** TINS of TASTE MUSEUM ** within the NationalBreadMuseum.org
GERMANY
ANKER LEBKUCHEN
F. AD. RICHTER & CIE
By all information found today, having to rely on the internet (without being in Germany, knowing the German language, & having the best libraries & research resources to access, OR not having a "Lebkuchen tin historian" to associate with, if there is such a person), this tin might be one of the two oldest in the Tins of Taste Museum's treasured Lebkuchen tins -- somewhere at 1890 - 1910. It appeared in 2023 in Indiana, USA.
A Bit of Background
There's one internet source (https://www.ankerstein.org/html/CO.HTM) that is a history of F. Ad. Richter's life - born in Germany in 1846, to a dad who was a master baker. As Richter went through life, he had a slew of businesses & his share of ups & downs. And in that biographical history of his life, there are only three mentions of Lebkuchen:
1) His Lebkuchen factory in Nuremberg became the quality manufacturer of
cookies and cakes in Germany;
2) Richter was famous for the best chocolate (also cocoa and hard candy) in Germany;
3) Nuremberg (Lebkuchen and cookie factory, 1884 - 1913; eventually became part of
Schöller Ice Cream);
When he died Dec. 25, 1910, he was one of the ten richest men in Germany. But within ten years his heirs were broke!
4) But what's puzzling . . . (continued below this tin, 2nd paragraph in the green section) . . .
Around the very edge of the lid, upper half:
Extra feine Runde Echte Nurnberger = Extra fine round real Nurnberger
The discovery of the F. Ad. Richter & Cie Lebkuchen company has been very interesting, with around another 25-30 hours of research/reading/annotating info. I came upon the Stiftung Deutsches Historisches Museum which holds an "EXTRA FEINE RUNDE ANKER-LEBKUCHEN F.AD. RICHTER UND CIE K.K. HOFL. NÜRNBERG" tin (dose). The link to view it is: https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/E5Q3F5DJRGBOALNUO2OTFXIKGLHOEYTS Their (quite blurry & fuzzy) photos show two, very different covers, so evidently both caps (cover & bottom) are a painted, embossed, pressed tin (not unusual with some older tins). Also of note is the name which has an added "CIE K.K. HOFL. NÜRNBERG," (deleted words on the above tin). I wonder which came first, why the difference, etc.?? In the research, I found one other, sold in the USA in 2019, with the same cover as the one on this page, but with an entirely different panel design which seemed to be in tan and blue.
4) But what's puzzling . . . the tin above has ANKER-LEBKUCHEN on the cover, and there is no mention of "Anker" attached to Lebkuchen in the article, BUT the URL address (https://www.ankerstein.org/html/CO.HTM) has the word "ankerstein" in it. What might be the connection to all of this? In the article, the name "Anker" is attached to phonograph records, of all things! Maybe that business underwrote the finances for the Lebkuchen business? But now, check this out . . .
ANKER-LEBKUCHEN
This "chest" surfaced in January 2024 from an estate sale in the northwestern part of the U.S. What's unusual is that it has a unique metal (not tin) handle, and it's the first I've ever seen with a lock (no longer working, but the key fits). There are some tins with other styles of handles. Some tins since the 1980s have music boxes built in. An older, upright Haeberlein-Metzger tin with 2 doors has a knob as a door handle. But this tin with a lock makes the tin resemble the old fashioned "lock boxes" which were used to hold money or important papers.
There are also 2 additional features . . . #1, the name on the bottom is exactly like the "ANKER-LEBKUCHEN with the anchor symbol" that's on the round tin on this page. Could this also have been in the ANKER/Richter 1884-1913 time period, or was there a time when Anker was a stand-alone Lebkuchen company?
Then #2, below, is an Anker print on heavy cardstock paper. --->
This colorful print, with a hook to hang it on the wall, was inside the Anker chest. A professional restorer would have the knowledge to more accurately date this by the three layers that make up the print paper, & the small, waffle-like texture on the card board/paper stock it is glued to. It reminds me of early 1900-1925 paper materials of some old photos, boxes, and other ephemera from my grandmothers' time.
After a person has traveled to a place, I believe the interest in that area is heightened regarding wanting to know a bit more of its culture, history, people, art, languages, &/or whatever other personal interests a person has. And so, too, it is with pointing out some details in the above picture. There are great, medieval walls around Nurnberg to this day. In fact, a Youth Hostel is inside an area of it - near Albrecht Durer's house. So in noticing the arched wall with windows along the top, that's across a river that flows through town. The style of the red & white awning over the Anker Lebkuchen stall is still used today. If, in the last photo, the mark after the "5" price is authentic and known by someone, it would help date this tin chest and picture. My guess is sometime around 1900-1914, prior to WWI.
(from a Google "search" menu item):
Here's a note on the earliest mentions of Christkindlesmarkts, first called "December markets," in Europe:
Vienna (1296) (the capital of Austria today)
Munich (1310) (This & the following are in Germany.)
Bautzen (1384) (East of Dresden, so it's the city in this list that is nearest to Poland & the Czech Republic today.)
Frankfurt (1393)
Dresden (1434)
Nuremberg Main Market Square - mid-1500s; first time mentioned in writing (1628)
(https://www.christkindlesmarkt.de/en/christmas-market/history-of-the-market)