Vintage View: Tin-plate toys

Kya deLongchamps takes a fascinating look at the history of early 20th century tin-plate toys.

Gaily painted or printed up-vehicles, characters and creatures in tin-plated steel, were the mainstay of toy making for over a century.

Available in commercial form since the 1850s, vintage tin-plate toys generally refer to pieces manufactured before 1965. Germany had led the world in tin-plate and lithographed toys before WWI, but the loathing of the Allies for anything made by their former enemy, opened up manufacturing in other countries.