Au Plat d’Étain, toy soldier shop on rue Guisarde since 1775

Au Plat d’Étain is a shop of tin soldiers and collectable figurines established in Paris since 1775, at the start of the reign of Louis XVI. It stands at 16 rue Guisarde, in the 6th arrondissement, some fifty metres from the church of Saint-Sulpice.

Its name comes from the plats d’étain, flat historical figures barely 30 millimetres high, engraved on both sides, which first appeared in Nuremberg in the 18th century. Legend has it that the young Charles de Gaulle and his brothers came here to add to their lead armies and replay the battles of the Empire.

Owners have succeeded one another, and the house has kept its craft through the ages: every piece is made and painted by hand. The team repairs, restores and values collectors’ pieces, buys and sells, and its red shopfront is as much a small museum as a toy chest.

On rue Guisarde the shop shows thousands of figures, carriages and sets: the Ancien Régime, the Revolution, the Empire, the Second Empire and the Great War, with the makers CBG Mignot, Lucotte, Tradition of London and Marlborough, and tin flats of every size.