** Tins of Taste Museum ** within NationalBreadMuseum.org
GERMANY - Wicklein, Gottfried
https://wicklein.de/en ~ ~ ~ "Baking Art since 1615" on their website.
Wicklein ~ ~ ~ In their MENU, under FLAGSHIP STORE,
you can book a GINGERBREAD WORKSHOP!
(How I'd love to be there for one!!)
Street Address of Store: Hauptmarkt 7, 90403 Nürnberg , Germany
The tins are photographed beginning with the cover which identifies the shape, & then with the seam on the left, turning the tin clockwise, the circumference (a round) or panels (a square, rectangle, etc.). Since sometime in the 1980s, the ingredient & other info has been required on products which also includes the sell-by date. In Europe it is day-month-year, i.e. 3 05 87 = May 3, 1987. So that tin was sold for the prior Christmas holiday season in 1986.
When I note a (ToT#xxxx) number in the info, it has no significance to the dating of the tin whatsoever. It's the personal reference # of when it was cataloged.
Information such as the following is on the bottoms of tins (vs. chests): #1-2: that it's Lebkuchen from the Gottfried Wicklein company & the % of nuts in the enclosed Lebkuchen; #3-4: the weight of the contents, an Article ID#, & the stamped sell-by date; #5: the product was made & packed in Germany & another Article ID#.
The German Fairytale Land as in Castles, Literature, & Lebkuchen ~ Art on Tin
Some artists, with their gorgeous art on tin, can just capture the essence of the wonderland history of Lebkuchen (1300-1500s) created & baked since the early spice-trade days. With this tin it's as if you could walk right in and smell the Lebkuchen baking! The roof is the cover. The punch-out star holes are for the light of a votive candle!
If someone knows more about the item in the bakers' hands in the 2 center pictures (below), please email me at breadmuseum@aol.com & tell me about it, how/why it's being used, etc. I'd like to know. Thanks, Donna, Founder
2022
It was quite interesting in 2022 when I saw 2 companies using a decorative cardboard container for round, 6-stuck (rhymes with "spook") Lebkucken containers. About 6 years ago I saw 2 very, very old cardboard Lebkuchen containers on eBay, being sold in Germany! During the past 30 years there have been some "decorative - colored boxes" in various shapes & styles designed for Lebkuchen containers (by the Lebkuchen-Schmidt and other companies), but nothing special to me for the aspect of Lebkuchen history (until 2023, when I saw & ordered 5 gorgeous boxes from the Feyler Lebkuchen company in Coburg. I've also seen 1-2? noteworthy boxes by the Gebr. Fraunholz Elisenlebküchnerei {Gingerbread Bakers} of Nurnberg, but still don't have one of them.).
In the 1990s, after we came back from our 9 years in Europe (via the military), many U.S. candy-cookie-food companies had tins made at that time for their products for the Christmas season. I believed that the U.S. "tin run" would last about 10-or-so years hence & then gradually revert back to paper, plastic, etc., for the majority of products, which is exactly what happened. Therefore, I've often wondered how far into the future the German Lebkuchen companies might continue with "so many various actual tins" they continue to produce each year, just as they have been doing in the past?!?
Well, so far it seems as if they've continued to keep the tin production going at pretty much the same speed, if not even more some years. So to see an actual Lebkuchen company make a decorative, same shape, cardboard container in 2022 for one of the "standard size" Lebkuchen products normally sold in a tin (the 6-stuck, i.e. 6 round Lebkuchen cookies), it was a step to note for history! And I was thankful I was able to order the above Wicklein 6-stuck for the record for Tins of Taste.
(Note: Matthias Stielfried, www.lebkuchengeschenke.com, also made a 6-stuck cardboard container in 2022.)
2021
2018
2017
2014
2012
2009
2002
1990
Unknown date - Thought to be prior to 1990
Unknown date - Prior to 1980-'82
The Tins of Taste records show that there are more than 70 GOTTFRIED WICKLEIN tins from years past for the historical preservation and representation of this looooong historied Lebkuchen company. If you could pitch in some with a financial donation, it would be greatly appreciated to help get this project moving along faster in order to create the on-the-land museum complex of baking culture, Tins of Taste, & cultural heritage.