Collector of New Year's toys. The most expensive Soviet Christmas tree toys

Modern collectors collect household items from the last century. They also paid attention to the Christmas tree decorations. The tradition of decorating the Christmas tree with toys came to our country from Germany: at the beginning of the twentieth century, toys were brought from there, and later artels in St. Petersburg and Moscow began producing them in our country.

They made toys from cardboard and papier-mâché and decorated them with multi-colored foil. The most expensive pieces were made of porcelain. After World War I, this tradition was banned due to hostile relations with Germany. The tradition returned in 1936, when the USSR Government allowed to celebrate the New Year and install not a Christmas tree, but a New Year tree.

Pre-war toys

After the New Year celebrations were allowed, many artels began to actively produce Christmas tree decorations. The USSR produced jewelry from cotton wool coated with a layer of mica paste. To highlight the face on the figures, they used clay or papier-mâché. Sometimes they took fabric. The themes of the toys were strikingly different from those produced before the revolution.

Instead of angels and cherubs, they began to release athletes, Red Army soldiers, and balloons with a sickle, hammer or star. The top of the tree was crowned with a star with a hammer and sickle inside. In the 1930s, they began producing Christmas tree traffic light toys to accustom the population to the order of color signals.

A series of USSR Christmas tree decorations on the theme of the East is prized by collectors. These are characters from oriental fairy tales, such as, for example, Aladdin. They differ from other toys in that they are hand-painted with ornaments.

After the release of the feature film "Circus", circus-themed toys became popular. In addition, Stalin was very fond of the circus. Clowns, acrobats, and animals were sold. Decorations made from multi-colored flags made from colored paper were very fashionable. Each flag had some kind of design imprinted on it.

Toys "Dresden cardboard"

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, factories in Germany began producing toys from cardboard. These were embossed figures of people, birds, mushrooms, food, etc. They were made by folding and gluing two halves of convex cardboard. The figures were decorated with silver and gold paint. The masters of the Dresden artels were especially famous, which is why this type of toys was called “Dresden cardboard”.

Such Christmas tree decorations were produced in the USSR until the mid-twentieth century. The paper pulp was mixed on an adhesive base with chalk or plaster. They covered it with a layer of Berthollet salt, which gave the cardboard shine and strength.

Later they came up with similar cardboard Christmas tree decorations in the USSR - from different types of paper, cut out along the edges and glued with a layer of textiles.

Post-war jewelry

Our entire history is reflected in the USSR Christmas tree decorations of these years. During the time of Nikita Khrushchev, vegetable toys were produced. Particular attention was paid, of course, to corn.

After the start of space exploration, glass astronauts and rockets appear.

Friendship of peoples and ideas of internationalism resulted in the creation of toys in national costumes.

In the 1950s, Christmas tree decorations on clothespins, made of glass, began their march in the USSR. After the release of E. Ryazanov’s film “Carnival Night” on New Year’s Eve, balls with the image of a clock showing the time 23:55 began to be hung on Christmas trees.

I would especially like to mention the assembly toys. These are garlands made of glass beads and beads of different colors. They were hung on branches.

In the figures of Christmas tree decorations of that period you can find characters from children's fairy tales: Cippolino, Pierrot, Doctor Aibolit, etc. But at the end of the 60s, mass production of Christmas tree decorations had already begun in the USSR.

Collectors interest

For collectors, only rare Christmas tree decorations from the USSR, which were produced before 1966, are of interest. Toys from the beginning of the last century with porcelain parts are very valuable. The price tag ranges from 300 to 500 dollars. Products made from Dresden cardboard are slightly cheaper. You can pay up to 3,000 rubles for one voluminous animal figurine. For a revolutionary or Budenovist from Stalin's times, prices can be charged up to 4,000 rubles.

The most unique toys released in those days in the USSR are considered to be a series of balls and images of the leaders of communism, members of the party’s Politburo, and the founders of the idea of ​​communism. Here the price will be incredibly high, since such toys have only been produced once in history. For other Christmas tree decorations in the USSR, the price ranges from 300 to 1500 rubles.

To acquire an interesting specimen for a collector, you need to visit exhibitions, go to flea markets, and search on the Internet. In Germany, you can often find antique Christmas tree decorations at fairs and flea markets.

On the eve of the New Year holidays, the editors of “Treasure Hunter” decided to turn to the topic of Christmas tree decorations. They extremely rarely come to the attention of search engines, except perhaps during attic expeditions, but they have long become the subject of collecting and collecting. It is still difficult to estimate the capacity of this market, however, according to the collectors themselves, the price for individual pieces of Christmas tree decorations reaches $500, and an exclusive series of balls with portraits of Politburo members of the 30s of the last century costs much more.

The first toys that appeared in Russia, as a rule, were from Germany. The most rare of them are small dolls with porcelain heads. Not so long ago, such a toy cost $300-500 in an antique salon.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, toys made of cardboard appeared in Russia. Collectors call them “Dresden cardboard” - these are two pieces of cardboard glued together with a mirror-like pattern on them and a small volume. The toys were painted or covered with foil. Usually these are images of animals, houses or shoes. The cost of such jewelry in antique stores ranges from 800 to 3000 rubles. Subsequently, the term “Dresden cardboard” extended to domestically produced toys made using a similar technology.

As you know, after the revolution the Christmas tree was recognized as anti-Soviet. The production of Christmas tree decorations has ceased. The Christmas tree industry resumed in 1936, simultaneously with the legalization of New Year celebrations. Enterprises began to produce toys made of cotton wool. These were Red Army soldiers, skiers, clowns and acrobats. For rigidity, they were covered with mica paste. The faces were made from clay, papier-mâché and fabric. Such items were produced until the mid-50s, so they are widely represented on the antique market and cost from 1,000 to 4,000 rubles.

Even before the war, glass toys began to be produced, and the first Yolochka factory opened in Klin. There they blew airplanes, airships, tractors, cars, and animal figures. Due to their fragility, few glass toys from the 1930s have survived, and the price range is very wide. An ordinary glass toy can be purchased for 3-5 thousand rubles, but completely unique exhibits - for example, balls with portraits of members of the Politburo, Marx and Engels - will cost much more.

After the war, “Yolochka” continued to make glass balls with scenes from Pushkin’s fairy tales, “Cipollino” and “Doctor Aibolit”. With the release of the film “Carnival Night,” glass decorations appeared in the form of alarm clocks and musical instruments. Toys dressed in the national costumes of all the republics of the USSR were also produced. There are plenty of such toys preserved, individual things can be purchased for 150 rubles, more interesting ones - for 1.5-2 thousand. Toys with clothespins usually cost 500-700 rubles, Soviet cardboard - 200-400 rubles.

After the flight into space, perhaps the last important series in the history of Soviet Christmas tree decorations was released - decorations in the form of satellites, rockets and astronauts. Unfortunately, in the mid-60s, technologies requiring manual work were abandoned, and toy production was put on stream. Therefore, only Christmas tree decorations produced before 1966 are considered collectible.

Collectors

There are very famous people among the collectors of Christmas tree decorations. For example, the former mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov. The Izvestia newspaper cited the fact that one of the gifts to Yuri Mikhailovich were two unique Christmas tree decorations with a portrait of their owner in a cap with the patriotic inscription “Blossoming Moscow, United Russia.”

The first president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, also had a small collection of toys.

One of the most famous toy collectors in Russia is Sergei Romanov from Moscow. His collection contains unique items. For example, a ball with little animals and people wearing budenovkas. Above them is the inscription “Happy New Year 1941!” And in total, his collection contains more than 2.5 thousand copies of Russian and Soviet toys, including the already mentioned balls with images of members of the Politburo.

The most famous and at the same time unusual collector of Christmas tree decorations is the American Kim Balashak. Since 1995 she has lived in Moscow, and during this time she has managed to assemble a unique collection. In an interview, Kim says that her collection “is not just toys, but the history of the country. Moreover, the story is good. Not at all similar to those terrible stories that we read in newspapers about the USSR and Russia.”

Today, Kim is so far the only Christmas tree toy collector living in Russia who is a member of the International Organization of Collectors. Its unique collection includes over 2.5 thousand items, covering the period from the end of the nineteenth century to the mid-60s of the last century.

There were, however, some oddities. Sergei Romanov, already known to us, told how one day Kim called him and said that she had bought a wonderful series of toys: a football bear, a football fox and a football hare. Romanov wondered for a long time what these toys were, and when he saw them, he realized: they were characters from the Russian fairy tale “Kolobok.”

Newspaper Treasure Hunter. Gold. Treasures. Treasures", December 2011

For one copy you can earn 150,000 rubles

It's time to put up a Christmas tree in the house and take out the old suitcase from the mezzanine. The same one where Christmas tree decorations, arranged with cotton wool and newspapers, live most of the year. Here is a ball that we bought last year, here is a garland from the eighties, and at the bottom of the box are the oldest toys, even grandma’s. We take them, hang them on the Christmas tree - and do not suspect that collectors are killed for these balls, bunnies, bears and other lanterns. And they are ready to pay more than one thousand rubles for them.

“MK” figured out which of the toys could be valuable not only for the soul, but also from a financial point of view.

What could be in a family Christmas tree suitcase? Toys made of plastic, glass, cardboard, foam, cotton wool, wood. Factory and homemade. On strings and on special clothespins-stands, making the toy stand and not hang on a branch. Cotton or rubber Santa Clauses and Snow Maidens. Finally, accessories: tinsel, rain, garlands - from flags or electric...

The fewest questions are with plastic toys. They appeared in our everyday life in the 1990s, so, most likely, you yourself remember how and when they appeared in the collection. To become a rarity, these toys will have to wait another half century. The main thing is not to rush to throw it away if you don’t like it: maybe your children and grandchildren will like it.

Next - everyone's favorite glass toys: balls and figures. They have been produced since ancient times to this day. Each glass toy is handmade: no one has yet developed the technology for stamping thin-walled glass. Both blowing and painting are individual, even though the toy was made in a factory. Here, determining the age and rarity of a toy is not easy - you need to leaf through catalogs (they are also available on the Internet).

Some are hunting for certain series of toys,” collector Inna Ovsienko told MK. - For example, “Peoples of the USSR”, “Tales of Pushkin”. This last series, by the way, was an anniversary one - timed to coincide with the centenary of the poet’s death, it was launched in 1937. It became one of the first Soviet series of glass Christmas tree decorations in general.

The axial date for domestic Christmas tree decorations is 1936. It was then that the celebration of the New Year with a traditional Christmas tree began to be welcomed by the state again. Throughout the 20s and early 30s, the tree (as an attribute of the old Christmas tradition) was uprooted and destroyed. Pioneers were shamed for decorating a Christmas tree in their house; the neighbors looked askance at those who took out the Christmas tree in January, so it had to be done secretly, at night... But suddenly it was allowed, and all the Christmas tree rituals were restored. Only, of course, without angels and crosses on the branches and top of the head. New time - new symbols.

Propaganda toys were blown out of glass,” says Ovsienko. - These are stratosphere balloons made of glass beads, and blown airships, and red glass bead stars on top of the Christmas tree... If you have such a toy, it’s enough to find out when this or that propaganda campaign was going on (for example, the airship is from 1937), and the date of manufacture toys is approximately clear.

Post-war toys are brighter and more varied, and also more “childish” - without politics. Bears with and without accordions, geese and swans, fish and vegetables. The balls are simple and the “lanterns” are those in which the lights of the garland should be reflected. Santa Clauses and Snow Maidens - in stock. But bugles - toys made from stringed beads and glass cylinders - have been declining since the mid-1950s. Complex, low-tech, old-fashioned and dangerous: children love to taste toys...

The next material is cardboard covered with a layer of multi-colored foil. These toys are very old, pre-war. These were produced by various artels back in the twenties, almost underground: they put up Christmas trees, albeit secretly, which means there was a demand for toys. Take care of them - they are already rare! Although they don’t fight, it would be a shame to give this to children or animals. Moreover, collectors sometimes pay tens of thousands of rubles for cardboard toys (as well as for pre-war glass ones).

Wartime toys have a special story,” says collector Inna Ovsienko. - At the Moscow Kalibr plant they started producing toys from production waste - substandard light bulbs and so on. Quite a lot of them were made, but more than 70 years have passed, so now such toys are rare and valuable.

Well, the oldest toys - cotton and wooden ones - may well be of pre-revolutionary origin. By the way, then most of the toys were homemade - so if your family has jewelry from those years, it is quite possible that your great-grandfather and great-grandmother made them with their own hands.

A separate song - cotton Santa Clauses and Snow Maidens. Until the 1950s, their faces were sculpted from clay by hand, later polymer substitutes were used. This “chapter” of the New Year tree is the characters that you can look into the eyes of and be imbued with the holiday atmosphere.

Real collectors of Christmas tree decorations do not measure their value in money,” Ovsienko smiles. - Much more valuable is the spiritual importance for the family. I always discourage people from selling family toys - after all, it is with them that family history comes to life every year on the New Year tree. If you lose it, then you can’t buy it for any money.

HELP "MK"

How much do collectible Christmas tree decorations made in Russia/USSR cost:

Thumbelina on a swallow (cotton wool, papier-mâché, early 20th century): RUB 32,500.

Set “15 republics of the USSR” in a box (cotton wool, 1962) - 65,000 rubles.

Border guard Karatsupa with the dog Ingus (cardboard, 1936) - 150,000 rubles.

Little Negro (cotton wool, 1936) - 14,000 rubles.

Set “Doctor Aibolit” (glass, 1950s) - 150,000 rubles.

Mizgir from the “Snow Maiden” set (glass, 1950s) - 20,000 rubles.

Pioneer (glass, 1938) - 47,000 rubles.

Over the past 20 years, he has been collecting and restoring old children's toys, with a special love for Christmas tree decorations. His extensive collection contains about three thousand old New Year's toys, which found their home in a small room in the Palace of Pioneers on Sparrow Hills. Among the rare exhibits of Sergei Romanov are toys made from the 1830s–1840s until the collapse of the USSR, as well as papier-mâché toys from the 50s. We invite you to plunge into the atmosphere of magic and look at ancient Christmas tree decorations from the past.

Angel, early 20th century

Boat. Late 19th - early 20th century

Christmas grandfather. Glass. Late 19th - early 20th century

Boy skiing, glass balls. Late 19th - early 20th century

Children on a sled. Cotton toys with porcelain faces. Late 19th - early 20th century

Christmas grandfather. Cotton toy, chromolithography. Late 19th - early 20th century

Star. Mounted toy. Glass. Late 19th - early 20th century

Christmas grandfather. Chromolithograph. Late 19th - early 20th century

Ball in honor of the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution. Glass. 1937

Letter from Santa Claus. New Year card. Mid-20th century

Father Frost. Cotton toy 1930-1940

Snow Maiden. Cotton toy. 1930-1950

Locomotive. Embossed cardboard. 1930-1940

Airships. Glass. 1930-1940

Watch. Glass. 1950-1960

Hare with a drum. Glass. 1950-1970

Clown with a pipe. Glass. 1950-1970

Glass toys 1960-1980

Lady with a snowball. Porcelain doll. Late XIX - beginning

New Year tree with cotton toys. Second half of the 1930s

Today, a Christmas tree toy is not only a holiday decoration, but also a museum exhibit. Nowadays, Christmas tree decorations have become a source of pride for collectors; a tradition has emerged of presenting unusual and expensive Christmas tree decorations as gifts for the New Year.

Both our compatriots and foreigners collect our Christmas tree decorations. At Vernissage in Izmailovo they buy not only traditional nesting dolls, scarves and painted trays, but also old Soviet Christmas tree decorations.

One of the largest collections of Christmas tree decorations in the world was collected by American Kim Balashak, who has lived in Russia since 1995. The collection covers five periods: pre-revolutionary, twenties and thirties, the years of the Great Patriotic War, post-war and, finally, the era of “development of socialist industry and growth of people's welfare” until 1965. The collection contains more than 2.5 thousand copies of Russian and Soviet toys, including some unique ones - for example, a series of balls depicting members of the Politburo. Or, for example, a large Christmas tree ball, which depicts the four main figures of that time: Stalin, Lenin, Marx and Engels. All these balls are very rare: they were produced only during one year, 1937, in Moscow.

While sorting through old boxes with Soviet Christmas tree decorations, I was touched: what they didn’t do in the Soviet Union: cosmonauts, cooks, huts on chicken legs, clocks, various vegetables and fruits, teapots and samovars, funny flat profiles of animals, cotton-clad Santa Clauses and Snow Maidens. And I found all this happiness on the mezzanine in wooden boxes at my grandmother’s. Real treasures! Look. What magical and solemn energy emanates from them, this is not modern shiny plastic from China.

Enjoy.