Early American Tin Pull Toys

The latter half of the nineteenth century was positively awash with these little tin pull toys, made by companies like Althof, Bergmann of New York, George Brown of Connecticut, and James Fallows of Philadelphia.

The painted, pressed tin toys came in an incredible variety of designs and sizes, and they have a folk art quality that is very appealing. Their fragility, combined with their function as pull toys, makes them scarce today. I was very fortunate to receive two this Christmas. Each measures about 5 1/2 inches long.

This stalwart looking dog carrying a basket is accompanied by a young child with a stick.

One of the more common themes in these pull toys is the horse and rider, as seen in this example.

If you'd like to see more of these wonderful toys, a quick Google image search for "early American tin toys" will bring up loads. One of the finest books I know on the subject is "American Antique Toys," by Bernard Barenholtz and Inez McClintock. Mr. Barenholtz was a founder of the educational toy company, Constructive Playthings, and one of the most prominent of early American toy collectors. It's a gorgeous book, filled with personal stories of his toy collecting adventures.

1890s German Dollhouse Room Box

My favorite Christmas present this year was a German folding dollhouse room box, circa the late 1880s - 1890s. It was clearly a favorite of its original owner as well, as she carefully treasured the fragile toy over many years.

At first glance, you would never even realize this is a dollhouse. It starts out as a lithographed cardboard box, just 8 by 5 by 2 inches, about the size of  a small candy box. The top features a beautiful lithograph of Victorian ladies in their parlor (and that is a hint of what's inside!)

When you lift the lid, the box falls open as the sides drop away, revealing within a gorgeously illustrated Victorian room.

What had appeared to be just a pattern on the outside of the box reveals itself to be brickwork, and the two side panels that fold out are illustrated with windows.

The original owner pencilled her name alongside this window. It appears to read "Hortie B." Perhaps short for Hortense? "Made in Germany" is visible below.

Inside, the lithographed walls are rich with detail and color.

The little room box also contained what appears to be its original furniture, in a small scale and narrow depth made necessary by the shallowness of the closed box. There is an upholstered sofa and two chairs, along with a table that features its own lithographed scene on top.

The outside of the box still retains its original store label and price (25 cents, no small amount back in the late 1800s!) It was sold by Henry Moll in St. Peter, Minnesota, whose shop, interestingly, specialized not in toys, but in books, stationery, wall paper, and window dressings. You can imagine a Victorian mother carefully examining wall paper samples at Mr. Moll's shop while her daughter was kept occupied with this little dollhouse.

I don't know which tiny dolls Hortie kept in her room box as they were sadly missing, but I found a few in my collection that seemed perfectly at home.

What Did Santa Bring?

This year, Santa brought an assortment of toys from the 1890s-1900s, including:


-an unusual, beautifully lithographed, folding dollhouse room box with its original furniture, made in Germany

-two early American tin pull toys

-Bradley's Toy Town Post Office playset

-two miniature tin toy kitchens

-two lithographed tabletop games


Also under the tree were a miniature tin toy grocery shop, the Corner Grocer, made by Wolverine in the 1930s, and a bunch of old Halloween decorations from the 1920s - 40s.


Pics coming soon (except the Halloween, which I'll save until next October, of course!)


What did Santa bring you? Tell us in the comments!

Antique Christmas Board Game

What better way could there be for a Victorian child to while away the days until Christmas than by playing this board game? The Game of Merry Christmas, or, What Will Santa Claus Bring, was produced by the J.H. Singer Company of New York in 1890.

The beautifully lithographed box cover depicts Santa, clad in a fur trimmed suit and with the stump of a clay pipe clenched in his teeth, about to head down a chimney with a sack full of toys.

Inside, the board features an illustration of Santa about to deliver his gifts below the Christmas tree. A rocking horse is already in place.

The game itself is a simple numbered track. Players roll the die and then move along the board. If they land on a space that is labelled with a gift, that's what they'll be getting for Christmas.

There are some wonderful items listed: a Punch and Judy show, a hobby horse, a doll, and a box of tin soldiers are just a few of the options.

But lest we assume materialism is an exclusive feature of our modern Christmas, note that "a pocket full of money" is one of the gift possibilities.

There are also some present pitfalls to be avoided: I can imagine no one wanted to land on "a box of corn salve," or "some good advice."

I hope Santa brings you just what you want, and no corn salve! May you have space number 114 this year and always. Merry Christmas everyone!

Antique Diecut & Cotton Batting Santa

Made in Germany circa the 1890s, this large diecut Santa is 18 inches tall and features a cotton batting cloak with gilt paper embellishment.

He has an exceptionally soulful expression on his face:

The Santa came from an elderly woman whose family had hung it each Christmas in their house from the 1890s all the way to 2010. It's incredible that this fragile piece survived so well for so long, and intriguing to imagine all the family Christmases it witnessed over those 120 years!