On Saturday I visited a gentleman holds a collection of [largely] pre-WWI items belonging to Grecon creator Grete Cohn.
I had never seen a photograph of Miss Cohn before this gentleman contacted me through my Grecondale blog site but here she is in the late 1930s!
Photo © Zoe Handy
I love the slightly mischievous look in her eyes - just what you would expect from the creator of our eccentric little Grecon people!
Before my visit I had been pre-warned to expect the unexpected and boy was that right!
In the entire collection, which is extensive, there were only two of the Grecon dolls of the type that we know and love as Grecon dolls today. Almost everything else in the archive relates to Miss Cohn's life and business prior to her settling in England in 1936.
I discovered that in about 1919 she actually had a little toy shop in Berlin where she sold all manner of her ‘artistic’ toys with only the tiniest hints here and there of the miniature dolls she would become known for once she settled in England.
It was interesting to note too that, in addition to other European countries, her toys were being exported even then to the UK and to the US.
She regularly exhibited at the Leipzig toy fair and the collection included the wonderful exhibition pieces that she displayed on her stands there.
I use the word 'wonderful' advisedly. What imagination and skill!
The exhibits varied from large padded dolls with shaped faces and either painted or stitched features, to tiny wool and wire people, animals and tableaux. There were also novelties made from all sorts of oddments and even wooden toys. The subjects portrayed by the figures and tableaux are extremely varied and imaginative and Miss Cohn clearly enjoyed experimenting with different themes and materials but, as those of us familiar with her later work would expect, all of her creations captured life and motion brilliantly.
Miss Cohn appears to have kept every scrap of documentation from the day she started her business until she left Germany, including correspondence and orders from toy companies. Rather unhelpfully for me, it is all in German of course! I have been attending German language classes once a week at night school for the last two years and that proved to be useful, but my knowledge of the language was still woefully inadequate!
As well as all the business documentation, the collection contained Miss Cohn's personal documents, her photo albums, including old family photos of her parents. She even kept her artwork from her time at college in Berlin, her exercise books from school and her letters to her family and friends.
Rather puzzlingly, there are comparatively few documents and no exhibits relating to her many years of running the Grecon business in England.
That said, there were a number of newspaper articles, a handful of design registrations and various catalogues containing Grecon products, which were wonderful to see and very useful for confirming some of the deductions I have made on my 'About Grecon Dolls' web page, but I do wonder where everything else went and if it will ever turn up!
Anyway, I had a fabulously interesting and enlightening day and I am enormously grateful to the holder of the collection for allowing me to view it.
Until next time,
Zoe
Before my visit I had been pre-warned to expect the unexpected and boy was that right!
In the entire collection, which is extensive, there were only two of the Grecon dolls of the type that we know and love as Grecon dolls today. Almost everything else in the archive relates to Miss Cohn's life and business prior to her settling in England in 1936.
I discovered that in about 1919 she actually had a little toy shop in Berlin where she sold all manner of her ‘artistic’ toys with only the tiniest hints here and there of the miniature dolls she would become known for once she settled in England.
It was interesting to note too that, in addition to other European countries, her toys were being exported even then to the UK and to the US.
She regularly exhibited at the Leipzig toy fair and the collection included the wonderful exhibition pieces that she displayed on her stands there.
I use the word 'wonderful' advisedly. What imagination and skill!
The exhibits varied from large padded dolls with shaped faces and either painted or stitched features, to tiny wool and wire people, animals and tableaux. There were also novelties made from all sorts of oddments and even wooden toys. The subjects portrayed by the figures and tableaux are extremely varied and imaginative and Miss Cohn clearly enjoyed experimenting with different themes and materials but, as those of us familiar with her later work would expect, all of her creations captured life and motion brilliantly.
Miss Cohn appears to have kept every scrap of documentation from the day she started her business until she left Germany, including correspondence and orders from toy companies. Rather unhelpfully for me, it is all in German of course! I have been attending German language classes once a week at night school for the last two years and that proved to be useful, but my knowledge of the language was still woefully inadequate!
As well as all the business documentation, the collection contained Miss Cohn's personal documents, her photo albums, including old family photos of her parents. She even kept her artwork from her time at college in Berlin, her exercise books from school and her letters to her family and friends.
Rather puzzlingly, there are comparatively few documents and no exhibits relating to her many years of running the Grecon business in England.
That said, there were a number of newspaper articles, a handful of design registrations and various catalogues containing Grecon products, which were wonderful to see and very useful for confirming some of the deductions I have made on my 'About Grecon Dolls' web page, but I do wonder where everything else went and if it will ever turn up!
Anyway, I had a fabulously interesting and enlightening day and I am enormously grateful to the holder of the collection for allowing me to view it.
Until next time,
Zoe
How wonderful to see an actual photo of Miss Cohn, she does looks mischievous doesn't she? and kindly too. What a terrific working life she had. I am so glad you have managed to see these treasures.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jenny. Yes, she was in business for over 70 years, that's quite an accomplishment in itself! A very good business woman but also, I hadn't appreciated quite how artistic she was too.
DeleteWhat an absolutely wonderful experience Zoe! (I'm more than slightly green with envy...) And doesn't Grete Cohn look like a person you'd enjoy meeting?
ReplyDeleteWere you able to photograph any of the dolls or catalogues? If the written material was digitized I could translate it (never mind that I only barely keep up with all the "real" stuff I'm supposed to be doing, but the idea of all that material is sooo tantalising).
Fascinating!
ReplyDeleteIt was!
DeleteSuperb, and thanks so much for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Do. You are welcome!
Delete