Treasures from the German Erzgebirge
(Ore Mountains)

Dregeno offers mostly to retail gift businesses a huge selection of Christmas ornaments, collectibles, meticulously crafted toys, sensible gifts of all seasons and limited editions. Nearly 4,000 different articles including nutcrackers, incense burning folklore figures, pyramids, angels, music boxes, schwib bows, miniatures, trees and a large selection of small toys.

The Story:

The Erzgebirge region is located in the eastern part of Germany not far from Dresden at the Czech border. It was about 400 years ago when silver mining subsided in that region, and the silver miners turned to toy-making in order to make a living. Over the centuries they developed extraordinary wood carving skills that were inherited from generation to generation. Such items as the nutcracker and the incense burning folklore figures, well known in the US, were created in the Erzgebirge in the last century and became famous all over Europe. The German Poet E.T.A. Hoffman wrote a fairy tale about the nutcracker, and the Russian composer Tschaikowsky built a musical monument for the nutcracker by composing the Nutcracker Suite.

Today the products of the Erzgebirge consist of thousands of different items that bring joy, playfullness, and collector's desire to people around the world.

More than 150 mostly family enterprises from the village of Seiffen (birth place of the nutcracker), and surroundings have formed a cooperative "Dregeno Seiffen e.G.." Since most of the families specialize in different wood carvings Dregeno delights collectors, children, or just gift givers alike with nearly 4,000 different items. Dregeno makes available those wood carvings to retailers all over the United States and has a base of operations in Houston, Texas. Dregeno has the largest selection of originally made Nutcrackers available together with the largest selection of pyramids, schwib bows, music boxes, and more than 500 different incense burners (smokers), and thousands of other wood-carved collectibles.

The Tidbits:

The nutcracker in its present appearance has been created by the House of Fuechtner in Seiffen in 1870. Significantly, the original nutcrackers have distinguished features the way the eyes and nose have been carved, and the artisans painted phantasyfully their wonderful uniforms. Original Seiffen nutcrackers never were dressed up. More and more US collectors recognize the value of the art of painting the nutcracker or it's pure wood work in its original variety.

Did you know that the Erzgebirge artisans over the centuries portrayed their wives as angels in their wood carvings?

The schwib bow, one of the distinguished designs of the artisans that comes in many varieties, represents the mine mouth that the former silver miners show decorated so artfully.

Did you know that since the sixteen-hundreds the products of the Erzgebirge found their way throughout Europe from the cities of Leipzig and Prague? The village of Seiffen was located close to the so-called "salt street", a trade route that brought salt from the Halle/Leipzig region to Prague. Using this rout the toy-makers from the Erzgebirge mostly sent their products to Leipzig, a trading place for European goods for more than a thousand years.

The Action:

Michael Ritter is Dregeno's general manager in the US. Dregeno has been present regularly at gift shows in New York, Atlanta, San Francisco, Orlando, Dallas, and will be attending other shows. For Dregeno products contact retail stores in your neighborhood that carry German Christmas items, gifts, collectibles, miniatures, and wooden toys or contact Michael Ritter.
Phone:  281-350-6012
FAX:    281-355-1490
E-mail: HRitter@pdq.net
Website: http://ww2.choicemall.com/nutcrackerplus

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