Seiffen is a town in the district of Erzgebirgskreis in the central south of Saxony in Germany.

In addition to lace making and weaving, the local population turned to wood carving.

With the recession of ore mining in the area, Seiffen turned to wooden toy manufacture as a matter of economic survival.

First, the low cost of living and economic depression in the Ore Mountains allowed prices much lower than the rest of European toy manufacturers selling at the Nuremberg market.

This method, usually used for making wooden animals, allowed for greater accuracy and quality in much less time than it took to hand carve the entire piece.