Much-Loved Schuco Wind Up Mouse

Here's one of the most love-worn toys in my collection: an extremely tattered 1920s somersaulting mouse (actually an early, unlicensed Mickey Mouse knockoff made by Schuco). Originally this mouse, about the size of the real thing, would have had inset felt ears, felt hands and feet, and cloth covering his arms and legs, but it's all been loved away. I realize a lot of people would have passed over this item, but when I spotted him buried in a pile of rusty keys, chipped marbles, and broken lead soldiers in a dealer's junk case, he looked so forlorn, and I just couldn't leave him there! 

Here he is being chauffeured about in his tin toy car by his friend, a tiny 1920s Schuco teddy bear:

Vintage Tin Grocery Store

I got a much longed-for toy this Christmas: a General Grocery tin shop made by Wolverine Toys in the 1930s. The side panels fold out to reveal beautifully lithographed scenes, and the awning can be raised. The separate counter is missing, as often found, but the set still has its shop phone and scale and some of its original miniature packages. Just a beautiful toy!

Antique Toy Stoves

I don't like to cook in real life (in fact, I don't cook at all), but for some reason I find toy stoves very appealing. They're charming toys, they reveal a lot of social history, and they're perfect teddy bear and doll accessories. Here are a few from my collection, dating from the mid-1800s
to the early 1900s.


The silver and green stove at the top is American made, and says "Novelty" on the door. It measures 8 1/2 inches wide by 6 inches tall. It's made of cast iron and some kind of metal that has oxidized to a greenish hue, and there appears to be a nickel finish on the doors. This was a wood-burning stove, and it really worked. A fire inside the stove heated the burners on top, and probably the entire stove as well!

The small red and black stove is made of tin, and I believe it's German. It measures 8 1/2 inches tall. This was a pretend-cooking-only stove. (My three china dollies and their cook are using it in another post.)

The last stove, also German, is made of sheet metal and is very large, measuring 12 inches wide by 7 inches tall, not counting the stovepipe. This was another working stove, but it heated via alcohol burners (yikes!) which slide out of the stove body . Children actually cooked in the little pans, which are original to this stove.

1930s Chein Hercules Ferris Wheel

One of my favorite tin toys is this 1930s Hercules Ferris Wheel made by Chein. It's so bright and cheery, and features that great smiling face in the center spoke: it makes me happy just to look at it.

Peng Peng Buddha Bear

This tiny teddy bear, only about 5 inches tall, is one of my favorites from the Chicago artist Peng Peng. Peng Peng makes this bear in an incredible variety of materials and designs, all called "Buddha Bears" because of their short stature and portly proportions. (You can see more at her website: http://www.peng-peng.com/.) My little Buddha Bear likes to visit this vintage 1950s toy refrigerator, complete with some original items. Looks like he's got a little box of ice cream at the moment. (Maybe that's why he looks the way he does...)

1800s Tin Kitchen

This tin kitchen playset dates from the mid to late 1800s. It was made in America, and represents a much simpler version of the fabulous German Nuremberg kitchens of the time. The kitchen measures about 12 inches wide by 8 inches tall, and most of the accessories are original to the set. One of its most interesting features is the water pump on the right side. It could actually be filled with water and then pumped into the sink fixed to the wall. These kitchens were not meant to be true to scale; rather, the idea was for little girls to learn cooking by playing with them, and for that they needed larger utensils. These tin kitchens were used for "cold cooking" (pretend), but there were also woodburning and alcohol stoves made for "hot cooking" (real). I'll list some of these 19th century versions of the Easy Bake Oven soon!