When faced with a garden gnome, the common reaction is to raise your hands in horror and express an expression of disgust while wondering how anyone can bear to allow such a creature to remain in their backyard. On the other hand, we are told in good faith that southern Germany’s gnome population is approaching four million and when you start looking, there are quite a few visible in the US.
Perhaps the Germans shouldn’t be surprising, since gnomes were first created in their country in the early 19th century. The first recorded sighting in England was in 1840 at Lamport Hall, the seat of Sir Charles Isham. It was not until 1872 that garden gnomes began to be manufactured in large numbers. According to German folklore, gnomes were considered good luck charms. They were supposed to help around the house and garden, and in rural areas they often lived in the rafters of barns, where they kept a close watch on the owner’s animals as well as crops and garden products.
Over the years, German gnome makers honed their skills and became master craftsmen. At its peak, the Griebel gnome factory in East Germany produced some 300 different gnome characters. After the collapse of communism in 1989, businessmen in the Czech Republic decided to enter the market and produce cheap imitations of traditional characters. They were initially prevented from entering Germany by a law that allowed customs to confiscate gnomes who infringed corporate copyrights. However, it is now free for everyone on the German border and Reinhard Griebel, the great-grandson of the founder of the firm, only has a workshop and the gnome museum.
While the original gnomes were depicted as gardeners engaged in traditional rural tasks, the range was increased to include from fishermen to musicians, sportsmen and farmers. It was not long before living individuals were modeled in clay or stoneware. Among those currently available are gladiator Russell Crowe, television outfielders Alan Titchmarsh and Charlie Dimmock, and even a Tony Blair wall plaque.
For gnome lovers, no trip to Europe would be complete without a visit to the Gnome Reserve located in the wilderness of North Devon in England. There you will find over a thousand gnomes and goblins in the four-acre preserve. Gnome hats are loaned free along with fishing rods, so you don’t put the gnomes to shame!
There are those who see the cheerful little character sitting in their garden in a different light. FreeTheGnomes.com provides information on releasing garden gnomes and calls to action. They proclaim that “Thousands of gnomes are enslaved in backyards across America. For too long we have let our neighbors usurp the rights of these gentle creatures of the forest. Join our boycott. Organize a picket rally. Write to Congress. Release to a gnome. We will “show you how.”
Some groups have taken the law into their own hands. In April 2000 in Paris, the dormant Garden Gnome Liberation Front came back to life, robbing about 20 gnomes during a nightly raid on a Paris exhibition. “We demand … that garden gnomes are no longer ridiculed and that they be released into their natural habitat,” the Front wing in Paris said in a statement after their weekend strike.
The disappearance of gnomes has caused headaches for police forces around the world. In May 2004, The Scotsman reported that a series of bizarre robberies had left the Lothian police with several unusual prisoners – 14 garden gnomes. An elderly woman complained to police that someone was stealing gnomes from her garden in Fairfax County, Washington DC. Officers installed a spy camera and caught their suspect in the act four times. Police revealed that her bad boy was actually a not-so-bad labrador retriever named Magnum. The dog had been retrieving the figurines and taking them home. In Australia, garden gnomes began to disappear from one particular neighborhood on a large scale. They found them in a clearing in the bush months later, where they were all gathered around the biggest gnome, having a meeting.
If you haven’t yet succumbed to the temptation to acquire one of these jolly creatures, let me leave you with one final thought. A 2003 study in England of things to consider when selling your home found that having a gnome in your front yard reduced the value of your home by $ 840.