Now this card is not so bright, and not so exciting, as many, but from this came the biggest toy store in the world, so famous that it appeared in Hollywood Movies and everyone knew its name. If you watch Home Alone 2 this year, look out for it. And show your grandchildren this card of how it all began.
The family came from Germany, and ended up, as so many, in New York. They were not rich, but they remembered the little wooden toys of their childhood.
The son, Gustave, opened his shop in 1859, in Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, the store on this very card, and it lasted until the mid 1880s.
His father Henry Schwarz found a partner, a fellow German, and opened a Toy Bazaar in 1862. Then something happened, and there was a split. We do not know either what happened to his partner, but Henry Schwarz was running the Schwarz Toy Bazaar all on his own at a new shop on Broadway - and advertising it as the most complete toy shop in all the city. He also made no secret of the fact that his items came from all over the world, the like of which most New Yorkers had never seen.
When Henry died in 1903 and Gustave took those premises too. If you count both branches, this made him the owner of the largest toyshop in the World. But if you only count a single premises that honour goes to Hamleys, founded in Holborn in London in 1760, and relocated to Regent Street in 1881.