Update #4

This week and weekend has been mostly emptying the POD and bringing stuff into the house and filling the rooms that were previously cleaned. I also found some more tea cups, saucers, and a box of Hummel figurines.

Emptying the POD

The POD is currently mostly empty. I think we have about 10 or so boxes left inside. The rooms that were previously cleaned and mostly empty are now full of stuff. Most of said stuff is still in the boxes. We really only just started unpacking boxes the other day. I had decided to start with the playroom to give the girls a place to play. That turned out to be a bit silly. They dumped out the bins that I was putting toys in almost as I was filling them. We also finally got the non-adhesive drawer liner I ordered so we started putting clothes in dressers and closets. We also got Ben a new desk chair for his office area.

Hummel Figurines

The box of Hummel figurines was an exciting to find. Because of the family story that goes with them. And Taire and Susan had just been wondering about where they went. Now the story that goes with these adorable little figurines is as follows. When Florence and Leon (her husband) would get into an argument. Leon in an attempt to smooth things over and apologize would buy her a Hummel figurine. They both distinctly remembered a figurine he brought home after a particularly bad fight that was called “Stormy Weather”. This family story lead to me looking up the history of the company which is also quite a story.

M.I. Hummel figurines are based off of the artwork of Berta Hummel later Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel. It was during her time as a nun in the Convent of Siessen that she began to draw and sketch the pictures that would later become 3D. Her artwork was published in a variety of forms and soon her name began to grow. Her artwork was seen by Franz Goebel. He was the current generation head in charge of W. Goebel Porzellanfabrik, a porcelain company. Franz asked the convent for permission to make the drawings into figurines and an agreement struck. When the process of making the drawings into figures began porcelain was too fragile looking for the children depicted and thus earthenware was used to produce the figurines. The figurines are all still looked at and approved by the Convent. The figurines were an instant hit in 1935 at the first trade show they were shown in. The line flourished, even in WWII, when American G.I.’s stationed in Germany sent the figurines to loved ones back home. Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel the artistic mind behind the figurines died in 1946 at age 37 due to tuberculosis. Up until that point Sister Maria had been the person at the Convent checking the styles of the figurines for quality and consistency. After her death the Convent created an Artistic Board to carry on her legacy. For a more detailed version of the story you can go to the Hummel website here. They are still in business today making figurines in the style that M.I. Hummel inspired.

Other Fun Finds

Other fun things that we found this week! I have two fun finds for this week. The first of which is the book How to Enjoy Retirement Your Blueprint for Life After Forty by Walter B. Pitkin. This was crazy to me that people were apparently able to set themselves up to retire at forty. This books copyright date is 1946. So this was a fun and interesting find just because of the craziness of possibly retiring at forty years old.

The second fun find of the week was this cool still mostly full bottle of Kanjola by Mosby Medicine Co. Seeing that the bottle was still mostly full I decided to look up the company and see what I could find about it and possibly it’s contents. Mosby was a prohibition millionaire and apparently Konjola is a “vegetable concoction with high alcohol content”. Mosby started his medicine company in 1923. It began as a one man company where he began to mix, bottle, and sell his “medicine”. His company grew and grew until he was selling 40,000 bottles of Konjola a day. The company did not survive the stock market crash and following Depression and was dissolved. A more detailed version can be found here and here.

Thanks for reading and being a part of our adventures,

The McMullin Family