FEVES
Modern French Holiday Figurines
"King Cake" Figurines Given on Epiphany (January 6)
Compare in Concept, Form and Function with Roman Sigilla Saturnalia Gifts

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These are actual French Feves ( Three King’s Cake Charms or
Prizes). Made from porcelain and hand painted, they
are amazingly strong - designed to be baked into a cake!
Wonderful detail for something so small. Design is on all sides!
Feves (French for “bean” from the Latin
word for bean, faba ) are tiny figurines that are made to be put inside
a "King's Cake" for the "Epiphany" Holiday, which is celebrated every
year on January 6th, the 12th day of Christmas. Tradition states that
this is the day that the three wise men or "Three Kings" came to
Bethlehem, to honor the birth of Christ. Traditionally it was a
fava bean that was placed inside the cake. Whoever found the feve
in his or her slice of cake, was king for the day. Since it was
good luck to get the feve in your cake - these little items were saved
and treasured.
In the 1870s the bean was replaced with small
porcelain figurines; good luck charms, religious figures, saints etc,
and a collecting craze was begun! The oldest feves were porcelain. As
the years sped by, designs became more elaborate; different glazes were
used, they were hand painted or gilded. Following WWI, due to supply
shortages, plastic feves were made. Today, this tradition of Feve
production and collecting has been completely commercialized, and there
is a vast assortment of porcelain, plastic and metal figures that are
made. A lot of the newest feves are sold in series – more for
collecting than for actually placing in cakes. Designs include
everything from Harry Potter and Disney to the high fashion shoes and
purses. Collecting Feves is very popular in France. The series
are generally only produced for a single year.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/166229658/sale-ancient-rome-roman-figures-caesar?ref=market
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