AN ALL-BRITISH CHRISTMAS TREE.
CAPTURINC THE TOY TRADE
When "the day" came—the day of the great conflict —tho famous toy trades of Germany and Austria died, and on the Hamburg quays lay cases of gaudy, wonderful things, enough to fill a fleet of ships. And there was mourning in ' old Nuremberg; its armies of pewter and tin were very still; silence reigned in its two hundred factories, and the glass-blowers shed real tears instead of dolls' eyes! Tho technical toy schools at Dresden and Leipzig were closed, and their lathes were "stopped; their drills and files, ovens, and moulds, and melting pots. For the markers of lead soldiers had taken rifles themselves, and the painters .of Noah's arks embarked in great armoured "arks'" that mount the guns which menace England. Six Millions a Year, To Germany alone the trade meant £6,000,000 a year. Much of this went directly into cottage homes of tho Thuringian and Black Forest regions, where little girls carve gnomes with pointed caps, and where mother bends like a witch over a mysterious cauldron 'full of paste, made of cardboard, old gloves, and gum tragacanth.. In.this unpromising trough the smiling doll is bom. Very seriously did Germany take her toys. Each factory had its invention department, whose secrets were as carefully guarded as those of Krapp's. Nuremberg was literally &•; city of toys. Five-and-twenty establishments : produced tiny churches and shrines, saint dolls, and fancy goods of a religious cast. Two dozen humming Lives turned out dolls' houses, complete from boudoir to bakery, from kitchen pots to tho water-colours that hung on the satin walls. Fifty more factories made things in metal and wood, and that so thriftily that old meat tins sprang to life as dashing lancers, uhlans, and hussars. 'Every known trade was represented in this- work, from that of milliner to that of coachbuilder. The machinery was costly and powerful, labour lery poorly paid. Quite young children .were seen working twelve hours a day, fashioning component parts and learning the elementary lessons in the old, old craft of their forefathers. This gigantic industry died in a day, and the ill-wind of war blew a "boom" to,tho British artist and manufacturer. .'■''■• The Government Plans. . Our Government advanced to the attack. Tho Board of Trade held exhibitions in the city, and showed ICOO specimens of the most popular German and Austrian toys.' Our own makers and buyern wore invitbd, and they flocked thither from all quarters, patriotic and keen, with the Commercial Department to aid their researches, and capital—the "silver bullets" of our Chancellor — readily forthcoming for the conquest .of this rich and fascinating field: Stuffed animals were easily made, and the cheap plush trade of, Huddersfield went ahead,amazingly. -,Germany made £200,000 a year out of Teddy .bears alone I Those toys, by the , way,' were first made for her 'own amusement by Margarete Steiff, of Giengen-Brenz,: a ■crippled woman, who, passed her, time stuffing horses and dogs, elephants and cats, which 1 she gave away or sold for charity. Gradually they became known and greatly sought. The invalid at last founded a "huge business, worked by as keen a directorate as all Germany could provide. An Historlo Meeting. That "exchange meeting" organised by the Board of Trade was informal enough, but will surely be historic. New ideas, now. activities .were'born,,and the toy trade rose to' the occasion in- a way worthy of the best traditions of British craft. It was a serious undertaking. Costly machinery had to be devised and installed, dies made and models designed by artists of real taste, both men and women. And not least, skilled labour had to be trained—the labour that lives in generations of Gorman tradition, v The British top trade Doomed, then, as no trade ever did before.' 1 _ ■'.:■" '■ There was no lack of expert aid. A series of. "Soldiers, Ancient and' Modern," was projected, and a wooden model of Henry VII, on a whit? horse, lent by Viscount Dillon, fche'_ famous curator of the Tower armouries. The. ordinary doll, strange to say, was something of a difficulty, especially in,regard to its china face. But a Board of Trade official went down to the Potteries, and conferred with Dr. Melldr, the scientific expect of the famous technical school in Stoke.". '■.-'■.. ; , 'It was soon demonstrated that the' ''Five Towns" could turn out heads more charming than were ever seen in the great Leipzig Fair—that worldbazaar of toys to which buyers flocked from the ends of the earth. As for the dressing of dolls, we already have firms of extraordinary taste.and ability-doing this work, and robing gorgeous creatures in silks and satins of'the latest modes, as well as workaday playthings well within the reach of' the working man's child. Removing Unemployment. 1 ■ And so, with altogether unprecedented energy, the trade is' trying to cope with an overwhelming demand—not only.from the home markets, but also from and the .United States, which in one year took nearly 10,000 tons of toys from' Germany. But, apart from factories,, there is als-j a move-, ment, promoted by the British Toy Association, to introduce this work into our rural homes en Black Forest and Thuringian lines. If these classes, if is pointed out,'can be trained to produce toys of simple construction; and that under non-sweat-ing conditions of labour and pay, then a materia! addition may"-be looked for in their economic state, ■ and the removal of much, unemployment and ; suffering. Even cripples and the weak and infirm, who would otherwise be a charge upon the community, can take a hand in this work, as Margarete Steiff did in Germany, the 1 foundress of a rich ■ -prosperous business.—From "The Queen." ' : ' ' ' "."'.',
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Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2346, 31 December 1914, Page 3
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941AN ALL-BRITISH CHRISTMAS TREE. Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2346, 31 December 1914, Page 3
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