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Collector Clubs
Precious Moments is widely known as a series of collectible porcelain bisque figurines. The original artwork was created by the American illustrator Sam Butcher in the 1970s. more...
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The figurines depict young children with distinctive teardrop-shaped eyes, and are often accompanied by inspirational messages which are also found on the products.
Precious Moments is also the brand name for a series of giftware and collectibles licensed by Precious Moments, Inc (a.k.a. PMI) based on the artworks by Sam Butcher.
General
Precious Moments is a brand of products based on illustrations by artist Sam Butcher. His simple illustrations of children with teardrop shaped eyes include messages of heartfelt endurance and inspiration. Christian themes appear throughout his work, as Butcher is a born-again Christian.
The flagship product of the brand is the "Precious MomentsTM Porcelain Bisque Figurines" that has been in the market since 1977. At its peak, this product line saw forty times the sales of the next-best selling Precious Moments product line (Enesco).
Precious Moments, Inc. is also the name of the company that maintains and licenses copyrighted material pertaining to the designs by Sam Butcher. Precious Moments, Inc. a.k.a. PMI was incorporated in 1989. 80% of the royalties collected by the company was from its licensee Enesco Corp. for the porcelain figurine line.
Also, the same year, Sam Butcher used his profits from PMI to build his longtime dream - a chapel in Carthage, Missouri. Honored as the father of Precious Moments, he appears at some events in Carthage and occasionally at large scale collector club events, like those which took place in May of 2005 in Hawaii for the club's 25th anniversary. Sam Butcher currently resides in Aklan, Philippines and spends little time in the US.
Figurines
The story of how Precious Moments became porcelain figurines is familiar to many collectors. What is known to be the status quo story is that Gene Freedman, founding chairman of Enesco, Corp., found Sam Butcher and then convinced Sam to have sculptors, bring life to his "children" as three dimensional figurines.
The beginning
Precious Moments is well known for the porcelain figurines sold by Enesco Corp. since 1978. Sam Butcher originally started scribbling the now famous children with tear-drop shaped eyes on cards and letters to friends and families. Butcher and his friend Bill Biel started a small company under the name of Jonathan & David (J&D) to produce and sell his art on a line of cards and posters. J&D sold some greeting cards at flea markets but sales were meager and localized at first. The big break came at the Christian Booksellers Association Convention in Anaheim, California. Butcher remembers being so busy that they had to have neighboring vendors come over to help him and Biel fill orders. Soon after, his work was noticed by Eugene Freedman in 1975. Freedman searched for more than a year looking for a sculptors. In 1976, Freedman finally brought the artwork to Japan.
Read more at Wikipedia.org
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