Description
Bauhaus - Clauss, Erich. The big and the little Klaus. Picture construction set. With numerous colored felt pieces, 1 template booklet, 1 picture frame with a scale, 1 set-up device and 3 sheets with pencil sketches. In the original color-printed box. Georgenthal, Schmidt & Co, around 1930. 6 sheets (template booklet). Box: 28.5 x 21.5 x 5 cm (2 folds torn, box dusty, browned and stained, somewhat rubbed and bumped). Very rare laying game, influenced by Constructivism and Bauhaus. With the pieces of felt punched out in various geometric shapes and metal tweezers (in red, green, brown and white), colored ornaments and pictures such as Little Red Riding Hood, Big and Little Claus, Ball-Playing Clown, Children's Playroom and others could be laid. The building instructions were printed on the inside of the lid. The designer Clauss, about whose life nothing else is known, created another very original game, the "Room Mill" (see our auction 10). Clauss can still be traced as a book illustrator in the first years after the Second World War, but his name is not mentioned in the list of Bauhaus students or in that of Burg Giebichenstein, nor is he listed as a commercial artist in the relevant literature (e.g. Wienkötter). The archive of the Schmidt company (today: Steiner Spielwarenfabrik) burned down in 1955, so that no old documents are left. The company was actually best known for its dolls, and the two games mentioned were among the only verifiable toys produced by the company outside of doll production. - With the template booklet I, which names Clauss as the designer and on the back of which further expansion sets were mentioned as being in preparation. However, these extensions were probably not published. With a set-up device consisting of four cardboard punched parts that can be plugged together. The 3 sheets with pencil sketches, including Stuttgart Central Station. - Felt pieces not checked for completeness, the white felt pieces mostly somewhat browned, but otherwise the felt fresh, inner cover somewhat brownstained. VAT: #
934
Bauhaus - Clauss, Erich. The big and the little Klaus. Picture construction set. With numerous colored felt pieces, 1 template booklet, 1 picture frame with a scale, 1 set-up device and 3 sheets with pencil sketches. In the original color-printed box. Georgenthal, Schmidt & Co, around 1930. 6 sheets (template booklet). Box: 28.5 x 21.5 x 5 cm (2 folds torn, box dusty, browned and stained, somewhat rubbed and bumped). Very rare laying game, influenced by Constructivism and Bauhaus. With the pieces of felt punched out in various geometric shapes and metal tweezers (in red, green, brown and white), colored ornaments and pictures such as Little Red Riding Hood, Big and Little Claus, Ball-Playing Clown, Children's Playroom and others could be laid. The building instructions were printed on the inside of the lid. The designer Clauss, about whose life nothing else is known, created another very original game, the "Room Mill" (see our auction 10). Clauss can still be traced as a book illustrator in the first years after the Second World War, but his name is not mentioned in the list of Bauhaus students or in that of Burg Giebichenstein, nor is he listed as a commercial artist in the relevant literature (e.g. Wienkötter). The archive of the Schmidt company (today: Steiner Spielwarenfabrik) burned down in 1955, so that no old documents are left. The company was actually best known for its dolls, and the two games mentioned were among the only verifiable toys produced by the company outside of doll production. - With the template booklet I, which names Clauss as the designer and on the back of which further expansion sets were mentioned as being in preparation. However, these extensions were probably not published. With a set-up device consisting of four cardboard punched parts that can be plugged together. The 3 sheets with pencil sketches, including Stuttgart Central Station. - Felt pieces not checked for completeness, the white felt pieces mostly somewhat browned, but otherwise the felt fresh, inner cover somewhat brownstained. VAT: #
