional manufacturer into a global collectible brand. Production ceased in 2008, and the brand passed through several ownership changes, but the figurines retain a devoted following.
On Auctionist, 498 Goebel lots are recorded, with ceramics and porcelain (335 items) and collectibles (112) forming the core categories. Ekenbergs handles the largest share (162 items), followed by Markus Auktioner and Helsingborgs Auktionskammare. Top prices reach 4,000 SEK for premium Astrid Lindgren Collection pieces. The Hummel market rewards provenance and early trademarks above all, a TMK-1 Crown Mark piece from the 1930s and 1940s carries a significance that later production cannot match, making authentication the essential skill for serious collectors.