Gingerbread in the Townhouse

A 19th-century middle-class parlour and a domestic kitchen show a different side of gingerbread-making from the factory ovens. These reconstructed interiors present baking as part of household life. A virtual book of old recipes accompanies the kitchen. Alongside industrial production, there is gingerbread prepared at home using kitchen vessels and utensils.

Two reconstructed shops represent trade in the 19th and 20th centuries. Comparing them draws attention to the products on offer and the packaging in which sweets reached customers. Tins and boxes are physical traces of those sales, as are archival advertisements and photographs. The history of baking also includes how the finished products were displayed and bought.

The collection preserves a pane of glass from a Gustav Weese shop window, dated to the early 20th century. It comes from an actual shop, unlike the reconstructed interiors. Gingerbread was also given as a present at family celebrations; its shape could convey meanings connected with love, family or religion. The kitchen and shop displays show two ways it reached the home: made there or purchased ready-baked.