By Rafe Calder
A tin figure is a small thing with a long paper trail. It was a children’s lesson, a Christmas decoration and, later, a collector’s model of history. The paper trail is mostly encyclopaedia entries, and we say so below.
Dates in order
- From about 1550: tin figures play a growing part in social life, with Nuremberg, and later Fürth, as the main German centres. This is from German Wikipedia.
- Mid-18th century: they spread into German and foreign children’s rooms, the same article says. English Wikipedia names Johann Gottfried Hilpert (1748 to 1832), who lived in Nuremberg, as probably the first to make tin figures as a mass-produced toy. It dates an early assembly line, run by the Hilpert brothers, to 1775.
- Mid-19th century: tin soldiers push other toys aside, per German Wikipedia. The Nuremberg firm Heinrichsen is the world market leader and, it says, still exists.
- About 1920: figures become more realistic, and adults begin to collect cultural-historical figures to show history.
What the toy was for
German Wikipedia says tin figures began as “Lernspielzeug”, educational toys meant to teach children about the wider world and about gender roles. Tin jewellery, such as Christmas decorations, stayed important after soldiers took over the toy shelf. Figures still decorate walls, windowsills and Christmas trees.
How one is made
German Wikipedia gives the steps. The publisher commissions a drawer to make template drawings. An engraver cuts the mould from slate, brass, aluminium or silicone. After casting, the figures are cleaned and trimmed. Full-round figures often need assembly.
Why they are flat
Early figures, says English Wikipedia, were nearly two-dimensional, “flats”, and fully rounded lead figures overtook them from the late 19th century. German Wikipedia says figures come as full-round, half-round and flat forms, in many scales. Our reading: a flat figure is, in effect, a drawing cast in metal.
Painting
Collectors paint figures from templates, according to German Wikipedia. Acrylic and artists’ oil paints are the most common; watercolour is rare.
Side by side
| Point | English Wikipedia | German Wikipedia |
|---|---|---|
| Where the toy starts | Mass production in 18th-century Germany, linked to Hilpert | Growing role from about 1550, Nuremberg and Fürth |
| What replaced flats | Fully rounded lead figures, from the late 19th century | Figures began flat and later became three-dimensional |
The two do not conflict so much as measure different things: one dates mass production, the other the craft.
The museum at Plassenburg
German Wikipedia says the Deutsches Zinnfigurenmuseum is housed in the Arsenal building of the Plassenburg, the castle at Kulmbach in Bavaria. It adds that casting demonstrations and other events are held at irregular intervals. Other museums it lists are in Goslar, Freiburg im Breisgau, the Torhaus Dölitz near Leipzig and Katzelsdorf in Austria.
Questions a buyer would ask
Who collects them? The same article names two collector groups, Klio and the Vereinigung Freie Zinnfigurensammler.
What kind of sources these are
Three Wikipedia articles: German Wikipedia on tin figures, German Wikipedia on the museum, and English Wikipedia on tin soldiers. All three are encyclopaedic and secondary. A museum, a trade body or an auction house would be better, and we could not load one: the Plassenburg and Germanisches Nationalmuseum pages blocked our fetch.
What we left out
Military subjects of the dioramas, the history of the museum’s collection in the 20th century, and any price or auction figure. We also name no maker, because Sephari has none to point to yet.
Quick answers
Where is the German tin figure museum? German Wikipedia says it is in the Arsenal building of the Plassenburg castle in Kulmbach, Bavaria.
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Roam first. Shop later.