Die Kleine Puppenköchin (The Little Doll Cook)

Puppen Kochbücher, or dolls’ cookbooks, were popular in 19th-century northern Europe, serving as accompaniments to that era’s elaborate, expensive dollhouses, which often featured functioning miniature stoves. They were almost certainly intended for wealthy young women; lower- and middle-class girls, who undertook domestic chores on a daily basis, would have had little time—and, likely, inclination—to amuse themselves by playing cook. The present example of Puppen Kochbücher, featuring not only its toy scale, weights, plate, and bowl but also its original box, is a remarkable survival, given the hard and sometimes careless use to which such toys were often put.