Hi Steemians! As someone who is into collecting toys AND history I tought: Why not combine both? So I started a series in which I will talk about the history of toys. This time: The 1800's!
Back in the 1800's toys were VERY expensive. Even wealthy children did not have a lot of toys.
The poor children did not get any new toys at all; usually the mothers made dolls for the girls and just about any toy for the boys with wood or branches. Since the poor children usually only had 1 toy (that was handmade) it meant the world to them and they would protect it with their lives.
Since there were no cars around, the horse was the main source of transportation. That is exactly what made these Rocking Horses so popular. These were off course only for the whealthy children, the poor ones usually got a Hobby Horse. This was just the head of the horse, with a wooden pole as body. The advantage was that these hobby horses were far more mobile than the Rocking horses.
The jack-in-the-box is a box with a crank. When the crank is turned, a tune starts playing. When the tune stops, a figure pops out! On of the theories is that "Jack" is actually the name of the Devil. That's why we call it "duivel-uit-een-doosje" in Dutch (Devil out of a box).
In the mid 19th century people saw their income rise and they had more free time than ever before. The house became the center of entertainment and education. Children were encouraged to play Board Games that developed literacy skills and provided moral inscruction.
The Mansion of happiness was the first commercially produced board game in the USA, in 1843.
The players were sent along a path that lead to the mansion of happiness (heaven).
The dollhouse has been around for thousands of years, dating back to the egyptians. The dollhouses in the 19th century were unique, build on a custom basis by individual craftsmen and were supposed to be as realistic looking as possible.
Toy soldiers have been around since the 1730's and became very popular thanks to the military exploits of Frederic the great. These toys were also used to plan battle tactics.
The zoetrope! You could actually call it the beginning of movies and even TV. This toy produced the illusion of motion by displaying a number of drawings showing progressive phases of that motion. The zoetrope consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. On the inner surface of the cylinder is a band with images from a set of sequenced pictures. As the cylinder spins, the user looks through the slits at the pictures across. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together, and the user sees a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion.
Thank you very much for reading and don't forget to follow me!
I do not own any of the pictures used in this article.
Who is Mande Walschot?
Mande Walschot resides in Belgium and currently owns over 1,360 boxed My Little Ponies, around 500 boxed dolls, over 70 polly pockets, 40 plush care bears, 30 Tsum Tsums, about 3,000 Pokémon cards, around 200 comic books and lots of stuffed toys! Gemr spotlight collection
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