Doll pram
The doll's pram is a children's toy for transport as well as a sleeping and resting place for dolls . The idea was provided by the bassinet for babies , the conventional production of which soon followed the fashion and manufacture of the pram invented in Great Britain in 1880 . In the 1950s, Western Europe began to produce largely exact replicas of dolls' prams, while the bassinet continued to exist unchanged and was also preserved as a toy.
history
Children's toys
Since the production of children's toys for centuries by craftsmen in one-off or very small numbers, if not within the families themselves, it is difficult to prove since when certain toys, such as dolls and doll accessories - including the doll's pram - have been produced in larger numbers and professionally were manufactured. For a long time, puppet toys were exclusively objects made within the family. Most of these antique dolls and their accessories were made of easily perishable materials such as textiles, wool, straw or moss and did not survive thousands of years. Wooden dolls appear in the finds from the 14th century. Industrially manufactured wooden dolls with painted clothes are documented in the markets of the 15th century and the first industrially manufactured clothed dolls appeared in 1580.
Transportation of infants and young children
Dolls have been popular toys for children for thousands of years, but doll prams are a relatively young phenomenon, even if it is no longer possible to precisely date when the first doll pram was made. Since the history of the toy is also in the context of the respective social conditions and there were no means of transport specifically reserved for toddlers until the late Middle Ages , the doll's pram could only develop when babies and toddlers were no longer mainly carried or carried Bodies were wrapped. This is initially a western and urban phenomenon; in other cultures and in rural areas, means of transport for small children generally only became established much later.
Between 1170 and 1250, the wheelbarrow appeared in Europe and was soon also used for transporting children, although its use was relatively rare until the 15th century and was mainly restricted to England, France and the Netherlands.
Between 1600 and 1800 were in the aristocracy , mainly as a status symbol, companion to transport children carts , cars and carriages ( coach like sidecars ) in fashion, however, remained limited to social class. A 1733 in the estate of the third Duke of Devonshire found, richly decorated collar -Wägelchen was probably by English architect William Kent developed. At the beginning of the 19th century, the medieval carts developed into smaller pull carts, which were used to transport children and were similar to today's carts , so they were pulled and not pushed.
stroller
The first factory for prams was founded in England in 1840 and initially served mainly the aristocracy and the money nobility. The first models were very tall and had three wheels; they were designed so that the babies could only sit in them. These cars were therefore not suitable for the first few months of life. In 1855 an observer noted: "The streets of London are full of baby carriages that were previously unknown to me and in which babies are pushed instead of pulled by their nannies."
In 1880 the first models were designed in which the baby could lie. The attachment consisted of a wicker basket, the frame now had four wheels.
In the middle of the 19th century, the wheelwright Ernst Albert Naether founded a company for the production of prams in Zeitz , which was converted into the state-owned Zekiwa company during the GDR era .
Bassinet
Doll prams were originally a by-product of the pram industry. The doll's pram was not based on the pram, but on its forerunner, the bassinet , which also came from Great Britain and developed from the cradle in the early 19th century . The doll's pram is therefore much older than the pram, although in later times the doll's prams mostly followed the fashion of prams.
Doll pram
With the advent of these bassinets, at the latest, there should have been the first miniature bassinets that were intended for the doll of the daughter of the house and it can be assumed that children and adults with the advent of the pram and its predecessors soon came up with the idea, to make such wagons for dolls as well.
Development of the doll's pram
In the 1950s, pram factories began to manufacture precisely reproduced dolls' prams.
Zeitz in Saxony-Anhalt was the German center for the manufacture of prams and dolls , where the first pram factory was founded in 1846 and where there were already 13 pram factories in 1875, from which VEB ZEKIWA (ZE-itzer KI-nder WA-genindustrie) emerged in 1946 . In addition to the main production of prams, up to 150,000 doll prams were manufactured there annually. Today the company is privatized and most of the production has been relocated abroad. But it is still among the leaders in the manufacture of prams and dolls' prams. From August 1874, the Berlin children's toy factory Söhlke advertised in Kladderadatsch for “pushchairs to push ”.
Initially, however, the British "Prams" dominated the market. This English name for strollers is derived from "Perambulator", which Charles Burton used to describe his first stroller and in 1853 applied for a patent. Only shortly afterwards, Ernst Albert Naether began manufacturing the first towed drawbar wagons in Zeitz. The sliding variant was developed around 1870.
The baby carriage construction quickly developed into a branch of its own. Numerous stroller manufacturers were established in the Zeitz area, which established itself as the center of European stroller construction. All of Europe was supplied from here. The Naether catalog from 1896 already contained over 100 models. In the 1920s and 1930s, real mass production of prams at affordable prices developed. The high wheels shrank, low-lying wagons were made of basket, wood or sheet steel. Until the Second World War, the Zeitz area remained the center of the German stroller industry. After the war, the pram industry also formed in Upper Franconia. Companies that had supplied the Zeitz industry with baskets before the war began manufacturing their own prams. In the 20th century, the stroller industry was heavily influenced by the automotive industry . The prams of the 1950s, for example, often had decorative strips and curved fenders .
Manufacturers of dolls prams from this period are the Hecker and Knorr companies in Michelau in Upper Franconia . Nowadays there is still the Bayer Design company in Michelau that manufactures both doll prams and dolls. Michelau used to be the cradle of the German wicker industry, from this area many manufacturers in the furniture, pram and dolls' pram segment have emerged.
Models
Even today, doll prams and prams are often produced together in one company. Thus, the doll's prams are based on the current pram models and follow their respective fashion. There are all sorts of doll prams, whether nostalgic wooden doll prams, basket doll prams, buggies, modern joggers or convertible combi models. But some doll manufacturers also offer doll prams in their range of accessories that are suitable for their dolls.
Doll prams are available in small and large versions. There is a suitable doll's pram for every doll size. There are even doll prams for the doll children from a doll's house.
The doll's prams are often modeled on the prams down to the smallest detail and have a folding top, adjustable handles, shopping net , parasol, carrier bag, footmuff for summer or winter and are “of course” sprung.
literature
- Manfred Bachmann, Claus Hansmann: The great doll book . A cultural history of the play doll. 5th, modified edition, Orbis, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-572-06874-6 (license from Edition Leipzig)
- Antonia Fraser: Beautiful dolls. Mundus, Essen 1986, ISBN 3-88385-011-X .
- Béatrice Fontanel / Claire d'Harcourt: baby, infant, diaper. A cultural story . Gerstenberg 1998. ISBN 3-8067-2828-3 .
- Volker Kutschera: Toys, a reflection of cultural history. Residenz Verlag, 1975
- Rosemarie Pohl-Weber: Our parents' toys. Bremen no year
- Heinz Sturm-Godramstein: Strollers yesterday and today . BoD, 2001. ISBN 3-8311-2212-1
- Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann: Childhood. Clothing and living, work and play. A cultural story. Frankfurt a. M. 1979.
- Heinz Sturm-Godramstein: Strollers yesterday and today ( limited preview in Google book search)
- Friedrich von Zglinicki: The cradle. Pustet, 1979. ISBN 3-7917-0622-5
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marcus Frese: Garden culture in child's play. Toys and children's books as a gateway to the garden world. P. 27.
- ↑ The world art . Zeit-Kunstverlag. 61 (1991) p. 240. ISSN 0043-261X .
- ^ MJT Lewis: The Origins of the Wheelbarrow. In: Technology and Culture , Vol. 35, No. 3 (July 1994), pp. 453-475.
- ↑ Andrea L. Matthies: The Medieval Wheelbarrow. In: Technology and Culture , Vol. 32, No. 2, Part 1. (April 1991), pp. 356-364.
- ^ Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society. Gale 2003. ISBN 0-02-865714-4 .
- ^ Friedrich von Zglinicki: The cradle. P. 128.
- ^ Béatrice Fontanel, Claire d'Harcourt: Baby, Infant, Diaper. A cultural story . P. 184 ff.
- ^ German Pram Museum at Moritzburg Castle
- ^ A. Hofmann: Kladderadatsch. 1848 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Heinz Sturm-Godramstein: Strollers yesterday and today.