The first known building block construction set for children was introduced by a German educator, Friedrich Froeblel in about 1838. He started with a wooden cube as his basic shape, and added various other wooden blocks. 2 brothers, Gustav and Otto Lilienthal were impressed with the new toy, but felt that it lacked the feel of a real building, being made of wood. They found a formula for manufacturing imitation stone from a mixture of sand, chalk and linseed oil, and decided to replicate Froebel's toy using the new material. The first sets were produced in 1879. At about this time, the entrepreneur, Friedrich Richter of Rudolstadt, Thuringa, became interested in the blocks as an educational tool. He acquired the rights to the Lilienthals' toy and developed the concept until the largest set, number 34 had about 3,800 stones. Production continued in the same factory in Rudolstadt through the first half of the 20th century. Between the Wars, it became the most popular toy in the World. At the end of the 2nd World War, Thuringa became part of East Germany. Under the Communists, the factory struggled to survive and production eventually ceased in 1963. In 1995, a group of enthusiasts decided the time was right to restart production, in the same city, using precisely the same materials, with the copies of the original wooden boxes and books of models. The new owners have resolutely refused to compromise on quality, and each stone is individually measured for accuracy of manufacturing to .5mm. This accuracy means that extremely complex and tall structures can be built without the use of any glues or adhesives, making the blocks very clean to use. In addition, the materials are completely non-toxic and the product has the coveted "Spiel gut" label. Since 1995, production has increased every year, and new boxes are constantly being developed. What are Anchor Blocks? Anchor Blocks are high quality sets of building blocks, which are both an educational toy for children and an absorbing hobby for adults. They are completely safe, being composed of a mixture of quartz sand, chalk and linseed oil and feel, look and are as durable as real stone. The blocks are manufactured in three colours to simulate terra cotta brick, natural sandstone and the blue slate of European roof tiles, giving the finished models a lifelike quality that is impossible to achieve with modern plastic building blocks. Anchor Blocks are hand-finished to an extremely high degree of accuracy, making it possible to build structures of great complexity without the use of any fixings or glue, the weight and texture of the blocks being sufficient to hold the buildings together. Anchor Blocks are produced in sets that are exact copies of the originals in wooden boxes with sliding lids and a printed packing plan. There are 2 "basic boxes", with which to start a collection, Box 4 and Box 6. To increase the collection and progress to bigger and more complex buildings, further extension boxes (always with the suffix "A") are available up to box 16A (Box 18A is due in 2002). Thus, for example, Box 6 + Box 6A makes Set 8. Box 6 + Box 6A + Box 8A +Box 10A makes Set 12. Examples of what can be created with the various Sets are shown on these pages on the Website. Further extension boxes are planned for the future. -------- A LONGER HISTORY OF ANCHOR BLOCKS, COURTESY Anker Steinbaukasten -- www.ankerstein.de 1838 - The Beginnings of the Anchor Blocks From Fröbel to Lilienthal The fathers of this classic are all renowned Germans. It is true that people have always fancied making miniature models of the world around them, but it was the great pedagogue Friedrich Fröbel, the father of the kindergarten concept, who developed the first building block system for children. His blocks were made of wood, and the basic form was a cube. BELOW ARE SOME IMAGES WHICH COME FROM ANCHOR IN GERMANY. EACH IS IDENTIFIED BY THE NAME OF THE BUILDING IT IS A COPY OF, AND THE CITY IN WHICH IT IS LOCATED. ADDITIONALLY ARE THE NAMES OF THE BUILDERS AND THE YEAR WHERE AVAILABLE. On the Search for the "real" Builder's Feeling The well-known architects and inventors Gustav and Otto Lilienthal, however, felt it was somehow not the real thing to make small models of stone buildings using wooden blocks. They took up Fröbel's idea and looked for possible ways to produce artificial stone blocks. In an old handbook, the enterprising pioneers of aviation discovered a recipe that gaveas ingredients quartz sand, chalk and a varnish made from linseed oil. With suitable dyes, the stone blocks were given the colors of the customary building materials of that time, like brick, sandstone and slate. For the first time, it became possible to make miniature replicas that were true to the original buildings not only in form but also in substance. The first stone block set was born. But , as happened so often, the Lilienthals - though ingenious inventors - proved to be rather amateurish business people, and economic success remained beyond their grasp. 1880 - Commercial Exploitation by Richter Quite the opposite was true of Friedrich A. Richter, an entrepreneur from Rudolstadt. He was a clever businessman who had built a small industrial empire with patent medicines like his "Pain Expeller", and he immediately realized the economic potential of this unique toy. For the ridiculous amount of 1.000 Marks he acquired the production rights and the machines that had already been developed, and he immediately took out a patent on the stone building blocks. Very quickly he developed a system of basic and supplementary sets and brought them onto the market. 1882 - The Birth of the Anchor Stone Blocks In 1882, the Richter firm - which six years before had been registered in Rudolstadt as a chemical-pharmaceutical works - built a factory for the production of Richter's Anchor Stone Block Sets. It was under this label that the stone block sets began their spectacular advance around the world. Friedrich A. Richter developed 400 different sets with 1200 components. 1895 - From the squirrel to the Anchor The oldest sets were sold as Patent Building Block Sets, and their trademark was a red squirrel. Thirteen years later, with the introduction of the "New Series 1895", the squirrel was replaced by an anchor. They were popularized through an advertising campaign that was unique for that time, and very soon more than 40,000 sets had been swipped from the new factory in Rudolstadt. Branches and agencies sprang up in Vienna, St. Petersburg, London and New York. Anchor Stone Block Sets became a synonym for creative and pedagogically valuable toys. A sophisticated system of add-ons and supplements allowed an infinite number of variations. The Anchor Set grew with the demands of its users. From the very beginning, the sets found favor with all members of the family. Many adults spent a lot of time with those colorful stone blocks, and some remained addicted all their lives, like the famous Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius. 1963 - Untimely Cessation The stone blocks managed to survive two world wars, but in 1963 a decision of top GDR officials put a stop to their production by. The famous blocks, whose material was environmentally harmless, were replaced by plastic sets. One reason may have been that the castles, palaces and churches built with Anchor Stone Blocks were seen as triggering the wrong associations and aspirations. In 1979, Amsterdam saw the founding of the international Club of the Anchor Friends (http://www.ankerstein.org/html/cva.htm) . This originally Dutch organization now has more than 180 members from Holland and Germany as well as from Austria, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Switzerland and the USA. The Nineties - a New Beginning As the concrete of the Berlin Wall tumbled and fell, the small ecology-friendly stone block was reborn. Anchor Stone Block friends were the godfathers at its cradle, among them Prof. Dr. Plenge, lecturer at the Institute for Technical Acoustics at Technical University Berlin and one of the people responsible for the acoustics of the new Reichstag building in Berlin. In 1994, production began again in Rudolstadt. At first, old technologies and the traditional composition of the material were explored in order to regain the old standards of accuracy, coloring and texture. Everything was to be true to the originals of Richter's time. Meanwhile, some experts are claiming that the new stone blocks are even better than the old ones. Original Anchor Stone Blocks have realized maximum prices in antique shops and at auctions. They have been displayed as "material witnesses of history" in the Paris Louvre and in the Deutsches Museum, Munich. Nov. 1996: Nominated "Good Toy" The Anchor Stone Building Sets of Modellbausteinspiele Ltd. were awarded the high-ranking title "Good Toy" by the independent committee for Childrens' Games and Toys. 1997: Parents Choice Award The Anchor Stone Building Sets received the coveted American Parents Choice Award in in gold.. This "Oscar of the toy industry " is awarded annually by the Parents' Choice Foundation, Newton, Mass., to particularly commendable toys. 1999: National Parents Publisher Award in Gold Sept. 2000 Jubilee Modellbausteinspiele Ltd. celebrated his 5th anniversary and the 120th bithday of the Anker Ston Building Box. Guests from all over the World came to Rudolstadt in order to take part in this event. Dec. 2000: New name Modellbausteinspiele got a new name: Anker Steinbaukasten shorhisofanb BORSIG-Tor Berlin - 2001, G. Hahn borber20ghah Schloss Belvedere Berlin, 2001, P. Szemberle schlosbelber Heilandskirche Berlin, 2001, R. J. Koch VIEW 1 heilber20rjk Heilandskirche Berlin, 2001, R. J. Koch VIEW 2 heilber20rjk1 Brandenburger Tor Berlin, 2001, D. Wellmann brantorber20 Grunewaldturm Berlin, 2001, E. Petrauschke grunber20epe LINK to the homepage of Rachel Fulton, Assoc. Prof. of Medieval HistoryDr. Fulton is an Associate Prof. of Medieval History at the University of Chicago, and her homepage features 3 wonderful images of Anchor Stone building. LINK to Deutsches Museum in Germany - Exhibit featuring an Anchor Building LINK to Anchor in Germany -- lots of information on the company! ********************************************* REACH US BY EMAIL AT purcifuls@yahoo.com OR BY PHONE AT (806) 239 2927 during business hours. IF YOU DON'T GET A LIVE PERSON -- JUST KEEP TRYING! THIS TIME OF YEAR WE TAKE LOTS OF CALLS!! ********************************************************* BE SURE TO CLICK THE GLOBE ICON AND GO TO OUR FRONT PAGE FOR CURRENT SPECIAL OFFERS AND COUPONS!!! ********************************************************* FOR COMPLETE SHIPPING DETAILS (what kinds are offered, how long it takes, how to choose etc....) 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