Carved Wood Incense Burner, Man with Pipe, poss. Steinbach

This is a old carved wood incense burner, probably made in Germany. It is the figure of a man smoking a pipe and carrying rope and some other object, giving him the appearance of a mountain climber or mountaineer. It stands about 5.5 inches tall. This example may possibly be Steinbach piece made anytime between the 1930's and 1950's. It is in in fair condition with paint loss, the incense has burned into the wood, and may be incomplete. Despite these imperfections, it has a quaint charm and displays well. We do not recommend its actual use to burn incense.

Besides Steinbach, carvings of nutcrackers and novelty pieces like this were made by many famous German makers like Junghanel, Klaus Mertens, Karl, Olaf Kolbe, Petersen, and Christian Ulbricht. These novelties came with men in various professions, generally smoking pipes.