The Nativity Set

This year we have rescued the German nativity set which has been tucked away in a box for years and set it up in the sitting room. As described in an earlier post, here, it was found some time in the early 1940s in the roof of the bungalow in Upanga Road, Dar-es-Salaam, the house in which I spent the first four years of my life.

The adult figures are about 5" high and all the main characters are there: Mary kneels to the right of the crib, Joseph holds a lamp behind it, the three kings with their gifts are to the right, a shepherd bringing a lamb is to the left, and Gabriel hangs above the scene. I'm not sure who the man at far left is but he's important as he is dressed in Arab clothes while one of the three kings is an African. The lighting is provided by the green turban shell.

The set dates back to the times when Tanzania was a German colony, to before 1918 so it must be at least a hundred years old. I had hoped to find a manufacturer's name but none of the pieces have any markings.