Bauspiel Ein Schiff

Construction Toy
1923 (designed), 1988 (manufactured)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This wooden construction set was originally designed at the Bauhaus school in Germany by Alma Siedhoff-Buscher in 1923, who had designed brightly coloured, functional furniture and toys for a nursery room in the ‘Haus am Horn’, a show house designed by Georg Muche and built for the Wiemar Bauhaus exhibition in 1923. Each room in the house had specially designed furnishings and hardware created in the Bauhaus workshops.

Set up in 1919, the Bauhaus school had a massive influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture and modern design. This set was manufactured in Switzerland in 1988.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • Bauspiel Ein Schiff (assigned by artist)
  • Shipbuilding Game (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Painted wood, printed card and paper
Brief description
Set of Bauspiel construction blocks designed by Alma Siedhoff-Buscher and made by Naef Spielzeug in Switzerland in the 1980s
Physical description
A plain cardboard box with cream coloured label showing four coloured illustrations to be made with the set.There is a cream coloured information sheet in German, French and English on "The Bauhaus and its various effects upon art". The set contains red, white, yellow, blue and green painted wooden blocks. There is one large curved block, two half arches, two rectangular blocks of different lengths, four triangular blocks, Five cubes, one cylinder, two flatter rectangular blocks, two sticks and three square blocks. The set contains twenty two blocks in all.
Dimensions
  • Height: 180mm
  • Width: 400mm (Note: Measurements taken with the object assembled as the object list for Play Gallery, MoC)
  • Depth: 250mm
the pieces vary in size
Styles
Production typeMass produced
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'naef' (on green rectangular block and on side of box)
  • 'BAUSPIEL : EIN SCHIFF' (Printed on box lid)
    Translation
    Ship building game
  • 'DAS AUCH EINE / BERG UN TALBAHN'
    Translation
    Which is also a mountain and valley railway
  • 'EIN TOR'
    Translation
    A gate
  • 'EIN TIER'
    Translation
    An animal
  • 'BAUHAUS SPIEL VON ALMA SIEDHOFF-BUSCHER' (Bauhaus game by Alma Siedhoff-Buscher)
Credit line
Given by Mr Anthony Burton
Production
Reason For Production: Retail
Subject depicted
Summary
This wooden construction set was originally designed at the Bauhaus school in Germany by Alma Siedhoff-Buscher in 1923, who had designed brightly coloured, functional furniture and toys for a nursery room in the ‘Haus am Horn’, a show house designed by Georg Muche and built for the Wiemar Bauhaus exhibition in 1923. Each room in the house had specially designed furnishings and hardware created in the Bauhaus workshops.

Set up in 1919, the Bauhaus school had a massive influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture and modern design. This set was manufactured in Switzerland in 1988.
Collection
Accession number
MISC.529-1988

About this object record

Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.

Suggest feedback

Record createdFebruary 18, 2004
Record URL
Download as: JSON