Richter's Anchor Stone Building sets

256 Pages·2001·18.05 MB·English

by  George F. Hardy

US$60
Richter's Anchor Stone Building Sets
Richters Anker-Steinbaukasten
Richter's UNION Blocks
By George F. Hardy
Copyright © 1993, 1994, 2007 by George Hardy, Palmyra, Virginia, USA
A German translation is available for 40 Euros.
Printing: 2007
All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 0-9656288-0-9
Table of Contents
I. Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 .
II. Anchor Stones - An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
III. The Early History and the Invention of Anchor Stones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
IV. The Early „Das Bauen” Sets and the Lilienthal's Second Attempt . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 .
V. The Stones, Exhibition Buildings, and Special Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 .
VI. The Old Series (Alte Folge) Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 .
VII. The New Series (Neue Folge) Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 .
VIII . Neue Folge Sets with Metal Parts -- Nickel Plated Iron -- Part 1 . . . . . . . . . 67 .
IX. Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 .
X. New KK Sets -- COMET, ORION AND EAGLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 .
XI. Neue Folge Sets with Metal Parts -- Part 2 (1906 - 1912) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 .
XII. F. Ad. Richter & Cie. From 1885 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
XIII. The 100, 200, 300 and 400 Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
XIV. The Richter Company in the U.S.A. UNION Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
XV. The Post Richter Era The Anchor Club and Magazine, the Neue Serie and the
Sets of the VEB Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
XVI. Puzzles, Games, Wooden Blocks, All Metal Building Sets and Odd Stone
Building Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
XVII. Final Comments and Anchor Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
XVIII. End Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
XIX. Passwords and Telegraph Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
XIXa. Passwords and Telegraph Words, Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
XX. Publishing Notes & Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
XXI Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
XXI Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Dedication
This book is dedicated to Niels Gottlob, who died in the Spring of 1991. Niels knew more about the
Anchor stone shapes than any other Anchor expert. He vetted and drew up every new Anchor stone
discovered since the Richter company's last Anchor Loose Stone catalog was printed. Both as an An­
chor scholar and as a master builder the Anchor community sorely misses both him (although perhaps not
his cigars) and his always interesting contributions to Anchor-Steinbaukasten knowledge. Niels also
made very significant contributions to his other two hobbies, Meccano and puppet theater.
Note: This book is also available in a German translation, ISBN: 0-9656288-1-7.

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Richter's Anchor Stone Building Sets
Richters Anker-Steinbaukasten
Richter's UNION Blocks
By George F. Hardy
I. Preface
This book is intended for both dealers and hobbyists. The author knows of no other reference
book which gives even the smallest amount of useful information on these very successful and (in
their day) world famous toys. Richter's Anchor blocks were by far the most famous and popular
of all of the brand name toys before W.W.I. Only Anchor Stone Building Blocks had both
international distribution and a world-wide reputation for quality and educational merit. Only
Anchor Stone Building Blocks were purchased by so many of Europe's Royal Families for their
children. The eclipse of Anchor Stone Building Blocks was due to two almost simultaneous
disasters -- W.W.I and the death of Richter himself. Richter, like Louis XV, seemed to have
taken the 'Après moi le déluge' attitude.1 Although by the time of his death Richter was one of
the wealthiest men in Germany and the owner of one of that country's most successful companies,
within less than fifteen years his heirs had lost virtually all of their inheritance. In like manner,
his Anchor Stone Building Blocks lost almost all of their momentum during this same period.
This book contains enough detail to be a useful reference work for those antique dealers who
handle toys and dolls. Such dealers are often presented with the opportunity to buy a few of
Richter's stone block building sets, usually under the Anchor or Union trademarks, less
frequently under the names Eagle, Orion or Comet. But it is an unusual dealer who has any idea
what the sets can be sold for, whether the sets are complete and how much their offer should be
adjusted to reflect the condition and completeness of a set. The author has included those
important details which will allow someone to identify, or classify, a set; determine how much
one might expect to sell a particular set for -- whether for a small quick profit or for a more slow,
but possibly larger, one; estimate how rare each set is, and how much rarity affects price. No
suggestion is made regarding how much a dealer should pay for a set. The author knows that that
amount is based on the dealer's negotiations. But a dealer who knows what an item can be sold
for is much better able to determine whether to buy, or by-pass, what is being offered for sale.
Anchor hobbyists are also interested in this type of information, as well as the background
information on the history of the sets. For those Anchor builders who, like the author, have an
inventory in excess of 140,000 stones, the cost of acquisition has been considerable. Anchor
hobbyists will want to know whether their money has been "lost" or "invested". Dealers will
generally find that their best supporters and customers are Anchor hobbyists. Often a dealer will
pick up an old Anchor catalog or promotional flyer along with some sets. These accessory papers
can be sold separately to Anchor collectors at surprisingly high prices. And Anchor collectors are
often willing to give (or sell at a very low price) a few stones or a book of common building
plans, allowing
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a dealer to market a complete set. This symbiotic relationship is one which both parties have found it
profitable to cultivate.
Hobbyists and dealers alike need a basic reference work in which they can find most of the history and
information relating to their hobby or purchase. This book is intended to be both a history of Anchor
blocks and a ready reference. Of course, there is more information that could have been provided re­
garding almost every detail. The packing plans of all 600(+) known sets might have been included. But
these packing plans alone would fill a thick book. The building plans and stone layer plans for each of
these sets average about 25 pages, not counting the eight or so pages of the cover, instructions and ad­
vertising. Just this direct documentation of Anchor stone building sets would take tens of thousands of
pages. And those few collectors who would be interested in this information probably already have
most of it. Anyone interested in Anchor stones should obtain an Anchor stone catalog, preferable the
one pubkished by the CVA (see Chapter XVII).
It is hoped that the reader will find the history of Anchor stone blocks interesting. The author, who has
spent most of his business career developing products, generally in consumer electronics, found the his­
tory of this product and company more and more fascinating as he assembled the commonly known
facts and dug out more. How Richter faced competition; how Richter established policies (such as es­
tablishing a maximum retail price, which affected the whole toy industry); how Richter created an interna­
tional company (with profitable branches in over a dozen countries) from a few hundred dollars obtained
through what would be considered today to be an outright fraud; how Anchor dominated the construc­
tion toy market and became the first "brand name" toy; how Richter kept all of this success to himself,
vertically integrating so as never to buy from others anything he could manufacture himself. Too many
people have concentrated on Richter as a charlatan, a maker of patent medicines which were similar to
the patent medicines which were so common in the USA during the late 19th and well into the first part
of the 20th century. Richter's critics overlook the ease with which he managed an international manufac­
turing company, with factories in at least five German cities, plus Vienna, St. Petersburg and New York.
The company had grown both by acquisition and by expanding its capacity in order to absorb the pro­
duction of both suppliers and non-competing companies selling to the same customers. Richter faced
many challenges and converted virtually all of them into opportunities far better than the author ever did,
and far better than all but a handful of businessmen today.
In Germany, the period from about 1880 until 1910 is known as the Founder Time (Gründerzeit), and,
let no one doubt, Richter was one of the most successful of these 'founders'. The author ended up with
the greatest respect for Richter's ability as a businessman, particularly when the author remembers that
Anchor building stones, which are his own personal interest, were only a small, and a really quite minor,
part of Richter's product line.
Over the roughly eighty year history of Anchor stone building sets, many product variations were pro­
duced; some were commercially successful and some were not. It seems that even during the early
years the consumer marketplace required "new" products every year. And Richter never
disappointed his customers. His industries were all fast paced and rapidly changing. Perhaps not as fast
as the fashion clothing and personal computer industries of today, but fully as fast as today's consumer
electronics industry and certainly much faster than either the automotive or appliance industry. If some of
the set variations seem a little like tail fins on a car, the reader will do
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well to remember that, in their day, these fins were a successful innovation. All of these Anchor
sets are found in the hobby market today. As was true at introduction, some sets are more
popular than others. Some sets are rare today simply because they were not popular at the time.
But rare in such a case may not necessarily mean valuable today, just as popular then does not
necessarily mean in high demand today.
The pictures in this book are taken mostly from the company's catalogs and products. The
author could have used exclusively photographs of new construction by contemporary Anchor
builders. It seems that every year the author receives from his Anchor building friends
photographs of more than a score of new, exhibition quality, buildings. More than any other
type of building, the author enjoys the reconstruction, working from pictures in catalogs, of
original Anchor exhibition buildings. These buildings projects tax one's ingenuity because, in
addition to being large, they were glued when made by the Richter Art Department. But, in
general, construction which really required glue was not used, although often stability is so
marginal that it is virtually impossible to construct the building without either some modification
or the added support of double sticky tape.
New information is being unearthed all of the time. Certainly there are errors and inaccuracies
in this book. The author accepts full responsibility for them. One advantage of desk top
publishing is that revisions may be easily made. For that reason the author has placed the date of
publication on the spine of the book.
In addition, the author acknowledges he is not the most qualified person to write this book. That
honor, in the author's opinion, went to Jan Hauer of Ermelo, Netherlands. But Mr. Hauer
declined to undertake the task. The other Anchor experts, and there are more than a few, show
no inclination to write one either. However, most of these experts have been most generous in
their suggestions and corrections. It is most humbling for an American to have his English
corrected by a Swiss, Austrian or German.
Bridge built with GK-NF set # 6, which is the most common set.
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Rococo Pavilion. Built with GK-NF set # 10. Uses all 334 stone in that set.