SML-54 SCROOGE

SML-54  Scrooge

GENERAL INFORMATION.  In Dickens' 1843 Christmas story, A Christmas Carol, the subject is the conversion of Ebenezer Scrooge, "a grasping old sinner," by a series of visions of Christmas past, present and to come.  Scrooge has glimpses of his life as a schoolboy, apprentice and young lover; of the joyous home of Bob Cratchit, his underpaid clerk; of what his lot would be if he were to die now, heartless and despised.  These visions wholly change his nature, and he becomes cheerful and benevolent.  He loves all and is by all beloved. Although Dickens admits he started the story for the income it would bring, he said afterwards that he laughed and cried over it as he did over no other story.
     Baston portrays the "before visions" miser holding an account book and calculating what some victim owes him.

Note: Baston designed a six-sided (hexagonal) base (SML-347) for his Dickens characters, locking them mechanically to a cottage background (SML-61) display. In 1946 he applied for a patent to protect this design motif and he cast the term "Patent Pending" into the base of each Dickens figurine.  In 1953 he was informed that the patent was denied.  All Dickens production form 1946 to 1953 bears the term "Patent Pending."

From Dr. Glenn Johnson's book, The Sebastian Miniature Collection.