Skier Smoker

10.25" H x 4.5" W x 5" D

The Ulbricht workshop began in 1928 in Seiffen, a village in Germany's Erzgebirge, when Otto Ulbricht opened a studio for fine woodwork and toys. His ancestors had been miners who turned to the lathe when the region's silver and tin ran out. Otto's designs won gold at the Paris World's Fair, but after the war the business was taken by the state and the family fled west, rebuilding on the Danube in Lauingen. His son Christian, born in Seiffen, took over in 1968, bought the original company back after reunification, and reopened the workshop in Seiffen in 1997.

Today Gunther Ulbricht runs the company with his children, Kathrin and Steffen, the fourth generation. The house is best known for its nutcrackers, and the smokers come from the same benches: miners, bakers, woodsmen, chimney sweeps, and Santas, each turned, assembled, and painted by hand. Every figure is hollow and holds a small incense cone, and the scented smoke drifts out through its mouth.