Petrus and Sture Lundstrom, Tranas. Suspension bridge bookshelf, with instructions from Allers familj-journal, 1925. Wood, copper, paper. By Roma Capitale — Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali — Collezione di giocattoli antichi, CGA LS 5913 1/2; Photography by Bruce White
As this exhibition traces the history of Swedish toy production, it critically examines the cultural embrace of the wooden toy as a symbol of timelessness and high quality. Sweden’s forests provided an abundant natural resource for the toy industry and for amateur toy makers, but the veneration of the wooden toy was, and has remained, international. In the 1950s, when plastic became an increasingly common material for toys, the French critic Roland Barthes praised the warmth and reassuring qualities of wood for children’s playthings. Swedish design achieved international prominence in the early twentieth century, and its products were exhibited and sold as examples of good design and manufacture. Although wood may suggest endurance and tradition, Swedish wooden toys also reflect a wider preoccupation with popular culture, such as children's books and animated films.
Through the twentieth century, the Swedish toy industry expanded into the worldwide market. Wartime scarcity and embargo stimulated the market for Swedish goods. Exports, primarily to neighboring Nordic countries, increased and eventually spread to the United States and Great Britain. The products of the major Swedish toy manufacturers Gemla, Micki, and BRIO are a central focus of the exhibition, but many amateur-made objects reflect the particular inventiveness of the Swedish experience.
The ordinary wooden toy achieved new recognition as an agent in the training and educating of children, as an emblem of Swedish handicraft, and finally as a symbol of Sweden itself. Swedish Wooden Toys shows that from the handmade objects of the rural farmstead to the mass-produced products of major firms, Swedish toys not only reflect but also inform the changing social and cultural values of their time.
Carpentry and woodworking were necessary occupations in Sweden's historically agricultural society. Children learned the skills of carving, sawing, and joining both at home and through obligatory handicraft courses. Objects in this section include a full-scale workbench, tools, and carved parts for a large rocking horse, as well as jigsaw-cut toys, such as a jointed horse and rider and a large homemade model-bookcase of a suspension bridge (see above). There are also a number of objects made by children themselves.
The horse was the backbone of the rural Swedish economy until the early twentieth century, and its form became common as a child’s toy. Among the many horses in this exhibition are traditional painted horses and a broad selection of rolling and rocking horses produced by both amateurs and Gemla, the largest nineteenth-century manufacturer. The painted Swedish horse was not only a favorite plaything, but it also became a recognized symbol of Sweden itself in the twentieth century.
The dollhouse is a traditional type of amusement for both children and adults, and these diminutive dwellings describe the shift in housing and furnishing across three centuries. A particular highlight is the oldest known dollhouse from Scandinavia, a late seventeenth-century cabinet commissioned by Queen Mother Ulrika Eleonora for her daughter. In addition to the elegant models produced by major manufacturers, the inventive work of amateurs is also evident in several homemade dollhouses.
Trains, cars, motorcycles, airplanes, and boats are among the most familiar forms of children’s toys and a specialty among the Swedish toys produced in the twentieth century. The Swedish relationship with water encouraged many kinds of sailing toys, including a prize-winning 1923 sailboat built by a father and son, as well as other toy sailboats, rowboats, and canoes. War Toys and Weapons: One of the earliest wooden toys ever discovered in Sweden is a sword, indicating that objects of conflict are central to the history of playthings. This concept is represented in the exhibition by a homemade slingshot, wooden rifles, and a Gemla cork pistol. Other objects on view are a large Swedish battleship from about 1918, a homemade submarine from the mid-1930s, and a submarine game from the mid-1940s.
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