For sale is a 1979 LIMITED EDITION OTTO SCHMIDT BISQUIT TIN which features a design to celebrate clockmaker Peter Henlein. This large silver and gold colored gingerbread tin has a hinged top and is in very good condition. The bottom of the tin has some staining. The tin measures 16 inches long, by 12 inches wide and 6 inches deep. A useful decorative vintage tin from Nurnberg, Germany.
In 1926, Franz Schmidt sent his brother Otto a carriage full of gingerbread which he accepted as payment for a debt. The brothers successful sale of the product prompted then to start a mail order gingerbread tin.
The tin design is a tribute to Peter Henlein, the clockmaker from the Nuremberg, Germany, who is the father of the modern clock and the originator of the entire modern clock making industry. He was born in 1485 and he became locksmith apprentice. In 1504, after he was involved in a brawl in which his friend and fellow locksmith George Glaser was killed, Peter found safety at a local Franciscan monastery . Four years later he returned to the Nuremberg where he became a famous locksmith, who was especially praised for his ability to create expensive small spring-powered brass clocks. The nobility contacted him on regular basis, demanding ever more beautiful and smaller clock designs. He is considered as the father of the modern clock and the originator of the entire clock making industry that we know today.
