Creche with Joseph Holding the Infant and Mary Resting

Q. Sue admired the creche shown on the website of Joseph holding the Infant and Mary resting. She asked for information about it and where she might find one.

A. The nativity set was designed and produced by a husband-wife team from Indiana named Farlow (or Carlow, the imprint isn't sharp) who had a small business creating figurines of different types. They did several variations of the Nativity over the years, imprinting the date of issue on the bottom. My son discovered two slightly different sets in a store outside Denver close to five years ago. Friends admired them so we called to order more only to be told that production had stopped and only one or two sets were left. We bought them and Mary Fuller whose set is shown here took one.

Challenged, I then tracked down the company to see if they had unsold stock or know of stores that might. I spoke to Mrs. Farlow who said that they had retired and closed the company but not before they spent a final three months making nothing but Nativities. She gave me the names of several shops who had purchased them but they too were sold out.

In 2002, at the Friends of the Creche Annual Meeting at Bronner's Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, Michigan, Mary found a few more pieces. Neither of us have located any more since. To answer this question, I called Bronner's but, of course, they had no more and couldn't supply any information about the manufacturer. Secondary markets such as online auctions would seem to be the way to go now. Original prices were in the neighborhood of $100.