Christmas Toys
"PLAY-HOUSES"
from Godey's Lady's Book, 1859
|
|
Time has been — but that was in the days when a thousand a year
was an ample income — when children were thought to be provided
for with a jointed doll or two, a tiny set of pine chairs and
sofa, painted red and chintz-covered, and wooden teacups and
saucers that might be contained in a good-sized pill-box. But let
any house with any pretension to style be examined the present
holiday season, and behold the varied accumulations of toys, at an
expense that would have provided a year's lights, if not fuel, in
the days of our grandmothers — the dolls' houses — furnished
with damask, and brocatelle, and Sheffield plate, dolls with
embroidered linen and ermine sets, rocking-horses costing scarcely
less than a Shetland pony, and, as in one case coming to our
knowledge, a doll's tęte-á-tęte set in gold, tray and
all.
|
|
Since
fathers and mothers do lavish so much upon the indulged little
ones of the present day, the center-table circle may have their
invariable question, "What shall we give the children this
year, my love?" in part replied to by the very sensible
suggestions which we find in a late number of the Horticulturist
on the subject of playhouses :
"The
best plaything for a child is not a splendid and complex
rattle-trap, but some simple and rough, thing which may be applied
to various uses and purposes, and aid to stimulate invention and
contrivance. The best of all such things for girls is a house.
"My daughter, at six or eight years of age, took
possession of a tiny shed originally made to shelter a bee-hive.
Sundry articles of furniture, of the most impromptu style, some of
them requiring a good deal of imagination to supply their
deficiencies of construction, were added by degrees — a board
for a table, a box set on end for a cupboard, some blocks for
chairs, a scrap of old carpeting, a broom with a broken handle,
half a dozen cracked teacups, etc. By and by, the open side was
boarded up, a hole being left for a window, and another for a
door, which was a board hung up on two bits of leather. The
pleasure derived from occupying this cabin was so great and
enduring that, when next carpenters were busy about repairs of our
own house, I had a little one built on purpose for our rising
generation, the success of which has been so great that I here
describe it as a hint for other parents, and for the benefit of
little people in general."
|
 "Apple-tree
Cottage, as it is named from the sheltering boughs which
overhang it, stands on a cross-walk in the garden. It is built of
pine-boards, without any timber frame, eight by ten on the ground,
and six feet high at the eaves, neither ceiled nor plastered, but
open within to its roof of planed boards. It has, on each side,
two windows, each a four light sash of seven by nine glass, hung
on hinges for convenient ventilation, and a real batten door, five
feet high, with a knob-catch, and genuine lock and key to secure
the property or privacy of its owner."
|
|
LIST OF
1859 TOYS
from article
|
|
Jointed doll
Set of red pine chairs
Chintz-covered sofa
Wooden teacups and saucers
Good-sized pill-box
Dolls' houses
Sheffield plate
Doll's embroidered linen
Doll's ermine sets
Rocking-horses
Doll's gold tęte-á-tęte
|
"This was the contribution of pater familias
to his daughter's amusement; and it was at once occupied with the
intensest satisfaction. Little by little, as in the economical and
thrifty progress of older housekeepers, articles of furniture were
added. First, there came a present of a real tea-table, with leaves to
let down, suited to the dimensions of the apartment, and three chairs
large enough for small people. The next acquirement was a set of small
teacups and saucers. A tin teapot, a set of knives and forks followed
from one quarter, a small broom and dustpan from another. Some window
curtains were put up by the united exertions of the proprietress and her
friends; and at last grandfather completed the whole thing by sending an
"old-maid cooking-stove," a little affair but fifteen
inches square, but perfectly capable of baking, and frying, and boiling,
and competent to make the apartment as hot and happy as need be."
"In this small edifice, there has probably been
more genuine enjoyment than in most palaces; and I doubt not that the
young princesses at
Windsor
would find it a happy exchange for the stately halls in which they, poor
little things, are doomed to dwell. Not only is tea drawn, and
currant-jelly made, and biscuits baked, and fish fried for hospitable
entertainment within its wooden walls, but even the pains of ordinary
housekeeping are here converted into pleasures. Mopping and sweeping,
dusting and window washing are enjoyed exceedingly; and half a dozen
times a year there is a delightful general house cleaning, which recalls
to mind Hopkinson's famous description of that annual epidemic, and
realizes his recommendation that a small, separate building should be
provided near every homestead, where its subjects can spend the force of
their excitement without disturbing the peace of the household
itself."
|
|
Return
to Christmas Toys
|
Return
to "Dolls, Dollhouses and Toys"
|
|
