ANGEL COLLECTIBLES 

 

	Written and photographed by June Grayson 

 

 

 

 

 

	 

	By now there must be almost as many earthly angels as there are heavenly ones, given the zeal of America's angel collectors. Is there any home that does not have at least one angel figurine 

tucked away in some corner of a cupboard? 

	Angels have figured in every century and every culture. As God's messengers, angels move between heaven and earth and bridge the gap between God and man. Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, and Zoroastrianism speak of angels in their religious writings. 

	In some ages, angels are more important players than in others. In Jewish history in the Genesis and Exodus writings, the angel of the Lord guided Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush. The angel of God led the children of Israel after they escaped from Egypt and wandered in the Sinai desert. 

	For Christians, angel choirs heralded the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Later, an angel announced the resurrection of Jesus and guarded the empty tomb. In all, there are over 400 references to angels in the Bible. 

	Angels provided the inspiration for much of the stunning Medieval and Renaissance art and literature. Medieval theologians studied angelology, debating esoteric questions such as how many angels could sit on the head of a pin.  

	Dante's Divine Comedy, around 1320, helped establish the hierarchy of angels into three groupings: 1) seraphim, cherubim, and thrones, 2) dominions, virtues, and powers, and 3) principalities, archangels, and angels (the lowest order). Both Archangels and Angels are messengers. Angels are the guardians of the innocent and the just. 

	Interest in angels receded with the rise of rationalism and the Scientific Age. Most theologians were embarrassed to talk about angels. If they talked about them at all, it was to agree that angels were only symbolic representations of a spiritual reality. 

	Now angels are in again, not only for collectors, but also for serious students of religious phenomena. Yet for those people privileged to have been touched by angel wings, no further proof for the existence of angels is necessary.  

	You don't need to have had an angel experience, however, to enjoy collecting angels. Such collectibles, formerly available only around the Christmas holidays, are now offered in stores and catalogs all year. Collectors who started their angel collections as Christmas items now leave them on display throughout their homes continually. 

	Antique angel items are scarce. You are not apt to find one of the 18th century German or Italian porcelain figures first made by companies such as Meissen and KPM. Those treasures are in museums or private collections along with altar and nativity figures from the same period. 

	The angel Gabriel blowing his horn was a popular subject for weather vanes seen atop Early American homes and barns in the 1800s. Current reproductions abound. 

	Angels were popular design elements during the Victorian Age. Many homes cherished a version of the well-known print of the Guardian Angel, protecting two little children as they crossed a rickety bridge in the dark of night. Another Guardian Angel version was a Staffordshire figurine from England depicting the two first-born children of the popular Queen Victoria. Angel cherubs adorned terra-cotta garden decorations, twined around the borders of silver picture frames, and served as jewelry motifs. 

	If you come upon a Tiffany stained glass window 24 by 30 inches, call the police. This item was stolen earlier this year from Irreplaceable Artifacts, New York City. 

	Christmas tree decorations and lights have used angels as designs from the Victorian Age up to the present time. Barbara Agin of New Jersey has more than 1,600 angels for her angel Christmas tree. 

	The most popular Christmas cards feature angels in their design. Store owners report that other paper products such as angel greeting cards, wrapping paper, and stationery are impossible to keep in stock. 

	Still, the most popular angel collectibles of all time are versions of the beloved Guardian Angel. Marilynn Webber of Marilynn's Angels by Mail in Riverside, California, cites the Lefton porcelain figurine which comes either with or without a music box has her consistent best seller (see accompanying picture to this article). "People are tired of materialism," Webber thinks. "They hunger for spiritual values." 

	Some collectors have the discipline to limit themselves to a sub-category of angel items- the Hummels, Lladros, and Precious Moments, for example. However, angels are so appealing in any form - and usually being small, they don't take up much room - that collections numbering in the hundreds and thousands are not at all uncommon. Joyce Berg, featured in the March, 1990, issue of THE SMITHSONIAN, has over 9,500 angels and is still counting. 

(If you have a bigger collection, please write me in care of this newspaper at once). 

	I don't know of any reference book yet devoted to angel collectibles alone. You will find them listed individually under other headings in the yearly price guides, Christmas collectibles books, and specific manufacturers' price guides. 

	Every bookstore has magnificent coffee table books featuring reproductions of angels in art. Every religious book store has both popular and theological treatises on angel lore.	 

	Two angel collector clubs serve angel collectors, and many collectors choose to belong to both of them: 

	The Angel Collectors Club of America, 

 

	Angels of the World, Inc.	 

	Between them, they serve almost 1,000 collectors through regular newsletters and annual meetings. Unlike most collector clubs, but totally in keeping with their interest in angels and all angels represent, these clubs act as charitable service clubs. The national organizations support the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which helps terminally ill children. Local clubs are encouraged to support benevolent projects in their own communities.	 

	Still, I am convinced that there are thousands of additional angel collectors without formal membership in these two clubs.  

Through their anonymous deeds of loving kindness, perhaps they represent those angels unaware, of whom the Bible speaks, and make this world a better place to live. 

			 I will not wish these riches 

			 Or the glow of greatness, 

			 But that wheresoe'er thou go, 

			 Some weary heart may gladden at thy smile, 

			 Some weary heart know sunshine for awhile. 

			 And so they years shall leave a track of light, 

			 Like angel footsteps passing through the night. 

						- Author unknown. 

 

 

 

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