| The Toy Shop | |
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 The Toy Shop | |
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| General information | |
| Location | Shelburne, Vermont |
| Coordinates | 44°22′39.95″N73°13′45.38″W / 44.3777639°N 73.2292722°W Coordinates: 44°22′39.95″N73°13′45.38″W / 44.3777639°N 73.2292722°W |
The Toy Shop is an exhibit building at Shelburne Museum, which is located in Shelburne, Vermont. Toy Shop houses 19th- and early 20th-century playthings, including miniature transportation toys, penny banks, and music boxes. [1]
The Shelburne Museum built the Toy Shop in the early 1950s as an extension to Variety Unit. Built in 1835, Variety Unit, the only structure original to the Museum grounds, is an example of “continuous” architecture common to New England farmhouses. As more space was needed, farmers added new wings to their house. Farmers would merge farm and household buildings in one continuous structure that not only kept everything centralized but, also made it unnecessary to go outside in inclement weather. Built onto the rear of Variety Unit, the Toy Shop extends this tradition. [2]
The impulse to play is universal, and throughout human history people not immediately preoccupied with survival have created playthings. Toys of earlier eras offer important clues to the lives of their makers and owners. [2]
Shelburne Museum’s collection of toys, which includes both European and American examples from the early nineteenth century through the first decades of the twentieth century, encompasses a broad range of both handmade and manufactured examples. [2]
Simple toys, both homemade and commercially produced, such as clay or glass marbles and cloth, wood, leather, or rubber balls, were widely available for purchase and would often reappear in new materials as manufacturing technology improved. Educational games, that began to appear in the late eighteenth century, document the skills and subjects that children were expected to master. The abundance of commercially produced American and European toys that appeared throughout the nineteenth century attests to technological advances and to changing perceptions of childhood and leisure. [2]
Colonial American toys included those of European manufacture as well as homemade examples. Cottage industries on both continents produced wooden blocks, hobby and rocking horses, puppets, dolls, and other simple toys of paper, cloth, wood, and metal. After the Civil War, Americans developed increasingly efficient ways to manufacture playthings and quickly emerged as leaders in the manufacture of cast-iron banks; miniature boats and wagons of tin, cast iron, or wood; and lithographed optical toys and board games. [2]
Although the United States dominated commercial toy manufacturing by 1900, individuals continued to make playthings by hand for a variety of reasons. Some toys, like whistles made from spring willow twigs or dandelion stems, simply could not be commercially produced. While those who could not afford store-bought toys often created homemade toys, even the affluent sometimes chose to carve a miniature cradle or a hobby horse, or to stitch a doll dress or a puppet as a special gift. Children also enjoy making toys and the nineteenth century saw an emergence of pattern books and instructional magazines for their use. [2]
A model car, or toy car, is a miniature representation of an automobile. Other miniature motor vehicles, such as trucks, buses, or even ATVs, etc. are often included in this general category. Because many miniature vehicles were originally aimed at children as playthings, there is no precise difference between a model car and a toy car, yet the word 'model' implies either assembly required or the accurate rendering of an actual vehicle at smaller scale. The kit building hobby became popular through the 1950s, while the collecting of miniatures by adults started to pick up momentum around 1970. Precision-detailed miniatures made specifically for adults are a significant part of the market since the mid-1980s.
A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include toy blocks, board games, and dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed specifically for adults and pets. Toys can provide utilitarian benefits, including physical exercise, cultural awareness, or academic education. Additionally, utilitarian objects, especially those which are no longer needed for their original purpose, can be used as toys. Examples include children building a fort with empty cereal boxes and tissue paper spools, or a toddler playing with a broken TV remote control. The term "toy" can also be used to refer to utilitarian objects purchased for enjoyment rather than need, or for expensive necessities for which a large fraction of the cost represents its ability to provide enjoyment to the owner, such as luxury cars, high-end motorcycles, gaming computers, and flagship smartphones.
A doll is a model typically of a human or humanoid character, often used as a toy for children. Dolls have also been used in traditional religious rituals throughout the world. Traditional dolls made of materials such as clay and wood are found in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe. The earliest documented dolls go back to the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. They have been made as crude, rudimentary playthings as well as elaborate art. Modern doll manufacturing has its roots in Germany, from the 15th century. With industrialization and new materials such as porcelain and plastic, dolls were increasingly mass-produced. During the 20th century, dolls became increasingly popular as collectibles.
Japanese dolls are one of the traditional Japanese crafts.
A toy soldier is a miniature figurine that represents a soldier. The term applies to depictions of uniformed military personnel from all eras, and includes knights, cowboys, American Indians, pirates, samurai, and other subjects that involve combat-related themes. Toy soldiers vary from simple playthings to highly realistic and detailed models. The latter are of more recent development and are sometimes called model figures to distinguish them from traditional toy soldiers. Larger scale toys such as dolls and action figures may come in military uniforms, but they are not generally considered toy soldiers.
A dollhouse or doll's house is a toy home made in miniature. Since the early 20th century dollhouses have primarily been the domain of children, but their collection and crafting is also a hobby for many adults. English-speakers in North America commonly use the term dollhouse, but in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries the term is doll's house. They are often built to put dolls in.
1:144 scale is a scale used for some scale models such as micro/mini armor. 1:144 means that the dimensions of the model are 1/144 (0.00694) the dimensions of the original life-sized object; this equates to a scale of 1/2 inch per 6 feet of original dimension. For instance, an airplane 30 feet (9.14 m) in length would be a mere 2.5 inches (63.5 mm) long as a 1:144 scale model.
Shelburne Museum is a museum of art, design, and Americana located in Shelburne, Vermont, United States. Over 150,000 works are exhibited in 39 exhibition buildings, 25 of which are historic and were relocated to the museum grounds. It is located on 45 acres (18 ha) near Lake Champlain.
Educational toys are objects of play, generally designed for children, which are expected to stimulate learning. They are often intended to meet an educational purpose such as helping a child develop a particular skill or teaching a child about a particular subject. They often simplify, miniaturize, or even model activities and objects used by adults.
The Blacksmith Shop is an exhibit building and a live-demonstration site at Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont. The Blacksmith Shop, a one-room brick structure built about 1800, and its later frame addition, originally stood near the railroad tracks in the village of Shelburne.
The Hat and Fragrance Textile Gallery is an exhibit space at Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont which houses quilts, hatboxes, and various other textiles. The name "Hat and Fragrance" refers both to Electra Havemeyer Webb's collection of hatboxes and to the fragrant, herbal sachets used to preserve textiles. In 1954, Shelburne Museum was the first museum to exhibit quilts as works of art; prior to this exhibition quilts were only shown as accessories in historic houses.
Ilkley Toy Museum in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, houses a private collection of toys dating from 350 BC to modern times, and is open to the public, schools, and groups.
The Stagecoach Inn is an exhibit building located at Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont.
Variety Unit is an exhibit building at Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont.
A bisque doll or porcelain doll is a doll made partially or wholly out of bisque or biscuit porcelain. Bisque dolls are characterized by their realistic, skin-like matte finish. They had their peak of popularity between 1860 and 1900 with French and German dolls. Bisque dolls are collectible, and antique dolls can be worth thousands of dollars. Antique German and French bisque dolls from the 19th century were often made as children's playthings, but contemporary bisque dolls are predominantly made directly for the collectors market.
Creative Playthings was an educational toy store and catalogue that was established by Frank and Theresa Caplan in 1945. The goal of Creative Playthings was to provide simple and beautifully designed toys to promote a child’s creativity and imagination.
David Dudley Bloom was an American businessman who made notable contributions to the consumer products industry as a conceptual inventor and marketing executive during the 1950s and 1960s, including proposing and designing the first conventional travel luggage built on wheels; marketing the first "magic milk bottle" for dolls; and designing and marketing a continuous-play tape recorder.
Traditional Mexican handcrafted toys are those made by artisans rather than manufactured in factories. The history of Mexican toys extends as far back as the Mesoamerican era, but many of the toys date to the colonial period. Many of these were introduced as teaching tools by evangelists, and were associated with certain festivals and holidays. These toys vary widely, including cup and ball, lotería, dolls, miniature people, animals and objects, tops and more—made of many materials, including wood, metal, cloth, corn husks, ceramic, and glass. These toys remained popular throughout Mexico until the mid-20th century, when commercially made, mostly plastic toys became widely available. Because of the advertising commercial toys receive and because they are cheaper, most traditional toys that are sold as handcrafts, principally to tourists and collectors.
Marjory Fainges is an Australian researcher and historian on the subject of the Australian Toy Industry over the last 100 years in particular the commercial manufacture of dolls. She has written 16 books and is a doll judge of antique, collectible, modern and artist dolls and she has lectured internationally.
Nuremberg kitchen is the traditional English name for a specific type of dollhouse, similar to a room box, usually limited to a single room depicting a kitchen. The name references the city of Nuremberg, the center of the nineteenth-century German toy industry. In German the toy is known as a Puppenküche.