A Swiss Black Forest Stained Lindenwood Figural Umbrella Stand, 19th Century

Despite being captioned as Swiss, the wide variety of carved lindenwood groups are called "Black Forest".

The history behind the success of Brienz wood carvings, so-called "Black Forest" carvings and clocks was as following. After a disastrous famine in 1816 in the Brienz area at the Swiss/German border people were forced to find new areas of revenues. In order to create jobs in the Bernese Oberland, an economically underdeveloped region, the Swiss government encouraged the existing resource of the Lindenwood Timber industry to liaise with the traditional wooden craftsmanship.