Petite Wooden Spinning Top Base | Black Oak

A modern spin on an ancient toy that provide endless hours of fascination. Handcrafted in limited quantities in Austria, these wooden spinning top bases are a perfect compliment to Mader's best selling spinning tops. Spin your tops without the worry or hassle of having to trail behind it. Both the tops and bases are made from a variety of woods native to Europe. A clever conversation piece, display a collection of these beautiful little works-of-art atop a mirror on your coffee or dining room table for your next dinner party, or display a few on top of your desk and use them as stress relievers throughout the day. Perfect for someone who has everything. They are ideal for birthday parties (kids and adults alike), gift bags and corporate gifts.

This "Petite Wooden Spinning Top Base | Black Oak" is the perfect addition to any top collection, whether you're a spinning top beginner or an expert. Hand crafted from a single piece of carefully selected, knot-free, flawless black oak wood, this base turns any surface into the ideal spot for a silky smooth spin. Its portable size also makes it an excellent option for top spinning on the go. Featuring a subtle dip, the "Petite Wooden Spinning Top Base | Black Oak" gently contains and guides your tops while spinning and makes for a beautiful way to display tops on a desk or shelf when not in use. You will also find the company's burned into the bottom right corner.

The Mader family business, owned and operated by Klaus and Margit Mader, was founded in 1991 in Austria. The spinning top always played a major role in their woodworking shop. What began as a hobby to fill time, with a very special “thrown top” Klaus used to play with in his homeland as a child (called a TOTZ’N), transformed into a passion that occupied a significant amount of their time, as these toys can be somewhat addictive.

Mader creates all of their tops exclusively by hand. Classical wood turning techniques are used, as are more technically difficult methods, such as overhead reaming and undercutting. In up to 20 work stages, the tops are turned, burned, embossed, carved, brushed, painted and varnished.

Working by hand allows Mader to properly enhance and showcase the interesting and rare woods they so often use. The very bright, hard maple is best suited as the base of their painted tops while the rich variety of European woods produce the characteristic color spectrum that is typical of Mader tops. For the natural wood tops, their diverse color palette is achieved through the use of cherry, pear, birch, ash, walnut, plum, acacia, and Crown-of-Thorns woods. Their trademark remains the burned-in stripe on the equator of each top.

Mader’s business philosophy is quite simple. All tops are to be made by hand, suitable as toys for children of all ages, affordable and, even if already played with, can be displayed in a museum display case. We whole-heartedly agree.

The top is one of the oldest toys and, at the same time one of the oldest tools (used to make fire during the stone ages and spinning wool with distaffs). Used in all cultural circles of the world, tops were made from all imaginable materials nature had to offer: bones, clay, wood, stone, etc.

The unique characteristic that remains the same among all tops in all cultures is the innate instinct to convert the “pincer grip” into a turning movement in order to observe and maintain the effect of a rotating, turning body.

Interestingly, one finds historical tops in the various toy museums and toy collections of the world, which have survived for centuries, although they consist mainly of wood, a very transitory material. Thus these little objects were already very valuable to their possessors, otherwise they would not have survived this long.

A researcher of tops has the possibility to grapple with the various cultures (Gasing Url, Malaysia), religions (Hanukkah, Israel) and epochs (EDO/Japan) with the historical background of top games (Jesus as a child with a whip-spun top) and as the case may be, the physical regularities of tops (tippe top).

With all its facets, the top will therefore always find top fanciers.

This top base measures 4.5" L x 4.5" W x 0.5" H.

- This spinning top base is suitable for ages 5 to adult.

- Made from Black Oak.