Gunthermann - Fine German Toys

Thursday, December 6, 2012
        Clear and Cold    -1 C  30 F

Gunthermann

Fine German Toys

     Germany had always been known for excellent engineering and craftsmanship.Naturally, toys would fall into this category. And being a country in Europe, the toy companies had  many centuries to develop their skills. 

    Gunthermann was a fine German Company (1877 - 1965). It's hard to find information, so I'll correct this and elaborate in the future. One of their "specialties" was the wind-up mechanical toy. What this meant was that after you wound up the toy with a key, the mechanical energy slowly was released through the coil to make the toy move.  The concept was clever since once you developed the mechanics, you could simply adapt the movement in different ways for different toys.
These toys are also called "clockwork toys".

   Siegfried Gunthermann started the company was died in 1898. His widow married Adloph Weigel who ran the company until his death in 1919. In 1965, the German Company acquired the company.

You can find all of these toys on the Liveauctioneers website.

There find the Bertoia company, then past sales, and do a search for Gunthermann.

All of the toys below are wind-ups, except for the  Gungthermann "Walking Swan" which 

is a "pull toy". I liked the majestic  movement of that toy, and so I added it.

I'm sure that you can figure out what the movement of each of the toys is, except for maybe the last item - the ladder truck. For that one, the ladder and fireman pivot when the ladder is lifted from its front mooring. When I look at most of these toys and how they were made, I think of the craftspeople  of that time, and how these toys were made by hand. Nowadays, automatic machines and robots churn out toys made  in China by the millions!

Thanks for dropping by, 

and

have a great part of the day, wherever you may be.

Stacey