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Trains, tea sets, treasured dolls tell a tale of Victorian toys
Evansville Courier & Press (subscription), IN -

For kids, Christmas Eve is a restless night filled with anticipation of new toys under the tree the next morning. It was no different during the Victorian era when the Reitz children were growing up on Southeast First Street in one of Evansville's most magnificent houses. Kids are still the same, but the toys have changed.
The Reitz Home Museum's 28th annual Christmas tour, 'Christmas Through the Eyes of Children,' will feature several collections of antique toys from 1850-1920 in one of the most extensive antique toy exhibits ever displayed in Evansville.
For the first time, the Holiday World Toy Museum, the Evansville Museum and several private collectors from around the Tri-State have brought highlights from their collections together under one roof. China head dolls, delicate tea sets, German-made mechanical toys, and trains with intricate moving parts are just a few of the rare toys that will be on display at the Reitz Home from Friday through Jan. 6.
Uniting the toy collections at the Reitz Home for the Christmas season is the brainchild of Jim Sanders, a local antiques appraiser and toy collector. He and collector Pam Guthrie have helped to contact other collectors and organize the event.
The idea struck Sanders when Charles and the late Erma Hirsch donated French and German-made antique dolls and other toys to the Reitz Home. Sanders realized there was no better place to exhibit Victorian-era toys than in a Victorian-era house, and he wondered if others would be interested in loaning their collections for the Christmas tour. He was amazed by the response, and soon the Reitz Home's carriage house was stacked with boxes of toys from collectors eager to share their treasures.
Sanders says he thinks visitors will find the Hirsch collection as amazing as he does.
'The Hirsches started collecting these toys years ago when they were more easily available, but now they are rare,' Sanders says. 'It's mind-boggling that there's a complete collection like this in the area. It's such a rare and outstanding collection for the Reitz Home to own.'
Several items from Sanders' private collection will be on display, including metal banks shaped like various buildings and animals and a Noah's Ark, circa 1900.
'Christmas Through the Eyes of Children' gives visitors a rare opportunity to view toys that inhabited the make-believe worlds of generations of children. Sanders says he expects the theme to have wide appeal.
'The Hirsches started collecting these toys years ago when they were more easily available, but now they are rare,' Sanders says. 'It's mind-boggling that there's a complete collection like this in the area. It's such a rare and outstanding collection for the Reitz Home to own.'
Several items from Sanders' private collection will be on display, including metal banks shaped like various buildings and animals and a Noah's Ark, circa 1900.
'Christmas Through the Eyes of Children' gives visitors a rare opportunity to view toys that inhabited the make-believe worlds of generations of children. Sanders says he expects the theme to have wide appeal.