Toys of Turkey
Istanbul Toy Museum is hosted by Nuremberg Toy Museum in Germany with an exhibition on the history of Turkish toys from April 28.04.2023 through 2024. Let's take a peek, shall we?
The Toy The Wanderer Notices
As his ship neared Istanbul, Hans Christian Andersen, the renowned Danish writer, spotted a little girl holding a jug-shaped whistle toy made of earth. This sight inspired him to consider telling a fairy tale using the toy, which produces a sound when fed water and blown.
Traditional Eyüp toy shopsIstanbul Toy Museum
Eyüp Toy Shops and Toys
Before the start of each school year, children of Istanbul would visit the then-called "Eyüp Village" just outside the city walls named after Eyüp Sultan — a historical figure who gave the district its name and was buried in the neighborhood mosque's courtyard.
Eyüp Oyuncakları4Istanbul Toy Museum
Famous traveler Evliya Çelebi, in his book "Seyahatname," published in 1848, mentions Istanbul's Eyüp neighborhood toy shops and their owners' steadfast loyalty to creating toys from scrap materials and mud from the shores of the Golden Horn as "105 soldiers in 100 shops."
Dümbelek- Eyüp OyuncakçısıIstanbul Toy Museum
With the proliferation of local toy factories and imported toys, the time of toymakers came to an end in Eyüp. The favorite of the children of Istanbul had then become wind-up toys.
Peddlers
People living in today's Istanbul go to big markets, grocery stores, or shopping centers to meet their household needs. However, up to a hundred years ago, whatever the house needed was before the door.
How? Of course, thanks to peddlers!
Seyyar Oyuncak SatıcılarıIstanbul Toy Museum
Broom Dolls
You can sweep everything with a broom, but you cannot ever erase the ache in the heart of a person who used to play with Anatolian dolls made of brooms when they see dolls made of plastic in the window of a contemporary toy store!
Süpürge BebekIstanbul Toy Museum
Tarihin En Büyük Oyuncak AtıIstanbul Toy Museum
The Toy of the Largest Toy Horse in History
Maybe the Trojans could not say no to their children, who thought the wooden horse was a huge toy! In addition to "Iliad," written in 9 B.C., Homer's Trojan horse has been featured in comic books, such as the cover of the 105th issue of Batman, published in 1957.
Batman Comic 105Istanbul Toy Museum
Faces on the Tin Bus
The faces of people looking through the windows of a city bus in Istanbul, produced in the 1970s by "Gürel Toys," are as much in our lives as the photographs in a family album! In the never-ending journey of childhood, they are our friends who never leave us, those human faces.
The Greatness of the Soil
So many settlements were established in the river beds of Anatolia. Various items were produced with mud at the edge of rivers. Today, while archaeologists find ancient clay toys in Anatolia, children play with toys they just made from earth in a village near the excavation site!
Tap to explore
Want to explore more? The "Toys of Turkey" exhibition will be on view at Spielezeugmuseum Nürnberg until April 28, 2024!
Curated by Istanbul Toy Museum
Photography by Furkan Uyan (@furkanuyan)
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