Kohner Toys

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We make no attempt here to duplicate some of the excellent information and resources that exist for the Kohner Toy Company. Instead, we site a few excerpts and direct you to the horse's mouth, so to speak. The information on this page comes from the Kohner Brothers themselves, by way of a great website called, "All About Old Toys" at OldWoodToys.com.

"All About Old Toys" speaks beautifully to the history of the Kohner Brothers and Kohner wooden toys. At BLiPPEE, we like the board games and some of the other fun stuff that's unique to Kohner, and that's what we highlight.

From "All About Old Toys":

Kohner Bros. traces its origins to a small town in the then Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy, TACHAU, where Moritz Kohner founded a small factory that made wood-turned bases for curtain handles and sword decorations. These bases were subsequently spun over with silk in Germany and were in fashion until about 1900.

As a teenager, Moritz Kohner in 1851 was lured by the tales of the gold rush in America and he traveled all the way to California to dig for gold. He did not find any riches in California and went back home a year later. There he found gold of a different kind. In those days there were an abundance of maple, birch and beech trees growing in the Tachau region and many poor peasants, as a means of additional income, learned to turn wooden parts on primitive foot operated lathes. Moritz Kohner was one of the pioneers who made Tachau known as a center of wooden products.

In 1874 Moritz founded the original company that was eventually to become Kohner Bros. Inc. in America many years later. Several manufacturers, with the help of a skilled labor force developed a special, inexpensive barrel finish that gave the finished products a rich-looking appearance. This involved tumbling the beads in large wooden drums in a multi-step smoothing, coloring and finishing process. The finish lent itself well for beads, buttons, components for toys and games, beaded handbags, Mohammedan Rosaries, etc. Gradually, automatic lathes were developed that allowed mass production of their products.

In 1890 Moritz's sons Emil and Max joined the business and it then became known as M. Kohner & Sons. Moritz Kohner died in 1900 and his son Emil took over running the business. During World War I, Emil had to join the Austrian-Hungarian army but after the war the Tachau wood industry revived quickly. After the war the town of Tachau became part of the newly founded nation of Czechoslovakia. Emil and his wife Rosa had a son Paul who was born in 1900 and a son Frank who was born in 1910. Eventually, after their education, both brothers joined and gradually took over management of the company.

Kohner Bros. Inc. was sold to General Foods in 1969 who resold it a few years later. Kohner Bros. does not exist anymore, but several of their products are still on the market under manufacture by other companies. Paul Kohner died in 1965. Frank Kohner was still alive at the age of 90.