Small fry
Austrian Travel sets from the 20th C
Quite some time ago, the Museum managed to acquire a travel set with plastic pieces in a sort of Austrian style, which looked interesting. Over time, several such sets have landed in the Museum, and maybe it is time to draw a short resume on these sets . They are not exactly common, but do appear sometimes in online auctions, or more likely in bric-a-brac and antique shops in good old Europe - and elsewhere.
Pocket Games
Possibly the most representative of these Galalith Austrians in the Museum is the one shown above - which is actually a traveling pocket compendium of games! We have poker dice - with symbols, not numbers! - 28 tiny domino stones - and chess men in plastic and a very small (8 x 8 cms) folding chess board. The board is basically made of two thin plywood squares, with an inlaid and smartly holed intarsia chess board glued to the top, the whole thing held together by a cloth bottom which also servers as hinge! Quite ingenious - but the pieces take the crown: they are not injected - injection technology is a late introduction , at least in Europe of postwar years - but milled or turned from little solid blocks of a plastic that looks like Galalith.
Why Galalith (= translates as milk-stone)? This early plastic , made on a casein base, in its day was the cheapest material around for this kind of thing, far cheaper than Bakelite or Catalin - but in contrast to these substances it cannot be molded! Therefore, all pieces are turned or milled, and the knights in this set are cut from square blocks in rectangular cuts - turnings cuts where the tool has slipped are visible on several pieces!
This little marvel most certainly was sold in games parlours and " gentlemen's shops" - decidedly masculine emporiums with a panoplia of tobacco goods, cigars and cigar cutters, pipes, walking sticks, possibly hats and even male dress, leather objects, hunting gear etc. - little tricks and foibles that would entrance gentlemen coming in for their tobacco. Judging by the contoured leather cover, it should date from the 20ies to 40ies - in any case Galalith only existed in a marketable form after 1910.
Apart from the pieces form - plus the fact that the compendium was acquired in Austria - there is another slight indication to its Austrian origin: The Museum owns a tiny box with another toy domino set, similar to the ones in the compendium, and this box bears the inscription "August Sirk, Kärntnerstrasse 56". August Sirk ran a highly exclusive leather goods store at the corner of the central Kärntner Strasse and the Ring between 1880 and 1914 ( 2) - he even had an official permit to call his corner the "Sirk-corner". This where every afternoon the rich and beautiful, , officers in all their finery, finance magnates, artists and writers, bourgeois families with children and daughters, would pass by on their promenades - the "Corso", the standard chic stroll extended from the Sirk corner along the "Kärntner Ring" down to the Schwarzenberg square. The Sirk corner even made it into literature - an important scene of Karl Kraus' play "The last days of humanity" is set at the Sirk corner! Most certainly this little domino box was one of the thousands of little presents and bric-a-brac sold in August Sirk's fashionable shop. Even today - almost a hundred years after the end of August Sirk's business - this corner is known as Sirk corner, and the Hotel Bristol occupying the block has capitalized on past glory by opening an exclusive Café-Restaurant in this spot!
Possibly the most representative of these Galalith Austrians in the Museum is the one shown above - which is actually a traveling pocket compendium of games! We have poker dice - with symbols, not numbers! - 28 tiny domino stones - and chess men in plastic and a very small (8 x 8 cms) folding chess board. The board is basically made of two thin plywood squares, with an inlaid and smartly holed intarsia chess board glued to the top, the whole thing held together by a cloth bottom which also servers as hinge! Quite ingenious - but the pieces take the crown: they are not injected - injection technology is a late introduction , at least in Europe of postwar years - but milled or turned from little solid blocks of a plastic that looks like Galalith.
Why Galalith (= translates as milk-stone)? This early plastic , made on a casein base, in its day was the cheapest material around for this kind of thing, far cheaper than Bakelite or Catalin - but in contrast to these substances it cannot be molded! Therefore, all pieces are turned or milled, and the knights in this set are cut from square blocks in rectangular cuts - turnings cuts where the tool has slipped are visible on several pieces!
This little marvel most certainly was sold in games parlours and " gentlemen's shops" - decidedly masculine emporiums with a panoplia of tobacco goods, cigars and cigar cutters, pipes, walking sticks, possibly hats and even male dress, leather objects, hunting gear etc. - little tricks and foibles that would entrance gentlemen coming in for their tobacco. Judging by the contoured leather cover, it should date from the 20ies to 40ies - in any case Galalith only existed in a marketable form after 1910.
Apart from the pieces form - plus the fact that the compendium was acquired in Austria - there is another slight indication to its Austrian origin: The Museum owns a tiny box with another toy domino set, similar to the ones in the compendium, and this box bears the inscription "August Sirk, Kärntnerstrasse 56". August Sirk ran a highly exclusive leather goods store at the corner of the central Kärntner Strasse and the Ring between 1880 and 1914 ( 2) - he even had an official permit to call his corner the "Sirk-corner". This where every afternoon the rich and beautiful, , officers in all their finery, finance magnates, artists and writers, bourgeois families with children and daughters, would pass by on their promenades - the "Corso", the standard chic stroll extended from the Sirk corner along the "Kärntner Ring" down to the Schwarzenberg square. The Sirk corner even made it into literature - an important scene of Karl Kraus' play "The last days of humanity" is set at the Sirk corner! Most certainly this little domino box was one of the thousands of little presents and bric-a-brac sold in August Sirk's fashionable shop. Even today - almost a hundred years after the end of August Sirk's business - this corner is known as Sirk corner, and the Hotel Bristol occupying the block has capitalized on past glory by opening an exclusive Café-Restaurant in this spot!
Older antecedents
The reason for the adoption of Galalith for pocket sets war most certainly the almost negligible price of the raw material - older travel sets in the same vein where turned from bone, and this material cost quite a lot more in the raw - bone must be dried and cleaned, after extracting from animal carcasses, it breaks easily and not all parts of for example a cow skeleton are well adapted for turning. also, serial production of the same parts does pose some problems...
1. A typical older travel set in the Biedermeier style - as shown in the photos below - would require a lot more time and crafting steps to finish - and in the end, probably provide a much smaller return for the maker/craftman as well as the trader. This set is turned in cattle bone, conforms to the Biedermeier style and probably was made in the second half of the 19th century - the shop mentioned in the inside sticker belonged to somebody else from 1900 till ca. 1920! (3)
2. From approximately the same period compare a little Geislingen pocket set, in a cute veneered mini box with a photo of the German Imperial Family of Wilhelm II. . on the cover - probably a typical souvenir or trinket in shops of those days in Germany. the pieces are tiny , no board is included, and the bishops are not the same on both sides!
The reason for the adoption of Galalith for pocket sets war most certainly the almost negligible price of the raw material - older travel sets in the same vein where turned from bone, and this material cost quite a lot more in the raw - bone must be dried and cleaned, after extracting from animal carcasses, it breaks easily and not all parts of for example a cow skeleton are well adapted for turning. also, serial production of the same parts does pose some problems...
1. A typical older travel set in the Biedermeier style - as shown in the photos below - would require a lot more time and crafting steps to finish - and in the end, probably provide a much smaller return for the maker/craftman as well as the trader. This set is turned in cattle bone, conforms to the Biedermeier style and probably was made in the second half of the 19th century - the shop mentioned in the inside sticker belonged to somebody else from 1900 till ca. 1920! (3)
2. From approximately the same period compare a little Geislingen pocket set, in a cute veneered mini box with a photo of the German Imperial Family of Wilhelm II. . on the cover - probably a typical souvenir or trinket in shops of those days in Germany. the pieces are tiny , no board is included, and the bishops are not the same on both sides!
Glasstop games
Also from the end of the 19th century are two little glass topped boxes containing bone sets and very light folding boards, with the squares papered over and a pieces of cloth glued to the bottom serving as hinges. Such boxes must have been standard presents or little "love purchases" in shops like Sirk's - the glass case providing visibility,, although the set with the non-secured pieces will have been just barely playable. Small compartments are set out for chessmen and the board, the whole affair is very well made. Set one sports chess men that vaguely remind one of "Geislingen" toy sets, while set two ressembles Regency sets. But - somebody has tried to colour and set apart the bishop finials - a central feature of the "Austrian" Style.
Also from the end of the 19th century are two little glass topped boxes containing bone sets and very light folding boards, with the squares papered over and a pieces of cloth glued to the bottom serving as hinges. Such boxes must have been standard presents or little "love purchases" in shops like Sirk's - the glass case providing visibility,, although the set with the non-secured pieces will have been just barely playable. Small compartments are set out for chessmen and the board, the whole affair is very well made. Set one sports chess men that vaguely remind one of "Geislingen" toy sets, while set two ressembles Regency sets. But - somebody has tried to colour and set apart the bishop finials - a central feature of the "Austrian" Style.
Galalith appears
Bone sets or ivory sets in those final days of the 19th century probably were not quite the thing any more - times were changing, these trinkets cost too much, and new and exciting materials were being generated, namely plastics. The Museum is blessed with another game in the form of a mini-compendium, that must have been made in Austria around the turn of the century. This massive little box with bone decorations contains chessmen in distinctly Austrian style - mark the colourful bishop finials! And it is turned in a plastic I would think to be Galalith, because the surface appears a bit dingy. Galalith is based on Casein (=cheese!), and is susceptible to liquids, for example slightly wet hands, which would account for the "patina" on the pieces.
The domino pieces are still made in the then standard form - bone glued onto wood parts. The chess board is made in deep intarsia, quite a marvel, and will fold out flat. This set would already be well suited for using for example on a train journey, thanks to the pegged pieces that fit well into the holes on the board.
Bone sets or ivory sets in those final days of the 19th century probably were not quite the thing any more - times were changing, these trinkets cost too much, and new and exciting materials were being generated, namely plastics. The Museum is blessed with another game in the form of a mini-compendium, that must have been made in Austria around the turn of the century. This massive little box with bone decorations contains chessmen in distinctly Austrian style - mark the colourful bishop finials! And it is turned in a plastic I would think to be Galalith, because the surface appears a bit dingy. Galalith is based on Casein (=cheese!), and is susceptible to liquids, for example slightly wet hands, which would account for the "patina" on the pieces.
The domino pieces are still made in the then standard form - bone glued onto wood parts. The chess board is made in deep intarsia, quite a marvel, and will fold out flat. This set would already be well suited for using for example on a train journey, thanks to the pegged pieces that fit well into the holes on the board.
Variations
A slightly different version of the set shown above sold recently on ebay for the rich sum of gbp 135.- who would have thought these trinkets were worth a multiple of the original sales price? The set is probably from the start of the 20th century, certainly from Vienna, the wooden box is smartly decorated with embossed patterns. The pieces, though, show the same opaque dinginess visible on the early Galalith set presented above, although the style is a bit cruder - all pieces are turned, and the knights are cut from blocks - another forerunner of the later sets!
A slightly different version of the set shown above sold recently on ebay for the rich sum of gbp 135.- who would have thought these trinkets were worth a multiple of the original sales price? The set is probably from the start of the 20th century, certainly from Vienna, the wooden box is smartly decorated with embossed patterns. The pieces, though, show the same opaque dinginess visible on the early Galalith set presented above, although the style is a bit cruder - all pieces are turned, and the knights are cut from blocks - another forerunner of the later sets!
Handy design
These plastic pieces we are focussing on seem to have appeared in the first quarter of the 20th century in Vienna - whoever set out to make them was a company already established in toy and chess articles, with an existing structure of distribution, and the idea must have been to produce smart little presents at a modest cost in quantity. One might suspect an established games giant like the playing card company Piatnik, but no hard evidence exists to support this guess. The set show below already sports the chess pieces mentioned, but in an "oldfashioned" massive wooden box, suitable to slip into a shirt or coat pocket. It's a chess set meant for travel, for analysis, for playing in trains.
These plastic pieces we are focussing on seem to have appeared in the first quarter of the 20th century in Vienna - whoever set out to make them was a company already established in toy and chess articles, with an existing structure of distribution, and the idea must have been to produce smart little presents at a modest cost in quantity. One might suspect an established games giant like the playing card company Piatnik, but no hard evidence exists to support this guess. The set show below already sports the chess pieces mentioned, but in an "oldfashioned" massive wooden box, suitable to slip into a shirt or coat pocket. It's a chess set meant for travel, for analysis, for playing in trains.
A later version is produced, possibly after WW 2 , in a cheaper cardboard folding box. covered with imitation leather - the board now measures 12 x 12 cm, the pieces are much taller and, pronouncedly Austrian, with the bishop finials in opposing colour. Also , a set of draught pieces allows another game to be played! The whole affair is definitely easier to make, handier to stow, and probably more profitable in terms of sales margin!
Red and Black
The viability of the new material permitted the makers to come up with - at least - two size variations - and at least two colour variation - red/white and black/white. The red versions are all of later make - mass-made instead of handmade boxes etc. - so I would surmise the black version to have come first. The material looks clean and without blemishes - early Galalith looks like dirty wax, later Galalith has become hardened through the addition of Formaldehyde.
The viability of the new material permitted the makers to come up with - at least - two size variations - and at least two colour variation - red/white and black/white. The red versions are all of later make - mass-made instead of handmade boxes etc. - so I would surmise the black version to have come first. The material looks clean and without blemishes - early Galalith looks like dirty wax, later Galalith has become hardened through the addition of Formaldehyde.
Tentative resumé
These Galalith travel sets came about in Austria - possibly in Vienna as capital city of chess - in the first quarter of the 20th century . They must have been produced until the 60ies - see the folding board in larger size show above in three photos. The Museum once owned the same kind of board with a sticker inside of the "Tiroler Heimatwerk" - a crafts organisation plus shop founded in 1934.
The Heimatwerk was established as cooperative by craftsmen, mainly to sell and produce traditional Tyrolian dress which was being swept away by industrial attire, and other crafts like carving, candles, embroidery, pottery, straw hats, traditional furniture and other alpine homemade goods. The organisation has changed, but is still around in central Innsbruck, and today concentrates on dresses and lavishly embroidered leather trousers. For a considerable time, it also sold handcarved chess sets - and this little foible seems to have been sold in the shop as well.
For the Museum, it remains to find out the name of the company who produced these travels sets. In the meantime, we have once more the proof that yesterdays standard goods are the rarities of tomorrow - varying a saying by a lady on a shopping spree, who was being ribbed for buying gaudy stuff: "I do not care if it is kitsch, as long as it is good kitsch!"
(c) Nicholas Lanier 2017
These Galalith travel sets came about in Austria - possibly in Vienna as capital city of chess - in the first quarter of the 20th century . They must have been produced until the 60ies - see the folding board in larger size show above in three photos. The Museum once owned the same kind of board with a sticker inside of the "Tiroler Heimatwerk" - a crafts organisation plus shop founded in 1934.
The Heimatwerk was established as cooperative by craftsmen, mainly to sell and produce traditional Tyrolian dress which was being swept away by industrial attire, and other crafts like carving, candles, embroidery, pottery, straw hats, traditional furniture and other alpine homemade goods. The organisation has changed, but is still around in central Innsbruck, and today concentrates on dresses and lavishly embroidered leather trousers. For a considerable time, it also sold handcarved chess sets - and this little foible seems to have been sold in the shop as well.
For the Museum, it remains to find out the name of the company who produced these travels sets. In the meantime, we have once more the proof that yesterdays standard goods are the rarities of tomorrow - varying a saying by a lady on a shopping spree, who was being ribbed for buying gaudy stuff: "I do not care if it is kitsch, as long as it is good kitsch!"
(c) Nicholas Lanier 2017
Notes
1) see for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galalith
and also
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galalith
2) see fe https://www.wien.gv.at/wiki/index.php/Sirkecke
3) see fe Arnold Schück, Ein Mosaiksteinchen des Hintergrundes - Lebenserinnerungen eines deutschen Prager Juden, Engelsdorfer Verlag, Leipzig 2015 (2.ed.), p.
4) for Tiroler Heimatwerk see http://www.tiroler.heimatwerk.at/index.php?id=6
1) see for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galalith
and also
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galalith
2) see fe https://www.wien.gv.at/wiki/index.php/Sirkecke
3) see fe Arnold Schück, Ein Mosaiksteinchen des Hintergrundes - Lebenserinnerungen eines deutschen Prager Juden, Engelsdorfer Verlag, Leipzig 2015 (2.ed.), p.
4) for Tiroler Heimatwerk see http://www.tiroler.heimatwerk.at/index.php?id=6