The Wind-up Toy

Sunday, October 28, 2012
Hurricane Sandy Approaches.....

The Wind-up Toy

   The wind-up toy was invented in Germany, in the 15th century by Karl Grod. Basically, the mechanics operate by winding up a spring that gradually releases the energy through a series of gears. Therarer and more expensive wind-up toys are the older German ones by 2 companies - Lehmann and Gunthermann. Whnever I get permission from some other people and companies, I will try and return here with these fine examples of these ornate and complicated mechanisms

   The wind-up toys vary in terms of what the character of the toy does, and its' movements. Playing a piano, or flapping its wings are just 2 examples of the mechanical operations that these toys can do.

   

     You can see how brightly-coloured these toys are. They were made from pressed steel that was printed on through lithography. The parts and wind-up were then assembled by hand. If you do a search for Lehmann and Gunthermann wind-up toys, you'll see examples of the more complicated and rarer toys. Nevertheless, the ones presented today are quite nice, and would easily entertain a young child.

That's it for today.

Thanks for dropping by, and have a great day.

For those of you down south in the USA, 

please take carre and watch out for that storm!

Stacey