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Secrets in the Castle
Which tend to be the brightest memories of childhood? For many these associate with toys – home-made, ones that have been received as presents, bought, or inherited. From 6 January until 30 May the National History Museum of Latvia invites the visitors to enjoy this fascinating world of childhood memories in the exhibition The Secrets of Toys in the Castle. Inese Bulle, specialist at the museum’s history department, decided to make this exhibition about an indivisible part of children’s lives – toys – as the first part of a project dedicated to the history of Latvia’s schools and education. The exhibition has been created with the financial assistance of David C.Y. Wang, the director of the Taipei Mission in Latvia.
The exhibition gives the opportunity to behold the diversity of toys, but most importantly, it is a reminder of the educational nature of objects that are devoted to play. The main hero of the exhibition is the doll: made of paper, with a porcelain head and fabric body, carved from wood, made of papier mache, a baby doll and a teenage princess, a young woman or a stylish Barbie – all of these have helped children from different generations to learn about the relationships between people.
Dolls can be considered as a broad form of communication – a sign with which one generation hands important information down to the next generation. For example, a child, looking after her cherished toy, gets used to the role of being a mother and in this way learns how to care for another person, practises being responsible for it. A doll is not just an element of play, with which a child associates the exploration of their inner world, but it also provides a perspective on the social role of a person and their place in the system of social values. Just as significant are dolls as carriers of the ethical and aesthetic values of a culture. A doll also reflects the level of manufacturing and technological achievements of a particular era. From a wider perspective – playing with any toy is the only way known in which people symbolically explore the broad gamut of reality surrounding them.
Photo: Valters Lācis
What kind of informative functions does the exhibition offer? Firstly we have the ability to find out about the development of toys from a historical perspective, beginning from things found in archaeological digs: pipes, dice, whistles and drones. The exhibition mainly centres on toys manufactured in the late 19th century and 20th centuries. Each of these – dolls, bears, board games, tin soldiers, paper dolls and doll houses – have their own intriguing history. The first doll houses were made in Holland in the early 18th century. In the exhibition, admittedly, there are no ancient examples; however, there is a wonderful display case with doll houses made in the second half of the 20th century.
Another component of the exhibition – mechanical toys, which are said to have originated in France, created in the mid-18th century for the pleasure of the king’s court. France was also famous throughout Europe for its dolls, which were made using a special technology. Nonetheless, German precision was that which helped to make the manufacture of not only dolls but also other toys into a successful industry in the mid-19th century. As in many cases these start-up businesses were one-man or family businesses. The exhibition displays antique German mechanical and plush toys and dolls – made by what were initially small family businesses.
One of the most notable objects in the exhibition is a skier, which was manufactured in the 1930s by the Lehmann Company. The founder of the company, Ernst Paul Lehmann (1856–1934) began the industrial manufacturing of mechanical toys in Brandenburg in 1881. His most popular creations – a clown banging a drum, a long-distance skier, a monkey climbing a mountain, a running zebra, a father scolding a naughty son, later also precise scale models of toy wagons and trains – conquered the attention of a wide circle of buyers due to their excellent design. In place of steel, durable and light tin was used, which allowed for it to be painted with bright colours using chromolithography. After the Second World War the Soviet Union took over the company’s toy-making secrets, although the toy quality was much lower. 
The Skier. Photo: Valters Lācis
A second, just as well-known German company, whose products are represented in the exhibition, is Margarete Steiff GmbH soft toys. Margarete Steiff (1847-1909) was born in a small town in Giengen, where she also spent most of her life, because she was confined to a wheelchair due to illness. She trained as a seamstress regardless, so she could be useful to herself and to others. Soft toys made according to her designs – an elephant, dog, cat and pig, made from mohair, plush, angora, wool and felt fabrics were initially made for the enjoyment of her family and closest friends, but soon they also won the attention of others. Therefore in 1881 Margarete Steiff established a small production unit, which manufactured an absolute novelty – soft toys. In 1902 Steiff sewed her first bear, which gained incredible popularity in the USA and was later named the Teddy Bear in honour of President Theodore Roosevelt. The bear was in such demand that other companies began to manufacture similar bears. This meant that the Margarete Steiff company had to defend its rights to this creation, and since 1904 until today – the company successfully continues operations in the 21st century! – the toys made by Steiff have a special tag of ownership – a button in the ear of the soft toy, certifying its authenticity and excellent quality. To be frank, this quality is to a large degree guaranteed by hand crafting, and therefore Steiff soft toys are very expensive. However, for many parents that is not an obstacle to make their children happy.
Character dolls made by the German company Kammer and Reinhardt should also be mentioned – this company was the first to manufacture a smiling baby doll, in 1908. In 1911 the next series of broadly smiling dolls was released with a similarly attractive title – Mein Liebling (My darling). Each item in the exhibition could be supplemented with this type of intriguing story, particularly in the section which contains the older toys. Of course, they were rare enough in Riga houses not only in the early 20th century but also during the time of independent Latvia due to a reason already mentioned above – toys imported from Germany and France were expensive, and could only be bought by wealthy people.
Margarete Steiff GmbH. Photo: Jānis Nīgals
What kinds of toys were made here in Latvia?
In this sense the exhibition is surprising, because – as we learn from the text label – only 17 small craftsmen’s workshops operated in Latvia in 1938, which generally created toys from fabric and wood. Much more immediacy and sincerity are engendered by toys which are made by craftsmen or individuals – mostly horses, dogs, cats and ducks. To a large degree these objects reflect the feeling of a private house or homestead, so characteristic of Latvian mentality. The farm set, made by Aleksandrs Līcītis, can be considered to be a model of typical Latvian life: a house, fence, trees, animals and a girl looking after the animals – an integral part of every farm. Aleksandrs Līcītis worked in the Ministry of Agriculture, and lost his job in the Second World War. In order to secure his family a living, he made wooden toys which he sold in his family’s shop, run by his wife Emīlija Līcīte. In the small shop in 55Lielā Nometņu Street in Pārdaugava, one could buy not only these wooden toys, but also expensive imported German and French dolls. Handicrafts were also on offer – sewn and crocheted blankets and table cloths, as well as handicraft supplies, and at Christmas you could buy Christmas cards. From a contemporary perspective, Emīlija Līcīte’s shop could be called a design salon, because the objects created by the owners themselves still today demonstrate a feel for the form and style of the time, possess an artistic quality, and symbolically demonstrate the model of human life and relationships that was typical in Latvia in the 1930s and 40s. 
Photo: Jānis Nīgals
A Soviet Era Story
During the years of Soviet rule the creation of children’s toys was subjected to strict governmental controls. For example, the tin soldiers in the exhibition – Russian and German soldiers, and a group of red pioneers – clearly demonstrate the new tasks that were assigned to children’s games: a child was raised not as an individual, but as a member of a collective group, who, through games had to learn the main socialist principles of work and life prevalent in Soviet society, as well as stereotypes of values and behaviour. Dolls were manufactured that reflected the various professions of Soviet citizens, especially in the late 1940s and 50s. In the exhibition one can see agricultural machinery with a female sower, a tractor driver with a plough, a crane and an excavator. These toys reflect the professional hierarchy promoted in Soviet society, in the form of play – workers and collective farm workers were identified as the main basis for the Soviet system and to a certain degree were valued more highly than other professions. In the 1950s children’s toys were grouped by themes: 1) dolls for role play; 2) activity toys (board games, construction games, building toys – blocks, specially made miniature tools); 3) technical toys (cars, tractors, trains); 4) games for sports and active movement; 5) decorative carnival and party games. Each of these toy categories is represented in the exhibition, simultaneously presenting information about Soviet manufacturing and the level of technological achievement.
For many years – right up until the mid-1960s – dolls in the USSR were manufactured in the following way: the body was sewn of fabric with a cotton wool stuffing, while the head, arms and legs were made of coloured pressed sawdust mass. Later these parts began to be manufactured also of plastic and if necessary the head could be adapted for another type of fabric body – an example of one of these "renewed" dolls can be seen in the exhibition. A majority of the toys came to Latvia from other Soviet republics. Therefore it is a shame that, working on this significant project, the creators of the exhibition have not been able to more fully display the history of dolls manufactured in Latvia. For example, we do not read any information in the exhibition about the manufacturing that occurred between 1959 and 1965 in the Riga Doll Factory, which existed under the jurisdiction of the Authority of Machine and Metalwork Manufacture of the Latvian SSR National Economy Board. The doll factory was established by combining a number of small workshops that existed under the wing of the Theatre Association.
Photo: Valters Lācis
The cook, the doctor and the new mother from the Straume factory
Our community still holds memories about the goods manufactured in the Straume factory (full title – The Riga Factory for Electric and Mechanic Domestic Appliances, Metal Articles and Toys). This factory was established in 1965, by merging the metalwork factory Kvēle, small co-operative associations and a toy factory. In 1986 this became the Latvian Manufacturing Union Straume, which existed until 2000, when it was closed down. Coffee grinders and electronic toys made in Riga have now become recent history, which needs to be studied further, because of the over 70 household objects and toys designed and produced by the Straume experimental department, only a few are known and exist in the collection of the National History Museum of Latvia: a cook, a doctor, the Latvian dolls Baiba and Mārīte, and a mechanical doll with a pram. These mechanical toys were quite expensive, and not every family could afford them. However, they were popular abroad – dolls by Straume were exported to a number of countries in the 1970s. In the future Straume was preparing to conquer the market with their electrical toy 'Dolphin' and the construction game '21st century robot', but the liquidation of the Union ruined many plans. In any case Straume toys are a significant part of our design history, which give evidence to our ability to produce high quality and competitive items, which were singled out amongst other USSR industrial products not only because of their style and quality, but also because they had entered the foreign market. 
Photo: Valters Lācis
Rubber Animal Zoo
A similar legendary page in the history of Latvian design are the rubber toys made in Dobele, which were one of the sub-branches of the rubber domestic product factory Dobele. The factory was established in 1966 and existed until 1992. The company was the only one in Latvia that in its time produced dipped rubber products, for example, rubber gloves, while it became popular in Latvia and in other Soviet republics with its "perfumed" toys – mainly animals, which were made of pliable plastisol and latex. The use of these materials not only ensured the quality of these rubber animals, but also the opportunity to give the products an attractive visual appearance, in this way reviving the trust of customers when buying rubber products.
The exhibition in the National History Museum of Latvia again confirms that the history of toy making in Latvia is a fascinating field in which scholars still have much research in order to reduce the amount of unknown facts or "secrets in the castle".
Photo: Jānis Nīgals
Photo: Jānis Nīgals
Article has been written in collaboration with the National History Museum of Latvia.