However, one source claims gnomes to have been first mentioned by 16th-century Paracelsus (Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim to you), 1493-1541, born Einsiedeln, Switzerland, an alchemist and physician, who travelled widely Europe and Middle East, eventually settling in Salzburg.
Although generally recognized as bringing good luck to homes and gardens, a recent book, How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack by Chuck Sambuchino ($16.99 in Canada) claims to be the only comprehensive guide to warding off an imminent home invasion and how to defend yourself when the lawn warriors strike. In fact, according to author Rowling, gnomes are indeed pests that inhabit the gardens of witches and wizards.
Perhaps, in the early years of the 19th century, potters in Graefienroda, Thuringia, East Germany, commenced creating terra cotta gnomes for decoration but these also found use for superstitious purposes to ward off thieves and swindlers (Betrüger). However their exact date of origin, Das ist ein ratsel: It is a puzzle.
Two separate potteries operated by Phillip Griebel and August Heissner, are often said to have commenced production in the mid-19th century. Yet Sir Charles Isham imported them into England as early as 1842 – he wanted to liven up his rock garden with a little colour and decided that garden gnomes were the best way to do so.
The Griebel descendants continue to manufacture high-quality gnomes, pausing only during World War II. Made of terra cotta, slip-cast in moulds, dried, fired, painted, and traditionally less than 14-inches tall, they eventually became a leading export from East Germany. Pretty, decorative, colourful, but disposable or in a single word, Kitsch, nevertheless there are today an estimated 2.5 million garden gnomes in Germany. The number of gnomes worldwide is set to increase by 1.4 million this summer, a report has predicted.
In the 1960s and ‘70s first Ersatz plastic garden gnomes hit the stores, while the demise of communism opened the market to cheap imitations from Poland and the Czech Republic. As with a great deal though, today much lower-quality produce comes from mainland China.
Not everyone was – or is – impressed.
Perhaps
Zeutgeldundauskunftmittelsvernichtung, to use that wonderful portmanteau German word: a complete waste of time, money and resources. As early as 1956, British socialist politico Harold Wilson contemptuously described Swiss bankers as the ‘Gnomes of Zurich.’ Both gnomes and children under five have long been banned (Verboten) from Chelsea Flower Show and other Royal Horticulture Society events. Countering this, Nome, Alaska airport has its very own gnome, easily recognizable as a genuine male gnome by his red cap. Gnome Sweet Gnome you might say.
Unfortunately not everyone believes that gnomes should be kept as garden security guards. The Schall und Rauch (sound and fury) of the Front de Liberation des Nains Jardins (FLNJ), or Garden Gnome Liberation Front in France in the years 1997-2000 was paralleled by a similar organization in neighbouring Italy. Both were known for kidnapping gnomes, sometimes on a large scale.
Their victims were often recovered in strange situations, much the same as that peculiar Wanderlust exhibited by travelling gnomes, said to have been first observed in Sydney, Australia 1986 but reported by expatriates in construction camps around the world several years earlier. Given that gnomes are said to have a life expectancy of 400 years it is perhaps little wonder they need a vacation once in a while.
Gnomes also feature in landscapes – not always successfully, if bungleaucrats have anything to do with the matter. When Veronica Pratt died at the age of 82, her dying wish was to have her 30 garden gnomes placed on a grassy roundabout in the Welsh county of Pembrokeshire. They would cheer up motorists, she believed. Alas, the local county council disagreed. It could pose a danger by “distracting” drivers, they said.
However, after four seasons in business, Toronto’s Garden Gnomes Landscape is proving a cut above at least some others. And to display your collection, surely nothing could be a better choice than the dwarf ginkgo tree cultivar ‘Gnome.’
Completing the picture, the recent updating of Shakespeare’s beloved romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet has emerged as Gnomeo and Juliet. Top-rated family fare in which true love does not stroll easily up the garden path with the family feud fought with lawnmower drag races before true love wins at last.
Enough, you say – right. Let’s leave it with a saying of the Hausa of Africa’s Sahel:
Zuciyar mutum birninsa: a person is entitled to his own beliefs.
Exactly.
