Old Antique Toys: An Ancestor of George Levy Asks for Help

Saturday, January 27, 2024

Overcast

-2° Celsius / 28.4° Fahrenheit

An Ancestor of George Levi Asks for Help

E-mail from readers of my blog is like the famous line in the movie "Forrest Gump". That was a great movie in 1994, starring Tom Hanks as a very kind and simple man. Forrest sits down next to a lady, and as he starts to talk to the lady, he later says:

"Life was like a box of chocolates,

You never know what you're going to get"

And so it is in blogging. I never know what readers will write to me, and I always try and find answers to their questions. In today's post, I received an

e-mail from Mr. Adrian Mattes, who happens to be a distant relative (great-grandfather) of the famous German toy manufacturer, Mr. Georg Levy who owned the GELY toy company.

Adrian had personal information about his relatives, and was kind enough to share some information about them below:

"The company name GELY was a combination of GE from Georg, and LE

from the family name Levy. Mr. Georg Levy first worked for the famous company HUKI. The name derived from a combination of the owner - Mr. Hubert Kienberger. "HU" from Hubert, and KI from his family name Kienberger."

The company was in Germany.

Adrian's great-uncle Kurt Levy and his family moved to Argentina in the mid 1930's in order to escape from the Nazis. The Levis were Jewish, and thankfully escaped from a potentially horrific end.

"Georg and his wife Johanna fled Germany in 1938 and lived out their days in England. Their sons Alfred Levy and Kurt Levy also had worked in the toy factory in Nürenberg. Alfred went to work for the Mettoy/Corgi toy company in Northhampton, England. It was Kurt who went to Argentina and we believe worked in the toy business there."

Adrian had seen some toys manufactured by the Argentinian Toy Company - Matarrazo. (1930's and later) Adrian's great-grandparents moved to Argentina in the early 1930's in order to escape from the Nazis. They were Jewish, and thankfully escaped from a potentially horrific end.

Adrian wrote to me and asked a question.

1.Did Kurt Levy had worked with the Matarrazotoy company in Argentina?

The reason for his question was because he observed similarities of the design

and type of toys between GELY and Matarazzo.

I wrote back to Adrian, and said that I would try and find an answer to his question. I wrote to someone on ebay, who then answered that another person would be more knowledgeable that he. My question was the same as Adrian had written me.

So far, I have not heard back from the ebay seller.

Below:

A photograph of Adrian's Great-Grand-Parents

Below:

A photograph of the original building where Georg Levy

(Gely toy company) manufactured his toys in Germany.

The young child is Georg's grandson, and his name is John.

A GELY billiards table with players

The GELY toy company name was a combination

of Ge (George) and Ly (Levy).

Adrian send me the above photos, which helped with this blog post.

So that's it for today.

I hope someone reading this post will have the answer to Adrian's question.