St. Gabriel's nativity set - vintage art and a longstanding tradition

Reporter's note: Nita Jergeson called asking if I'd like to do a story about an old nativity set on display at St. Gabriel's Church in Chinook. I was interested and went the Sunday after New Years to see the nativity set. I was expecting a table top small statues around a stable, like most nativity sets I'd seen in other churches.

This set was made up of figures that were displayed on the floor because of their size. It was a large, spectacular scene with all the figures associated with a nativity set and added angels above the doorway to the wooden stable. It took a while to take in the beautiful display.

Several congregants began to tell me the history and possible age of the set. Although the exact age of the set and how it was acquired is a bit murky, most senior parishioners agreed it was well over 80 years old. The set was originally displayed each year in the old church at the location on Indiana Street and moved to the new church when it was completed in the mid 1950's. It seemed there was a 'story behind the story' and I began to gather information about the history and origins of the set.

When were nativity scenes first used?

Most everyone has seen nativity sets in homes, churches and, sometimes, in public places during the Christmas holidays. In public displays life-sized figures, sometimes people in costume, make up the characters, often with live animals around the human figures. Interestingly, it was St. Francis of Assisi who first devised a nativity scene, not for decoration but as a way of teaching people about the birth of Christ.

The first nativity scene is recorded in 1223. St. Francis got permission from Pope Honorious III to set up a nativity scene near the Italian village of Grecio in a cave. There were even two live animals, an ox and a donkey, that were incorporated. St. Francis invited the villagers to the site and used the scene as an object lesson to tell the story of Christ's humble birth.

Live scenes were a tradition of the time to teach people Bible stories using miracle and mystery plays. Two centuries later the popularity of nativity scenes had spread throughout Europe. Eventually the popularization of smaller nativity scenes extended to households and churches during the Christmas holidays. Modern children's Christmas plays staged each year in local churches are an outgrowth of the miracle plays started centuries ago-telling a story with actions and scenes rather than the spoken word.

St. Gabriel's vintage nativity display

Roger Jergeson had found a marking on four of the standing sheep figures in the St. Gabriel's nativity set that reads: "Copyright, Daprato Statuary Company, Chicago, New York, 1914." The nativity figures were made using a type of plaster of Paris material. Jergeson said he thought maybe the "1914" marking had to do with the year the mold was registered or trademarked. Some old registration documents, on the internet, indicate the Daprato company did make a filing for a process to do statuary in 1914.

And it's impossible to date the year St. Gabriel's Church acquired the set. E. L. Luckett, who is 79, said he was an altar boy in the old church and remembers the nativity display from that time. Avis Jamieson, 87, told she remembers the set when she was a teenager. There is some belief, among older congregants, that the set was purchased for the church by two families who were financial backers of the parish, but no records survive that verify by whom or when the set was donated. Rita Langford, Avis Jamieson's daughter, said, "I'm pretty sure the nativity set is the oldest in Chinook." That's likely true.

The nativity set is large (see photo of parish priest Fr. Nayak posing by the camel. The camel stands 56 inches from the floor to the top of the camel's head). The entire scene is backed by a wooden stable with angels on the stable, the Holy Family, shepherds, animals and the camel and wise men. The camel and wise men are added to the display the Sunday before Epiphany, January 6.

Rita Langford said, "About 15 years ago we did some repairs on some of the figures. We took the figures to a ceramic shop owned by Shirley Buhmann. One of the horns on the reclining ox was broken off with the wire structure supports visible. Shirley said she didn't think the figures were ceramic." Turns out some the figures are made of chalk ware, a type of poured plaster of Paris that was popular for making figures from the early mid-1700's to the late 1900's in America. Chalk ware was especially popular with Italian immigrant artists who used the material to make figures of popular entertainers, practical items for the house and religious figures.

Some of the figures were repainted and touched up during the rehab project. Langford noted, "The camel is so heavy it was impractical to take it to the ceramic shop or bring all the paints to the church." The camel and the angels, among some other figures, were not repainted as best can be determined.

Who made St. Gabriel's nativity set?

The company that made the four standing sheep, now Daprato Rigali Studios, was begun in 1860 by four Daprato brothers who immigrated to Chicago from Italy. They were artisans, in the old world tradition, and soon their business flourished producing statues, altars and ecclesiastical art. In 1881 John Rigali immigrated to Chicago and joined the firm. The company eventually changed its name to Rigali Studios Company and is still a family owned and operated business specializing in ecclesiastical art. Many major Catholic churches include statues, altars and stained glass windows designed and produced by the company.

At the time the nativity set was produced chalk ware was a popular artistic media. Chalk ware items were popular and sold by peddlers from backpacks they carried with them. The popular figurines were made in two pieces, in gypsum molds, then pieced together and painted. Unpainted items had the appearance and feel of chalk. They were lightweight but fragile. Many were destroyed or broken through the years.

Rose Mary Luke, who lives in Syracuse, New York, has been restoring and dealing with Daprato items for 30 years. From pictures of the nativity set at St. Gabriel's, she thinks the angels above the stable and some other of the figures, especially the camel, definitely have the look and color of Daprato originals. She believes the angels are especially rare and has seen only a few similar nativity figures over the years. Congregants at St. Gabriel's are of the opinion that the figures of the set are all originals and have always been one set. Repainting the bases of the figures might have hidden the original Daprato markings on some of the figures. Chalk ware items were still being made until the 1930's. Items from that later era had a pinkish cast and were often referred to as 'Carnival chalk ware.'

Dan Rigali, presently the Sales Manager at the Chicago-based studio and part of the fifth generation to work in the studio, agreed to look at photos of the set. He's of the opinion that the sheep, with the Daprato indent, were likely made in 1914. He also thought the angels on the stable looked like items the company produced. He added, "One thing I see about the set is the shape of the bases holding the figures. Daprato tended to use square or rectangular bases, less so the round bases."

The nativity set is held in great regard by the congregation of St. Gabriel's. In 1998 Fr. Marcel Vogel used the backdrop of the stable and the angels above as the setting for a Christmas card he produced. The card shows the eighth grade and kindergarten parish students, in nativity-era costumes, posing around the Christ child figure from the set. Vogel, now the parish priest at Sacred Heart Church in Billings, ministered in Chinook from 1997 to 2004. Rita Langford found a copy of the Christmas card for use with this story.

Whatever the exact history, the nativity scene is a unique and beautiful piece of work. Roger Jergeson may have summed the nativity scene best when he noted, "The nativity set is more like fine art than the typical decorations used at Christmas." To the folks at St. Gabriel's the precise history of the set is less important than the continued role it plays, and will play, in their church during each Christmas season.