This vintage real photo postcard features an adorable short haired little girl posing between two pull toy animals. The toy elephant and lamb are larger than most pull toys I have seen in other vintage photographs. Note the girl’s piercing eyes. The history of pull toys is interesting, It is believed that the earliest wooden toys appeared sometime during the Stone Age.Wooden toys were produced during the Middle Ages and were manufactured by industry in the 1800’s, especially in Europe. Steiff was a manufacturer of pull-alongs. The toys were described in advertising as “High Class Riding animals”. In 1880, Margarete Steiff, a German seamstress, founded the stuffed animal company that bears her name. Interestingly, a bout of polio limited her sewing to using just one hand. Her nephew created the first soft bear for his Aunt. When an American wholesaler saw the bear at the Leipzig Toy Fair in 1903, he ordered three thousand of them. By the time of World War I, Steiff had sold millions of these toys in Europe and the United States. Perhaps the toys in this photo postcard were made by Steiff. Producers of early pull toys included Fisher Price and Lego. This photo postcard was produced by the Foto Luz studio, located in Bucharest, Romania. The studio’s name is embossed on the lower right hand corner of this scallop edged postcard. The postcard is from the 1940’s and is in excellent condition. SOLD
THE CABINET CARD GALLERY 