In the early 1880s, at a time ruled by cast iron, Ernst Paul Lehmann revolutionized the toy world in Brandenburg, Germany by producing wonderful and imaginative mechanical playthings out of tin, a material that hadn’t been used as extensively for toys until then. As the new century replaced the previous one, the company began to see great success and was recognized as innovators in the field. In fact, one of Lehmann’s advances was the patenting of the locking mechanism for clockwork motors, a component still used to this day. Using tin was an innovation for a number of reasons especially when compared to the somewhat cumbersome iron toys of most other makers. Besides being less expensive to produce, it meant a lighter and easier to handle item than their iron counterparts. It also allowed for detailed and brightly colored lithographing of the tin toys, which wasn’t possible with iron toys.

In their heyday between the 1880s and 1930s, they employed as many as 800 workers to keep up with the demand. During the 1920s the firm manufactured more than 100 different toy models, which were exported around the world. Each of their toys were given imaginative and individual names, which were often lithographed on the toy itself and emblazoned with Lehmann’s graphic and recognizable trademark monogram logo, making identification very simple, a feature that separates them from most other antiques and collectibles.

Because of their bright lithography, great mechanics, and often entertaining premises, their broad appeal went beyond that of cast iron toys, which were essentially marketed only to young boys. Lehmann made a concerted effort to make toys that girls would want too, and were extremely successful. Some of the fun features that appealed to yesterday’s children as much as today’s collectors include an amphibious car that would traverse both the bathtub and living room floor with ease, a driver on his tricycle pulling a nervous flailing bride on her way to the church, a very whimsical toy of a rabbit standing on an egg with backpack being pulled by a rooster, and a well-to-do couple walking their pug down a city street.

With the passing of Ernst Lehmann in 1934, the company continued to operate under Lehmann’s cousin Johannes Richter, even through the metal shortages of World War II. But sadly, it was the beginning of the end. After the war, with the split into West and East Germany, Brandenburg, being part of the latter, fell under control of the Soviet occupation, and the Lehmann company went with it. In 1948, Richter was denounced as a war criminal and was removed from the Lehmann roster. Shortly thereafter, Richter escaped to Nuremberg in West Germany and the family built a new factory under the Lehmann name in 1959 outside Nuremberg. They carried on for some time, but ultimately, the popularity of tin toys decreased, and the new company shifted its focus to plastic toys, although continuing some of their more popular tin lines into the 1970s. The company was eventually bought up by other firms, ultimately going bankrupt in the mid-2000s, leaving behind nostalgia and memory. Thankfully, the legacy lives on with today’s collectors who will often find quality Lehmann toys at auction in the low to mid-hundreds, with certain rarities reaching well into the thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars.