A house is not a home without a Gnome

When confronted with a garden gnome, the common reaction is to throw up your hands in horror and express an expression of disgust while wondering how anyone could bear to allow such a creature to remain in their backyard. On the other hand, we are told on good authority that the southern German gnome population is approaching four million and when you start looking there are a sizeable number visible in the US.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by the Germans, 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 wasn’t until 1872 that garden gnomes began to be produced 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 on the rafters of barns, where they kept an eye on the owner’s animals, as well as the crops and garden produce.

Over the years, German gnome makers honed their skills and became master craftsmen. In its heyday, the Griebel gnome factory in East Germany produced about 300 different gnome characters. After the collapse of communism in 1989, entrepreneurs 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 found to be infringing on companies’ copyrights. However, it is now free for everyone on the German border and Reinhard Griebel, the great-grandson of the firm’s founder, has only a workshop and the gnome museum.

While the original gnomes were depicted as gardeners engaged in traditional rural chores, the range expanded to include anyone from fishermen to musicians to sportsmen to farmers. It was not long before living individuals were modeled in clay or stoneware. Among those currently available are gladiator Russell Crowe, TV 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 wilds of North Devon, England. There you will find more than a thousand gnomes and goblins in the four-acre reserve. Gnome hats are loaned out free of charge along with fishing rods, so you don’t embarrass the gnomes!

There are some who see the cheerful little character sitting in their garden in a different light. FreeTheGnomes.com provides information on the release of the garden gnomes and calls to action. They proclaim that “Thousands of Gnomes are enslaved in Gardens across America. For too long we have allowed our neighbors to usurp the rights of these gentle woodland creatures. Join our boycott. Picket. Write to Congress. Free a Gnome We’ll show you how.”

Some groups have taken justice into their own hands. In April 2000, in Paris, the dormant Garden Gnome Liberation Front came to life, stealing some 20 gnomes during a night 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’s Paris wing said in a statement after their strike over the weekend.

The disappearance of gnomes has caused headaches for police forces around the world. In May 2004, The Scotsman reported that a series of bizarre break-ins had left Lothians police with several unusual prisoners: 14 garden gnomes. An elderly woman complained to police that someone was stealing gnomes from her yard in Fairfax County, Washington DC. Officers set up a spy camera and caught the 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 bringing them home. In Australia, garden gnomes began to disappear on a large scale from one particular neighborhood. They were found in a clearing in the bush months later, where they were all gathered around the largest gnome, having a meeting.

If you have not yet succumbed to the temptation of acquiring one of these cheerful little creatures, let me leave you with one last thought. A 2003 study in England on things to consider when selling a house found that having a gnome in the front yard reduced the value of the house by $840.