Art of Toys Blog
The World of Fisher Price Toys
I love the old Fisher Price toys and have had customers come into the gallery and reminisce when they see them in the vintage section on their own toys. Most styles are easy to track their era by the printed paper lithos that make up the outside. The Fisher Price Toy...
Puppet and Doll Artist Daunine Vining
Daunine Vining maintains her studio in the woods next to a flowing creek in the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains. This is where she likes to design her marionettes and full body puppets. She has worked as an interior designer in Los Angeles, Mexico, New York and...
A Look Back Hansa’s Portraits in Nature
Hansa’s Portraits in Nature is a handcrafted collection of realistic plush animals. Artists working in a socially and environmentally responsible studio create each Hansa animal from portraits of the creature in its natural habitat. The “coat” of each character is...
Keith Haring Artist of the 80s
I LOVE the simple lines of the graphic images of artist Keith Haring so much that I imported toys from France with his images! I was amazed to discover how few people know this talented young artist, Keith Haring Artist of the 80's Keith Allen Haring was an American...
Mickey Mouse At Home In The Depression
I came across a reference book in my library,”Cartoon Collectibles” that had a fun description of life in the 30’s that I thought I would share today! Informative for younger generations and nostalgic for you of that era….mind how the whole family evolves around...
Automatic Building Bricks Anyone?
In 1939 a new toy, Self-Locking Building Bricks were patented by plastic pioneer, Harley Fisher Page, founder of Kiddicraft Company. By 1945 he had improved the blocks by adding channels which inspired Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, the man who gave the world the LEGO...
Midgetoy Brief History
Midgetoy -Brief Company History It was 1943 when Alvin and Earl Herdklotz formed the A & E Tool and Gage Co. Their first products included precision tooling such as gauges that measured the contours and shapes of airplane propellers. With the end of World War...
Erector Set History
A.C. Gilbert, a toy manufacturer and Olympic gold medalist in the pole vault, unveiled his first Erector set in 1913, one-upping the contemporary Meccano building toy by allowing kids to build square girders. With a pulley, gears and strips of metal, kids could build...
History of Marbles
The earliest marbles weren’t called marbles, of course, because marble wasn’t the source material just yet. The earliest marbles were actually round stones, nuts, fruit pits or fired pieces of clay and pottery. Some say they were found in the Egyptian pyramids and in...
Punch and Judy
I thought I would do a bit of research on one of the oldest puppet shows know – Punch and Judy. I went online and was amazed at how many sites are devoted to “Punch and Judy” so if you want it there is an a lot of detailed sites…I will warn you now if you try to just...
G.I. Joe
G.I. Joe In this crazy time in the US I thought I would touch on a American icon toy of the 1960’s, G.I. Joe produced by Hasbro and first hit the market in the summer of 1964. It was sold as a toy designed to take rough play of boys not a collectible… today it is a...
What is Toy Assemblage?
Assemblage is an artistic process. In the visual arts it consists of making three-dimensional or two-dimensional artistic compositions by putting together found objects …Wiki Go Forward, Johann Dieter Wassman 1897 So in the world of Art Of Toys this means taking toys...
Five Ways To Clean Porcelain or Bisque Dolls
To continue with methods to clean toys I have spent a great deal of time cleaning old bisque and porcelain dolls. I always thought the claim "smoke free house" was kinda goofy until I bought a large lot of vintage Penny Dolls on ebay only to find they had obviously...
What is the difference between a collector and a hoarder?
What is the difference between a collector and a hoarder? Organization! I love to see how people organize and display their collections! In this day of internet I found these three interviews on youtube with three very different collections but all three have a lot of...
Zanini & Zambelli Italian Doll Comany
Information from hang tag for Zanini & Zambelli Italian Doll Company
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