MY TOY SHELF

It became clear this summer that I had better get a shelf for the early German toys I had been so lucky to find this past winter and spring.   Shortly after I wrote the post on my German rabbit "eater" I found another . . . this time an early black-faced eater, then another Sonneberg box (top left), and the others quickly followed.  

The cats on teeter totter squeak toy (bottom right) could well be my favorite. Their bodies are typical Erzgebirge with dangling wooden legs and homemade skirts out of extremely old fabric.  When the bellows are squeezed, it moves up and down and squeaks.

The figural man and woman in upturned top hats candy containers were offered to me by a German antiques dealer.  They immediately appealed to me because of their obvious age and rarity of subject matter.  Their torsos lift out of the top hats, which are the candy containers.  

The two-sided squeak toy (bottom left) is rare as it shows the faces of Max and Mortiz from the popular German children's book by Wilhelm Busch.

This 9-inch high soldier on horseback was a particularly thrilling find, as it comes from Tom Gray's Winston-Salem toy museum which closed several years ago, the contents of which were sold at auction.  I bought several pieces at the time of the auction, but this piece came on the market again recently and I recognized it as being from the toy museum.  The head nods, and the front legs move up and down as well.  There's an inscription on the bottom in pencil, but all I can read is "1864."