Refreshment Cart

Refreshment carts sold food and drink to passengers and were common fixtures of metropolitan train stations in Europe prior to World War I. Toy carts were produced by a number of firms, but all were deliberately over-scaled to enable small hands to manipulate and arrange the tiny plaster food and blown glass bottles and dishes. This example, possibly produced by Kibri, is the largest toy cart known to exist. It features a unique working faucet that enabled children to imitate the task of washing fruit before distributing it to imaginary customers.