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Five hundred years of a tradition.

N° 03 · StoryFrom Hasan Efendi to Şennur Ülker — the toy craft of Eyüp Sultan.

Fig. 03 · PortraitŞennur Ülker, in the workshop

1565 — today

A toy shop and workshop.

The Traditional Eyüp Toymaker carries on the wooden toy tradition that emerged five hundred years ago in Eyüp Sultan, one of Istanbul's best-loved districts: a toy shop and workshop that makes Traditional Eyüp Toys, introduces them to new generations, and works to keep the tradition alive.

Working away like one of the hundred toy shops that entered Evliya Çelebi's world-famous Seyahatnâme in 1635, we strive to keep alive the Eyüp Toys that are among the treasured values of our country, our people and our history.

In an age when the world speaks of wooden toys, healthy toys and recycling, we follow in the footsteps of the Eyüp toy masters who — as if they knew, five hundred years ago — made every toy from healthy materials, recyclable, and without harm to nature.

1565Hasan Efendi of Eyüp Sultan, setting out to make a toy horse cart for his grandchildren, designs more than 30 toys and teaches many masters — Eyüp toy-making is bornFirst master

1635Evliya Çelebi records 100 toy shops and 105 masters in Eyüp in his SeyahatnâmeSeyahatnâme

1955The last master Halit Şengöz — 31 years in the shop he took over from his father Kadri Şengöz — gives up against plastic and tin toys; a 455-year tradition endsLast master

2005An EU-funded joint project of the History Foundation, Eyüp Municipality and İşkur trains the women of Eyüp; new Eyüp Toy Masters are raisedRebirth

2017Şennur Ülker, one of the masters trained in 2005, founds the Traditional Eyüp ToymakerFounded

2019Şennur Ülker is granted the Ministry of Culture's Wooden Toy Master titleTitle

Where the workshop stands

Our toys contain no MDF — nothing that is not real wood, nothing harmful to children.

— Traditional Eyüp Toymaker · Workshop principle

Registered trademarks

Turkish Patent · 7 marks

Geleneksel Eyüp OyuncakçısıTPE 2018

Eyüp Oyuncakları MüzesiTPE 2019

Osmanlı OyuncaklarıTPE 2019

EyuptoysTPE 2018

Also registered: Tarihi Eyüp Oyuncakları (2012) · Tarihi İstanbul Oyuncakları (2019) · Osmanlı Oyuncakçısı (2018)

Toys born of the Golden Horn's offcuts

The materials of traditional Eyüp toys came from around the Golden Horn, then the heart of trade: the wood scraps of Tahtakale, the stove-makers' tin, the hides of the Sütlüce slaughterhouse, and the clay of the Kağıthane and Alibeyköy streams. They were decorated with earth pigments and gold leaf, in the red, blue, green and white that speak to children.

Reşat Ekrem Koçu, author of the Istanbul Encyclopedia, describes the tradition: "For centuries the children's toys of Istanbul were made in Eyüp, by craftsmen working by hand as if in a single workshop — and they spread across all of Turkey under the name Eyüp toy."

Today, the same philosophy

However far technology advances, however industrial toy production becomes, we keep protecting our toy-making tradition as best we can — making our toys with the same philosophy and the same cultural values, and bringing them to children. Our thanks go to all the children, the parents, and above all to our treasured Eyüp Toy Masters who support us.