643 - Gerd Espig, hand-carved miner with frog lamp and miner's axe, wooden figure, Erzgebirge, after 2005

Gerd Espig, hand-carved miner with frog lamp and miner's axe, wooden figure, Erzgebirge, after 2005 Wood, hand-carved and left natural, miner from the Erzgebirge, Holzschnitzerei Gerd Espig, after 2005. On the underside round stamp "HANDGESCHNITZT", "G.E" and "in Bad Schlema" as well as label "Holzschnitzerei Gerd Espig". Standing figure on a rectangular base with bevelled corners and a rocky carved stand. Tall cap with plume and crowned monogram, beneath it a hood reaching to the shoulders, shoulder collar, jacket with button placket and belt, pleated cuffs, knee breeches and shoes with tongue. In the right hand a frog lamp, in the left hand a miner's axe. Good condition. H. 30 cm. 360-degree photo available on our website. Gerd Espig works as a wood sculptor in Bad Schlema in the Erzgebirge. The figure belongs to the folk art of the Erzgebirge, in which miner figures have been carved from wood since the 18th century and later also turned. After carvers' associations had been founded in numerous towns of the Erzgebirge towards the end of the 19th century, many carved miners were made there in communal work. Central to the miner figure is the Geleucht, the pit lamp, which developed from wood splints and tallow lights via the frog lamp to the shielded lantern. At the Saturn festival of 1719 near Dresden, about 1,500 miners marched in specially made uniforms.