01/03/2025 General News
In an era when children have a bewildering array of electronic devices and sophisticated toys to play with, we sometimes forget how much apply value earlier generations enjoyed from far simpler playthings, writes Emily Turner.
But that is not to say that the latest technology was not employed in the pre-digital age to create toys for young people. In fact, the industrial revolution saw a sea-change in what was available for children to apply with – and one of the biggest advances was the introduction of tinplate toys.
Up until the middle of the 19th century, toy manufacturers had had to make do with wood, cloth or clay when it came to making playthings, an the industry was very much one of small-scale, handmade production, with the result that even the simplest of products was often beyond the means of a whole swathe of families.
The invention of machines which could manipulate and stamp steel sheets during the second decade of the 19th century was the precursor to a transformation of the toy industry, and tinplate toys led the way.
Essentially, tinplate is a very thin sheet of steel which is coated with tin, creating a light and very malleable material which can be easily manipulated and stamped into whatever shape is needed. Despite being light, it is also sturdy – an ideal material for the rigours that toys face in the hands of children.
As was so often the case in consumer industrials, Germany led the way. Companies such as Fleischman, Lehmann and Marklin dominated the industry by the second half od the century, and they were joined by names such as Tipp & Co and Levy in the early years of the 20th century.
The Germans didn’t have it all their own way, though. The Rossignol factory in France was the first major manufacturer to challenge the Teutonic producers, and with a distinct anti-German feeling after the First World War, the British company Chad Valley Toys gave the British our first homemade examples.
Launched in 1919 – riding that post-war patriotic fervour – Lines Brothers limited started producing a range of tin toys. It is perhaps their Triang brand which has been the most enduring.
Another British company was The Mettoy Company (Mettoy being a shortening of Metal Toys), which was founded by a refugee from Nazi Germany, Phillipp Ullmann. Established in Northampton, the company supplied toy lorries and aircraft to Marks & Spencer shops, and eventually launched the Corgi brand in 1956.
Meanwhile, the 1920s saw a similar development in the US, which eventually became the world’s leading manufacturers of tin toys – although much of that was consumed domestically.
The post-Second World War industrial miracle in Japan led to a parallel boom in toy manufacturing in the Far East, mostly aimed at the American market. Interestingly, these were not labelled as Japanese, as there was a similar negative feeling towards that country in the US as there was towards Germany in Europe.
As plastic became a more mainstream material, the use of tin in toys began to decline, with the new material being cheaper, lighter and safer than metal for use in children’s playthings. Nowadays only a few Chinese manufacturers continue to make tin toys, and most of these are aimed at nostalgic collectors rather than children.
And there are plenty of such collectors about, as we witness in the saleroom. Despite the allure of electronic gizmos, games consoles and ever-more sophisticated toys, there remains a hankering for the simpler pleasures of the past.
Early German tinplate toys can make very big money indeed (a tinplate toy battleship made by Marklin in 1905 sold for £76,000 at an auction in Berkshire in 2012); however, collecting tinplate can also be accessible, with even pre-war pieces to be had for more affordable prices.