Märklin Toy Steam Engine: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This toy steam engine was made by the Märklin Company during the early 20th century. The engine consists of a black firebox on tan metal base, vertical boiler with sight glass, steam whistle, and safety valve, a vertical slide valve engine and flywheel.

The Märklin Company was established in 1859 in the town of Göppingen, Germany by tin smith Theodor Friedrich Wilhelm Märklin. Märklin began his business with the production of tin doll houses, but the company soon began producing a variety of tinplate and metal items, eventually specializing in toys that included steam engines such as this one.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: early 20th century
• Object Name: toy, steam engine and boiler
• Object Name: steam engine and boiler, toy
• Physical Description: brass (overall material)
• Physical Description: tin (base material)
• Measurements: flywheel - from catalog card: 3 1/4 in; x 8.255 cm
• Measurements: base - from catalog card: 5 1/4 in x 5 1/4 in; x 13.335 cm x 13.335 cm
• Measurements: overall - from catalog card: 12 1/4 in; 31.115 cm
• Measurements: overall: 12 1/2 in x 5 1/4 in x 5 1/4 in; 31.75 cm x 13.335 cm x 13.335 cm
• place made: Germany: Baden-Württemberg, Göppingen
• ID Number: MC.328986
• catalog number: 328986
• accession number: 278175
• Credit Line: Bequest of the Estate of Greville I. Bathe
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.