The Golden Age of Toys in Prague
The Toy Museum Prague offers a fascinating collection of toys spanning three centuries. The Golden Age of Toys was put together and is curated by Ivan Steiger, a prominent Czech filmmaker, illustrator and cartoonist, who has lived and worked in Germany since 1969.
Ivan Steiger studied at the Prague Film Faculty, where he trained under the well-known Czech writer Milan Kundera. He graduated as film and TV scriptwriter and director in 1967 and even as a student published cartoons in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, The Tribune and the Daily Mirror. Following a number of successful projects in Czechoslovakia, he started exhibiting abroad and emigrated in 1968, settling in Munich.
Alongside a hugely successful career as a cartoonist, painter and illustrator, Ivan Steiger devoted himself to one overwhelming passion – collecting children’s toys which he acquired from locations the world over. In 1983 he opened a toy museum in Munich and since 1994 his toy collection has been exhibited at the Toy Museum Prague.
The museum is the Burgrave's House at Prague Castle, in the vicinity of the Golden Lane, where it is housed in seven halls on two floors. It is said to be the second largest museum of its kind in the world.
There are collections of plush teddy bears, wooden and tin toys, model trains, airplanes and cars, porcelain dolls in exquisite hand-made dresses and a wide variety of Barbie dolls and doll’s houses -all reflecting the culture of the times. Among the rare exhibits are musical toys and music boxes from France, Germany and America. The exhibition leads up to the present day, showing countless robots and legendary figures from the Star Wars franchise.
