Hummel Goebel Volunteers 50/0 Porcelain Figurine Group – Two Boys with Drum and Shotgun

Glazed porcelain figure group depicting two young boys marching together.
One boy plays a decorated drum while the other carries a shotgun over his shoulder.
Painted in muted green, brown, orange and cream tones with detailed facial features.
Rectangular cream base with impressed Hummel marking and blue Goebel bee trademark beneath.

Approximate dimensions

Height: 140 mm (5.5")

Condition

The end piece of the shotgun is missing.

Description

A glazed porcelain figurine group depicting two young boys posed closely together as marching volunteers. One boy stands slightly behind his companion carrying a shotgun diagonally across his body and over his shoulder, while the second boy is positioned in front playing a circular drum.

The rear figure has short light-brown hair beneath a pointed reddish-brown cap. He wears a green long-sleeved top, brown knee-length shorts, pale socks with green bands and brown shoes. The shotgun has a brown-painted stock and grey-painted upper section and is held with one hand, while the other arm extends around the adjoining figure.

The second boy has swept light-brown hair with a prominent curled forelock. He wears a pale shirt decorated with small red dots, dark suspenders, a reddish-orange necktie, dark shorts, pale socks and brown-grey shoes. A drum is suspended in front of him and painted with a repeating orange-and-cream triangular border. A short brown drumstick is held in each hand.

Both children have rounded facial modelling with painted eyes and eyelashes, softly coloured cheeks and red-painted mouths. The modelling and subdued colouring follow the characteristic child subjects associated with M. I. Hummel designs.

The figures stand on a rectangular cream-coloured base with rounded corners. The upper surface of the base bears an impressed Hummel marking. The underside is impressed with the model number “50/0” and bears a blue Goebel trademark incorporating a stylised bee and V with “W-Germany”.

The impressed number 50/0 identifies this Hummel design as “Volunteers”, also known in German as “Soldatenspiel”. Published Hummel references list the design as dating from 1936 and attribute the modelling to Reinhold Unger.

M. I. Hummel figurines were developed from the drawings of German artist and Franciscan nun Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel, born Berta Hummel. Her illustrations of children were adapted into ceramic figures by Goebel in Germany during the 1930s. Goebel produced Hummel figures alongside numerous other lines, with Hummel pieces distinguished by their association with M. I. Hummel's artwork and signature.

The blue stylised bee within a V and accompanying West German wording correspond with Goebel marks used during the 1960s and into the early 1970s, placing this particular example broadly within that period rather than at the original 1936 introduction of the design.

Decorative porcelain figures of this type were principally produced as display ornaments, with Hummel child subjects becoming a long-running series of individually numbered designs.

Object Type: Figurine Group
Age: Post-1940
Era / Period: 1960s–early 1970s
Material: Porcelain
Finish: Glazed
Production Technique: Moulded
Decoration Technique: Hand Painted
Pattern: Volunteers
Style: M. I. Hummel

Porcelain Figurine Hummel Goebel Volunteers 50/0 Two Boys Drum Shotgun