Maker record
Rock & Graner
Rock & Graner was a German maker of hand-painted tin toys based in Biberach an der Riß. Its products included dolls’ houses and furnishings, coaches and tin castles. The company began making clockwork railway toys around 1895, during a period when industrial toy production was challenging its traditional craft workshop. It operated from 1813 until 1904, making it one of the early German tin-toy manufacturers.
- Founded
- 1813
- Final year
- 1904
- Countries
- Germany
- Locations
- Biberach an der Riß, Germany
- Founders
- Gottlob Rock · Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Graner.
The story of Rock & Graner
Rock & Graner was established in Biberach an der Riß in 1813 and became one of the early German manufacturers of tin toys. Its early products included dolls’ houses and furnishings, coaches and tin castles. The company worked as a craft workshop, and from about 1870 its business declined as it struggled to compete with industrially made toys.
Around 1895, after Oskar Egelhaaf had taken over the firm, it began making clockwork railway toys. These were similar in appearance to contemporary Märklin trains but were not copies. The firm used the mark R & GN, short for Rock & Graner Nachfolger, and a standing dragon holding a flag marked 1813. Egelhaaf liquidated the company in 1904.