An original Bauhaus children's toy by the Bauhaus designer, Alma Siedhoff-Buscher. It is a Bauhaus Building Block Set, circa 1923. The set consists of 48 rectangular blocks in different colors in their original presentation box. The box size is 40 x 28 cm and the blocks measure 4.7 x 2.3 x 1.25 inches each and have traces of their original color.
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The set is documented in the Bauhaus Archive (Berlin) exhibition catalog -"Alma Siedhoff-Buscher - Eine Neue Welt für Kinder (A New World for Children)", 1996, 104 pages. The principle of this design is quite similar to the boat building designs that she created during this period and today are still produced by the Swiss toy company, Naef. She began studying at the bauhaus in the early months of 1922. Ms. Buscher was one of the few woman, along with Marianne Brant, who was able to persevere and convince Gropius to break tradition and allow her to work in a field other than the Bauhaus weaving workshop. In this case, she worked in the woodcarving workshop with the specific wish of creating designs for children. The world of children was always an area of interest at the Bauhaus. The workshop started with handmade toys for sale at the Weimar market in 1919 and continued until 1931, its final year. Ms. Buscher was a key to--HEY, I LOVE THE BAUHAUS AS MUCH AS THE NEXT GUY, BUT, HOLY SMOKES, PEOPLE! THEY'RE BLOCKS!
Vintage 20's German Bauhaus Era Building Toy, starting bid $1,750 [ebay via an ambitious project collapsing]
Is this a case of the emperor having no clothes? I'm sure they'd add a certain je ne sais quoi (or the german equivalent) to the living room, strewn about and cover in baby slurm.
http://www.fotobabble.com/h/kids