Toy Figures and Houses

Details

Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956)
Toy Figures and Houses
five figurines and eleven houses in carved and painted wood
Height varies from 1 3/8in. (3.5cm.) to 3¼in. (8.3cm.) (16)

Provenance

Acquired from the artist by the family of the present owner

Literature

A. and T. L. Feininger, Lyonel Feininger: City at the Edge of the World, New York, 1965 (for general information on the artist's toys; cf. illustrations of related toys)

Lot Essay

Feininger first designed and carved wooden toys and trains in 1911 for Otto Lowenstein, a Munich toy manufacturer. From 1920 until 1931 he created many playthings, using figures, houses and ships as his subjects, often making them as gifts for friends. In 1921 he wrote 'the time for my periodical craze for making toys for Christmas is approaching. Every year I get the urge to saw wood into bits and pieces and paint them with bright colors . . .' (A. and T. L. Feininger, op. cit., p. 53). The artist returned to toy-making in his old age; the figures closely correspond to the whimsical figures or "ghosties" which populate his drawings during this period.

Sixteen toys in one lot (16).