Camel
Category
Toys
Date
Unknown
Materials
Wood
Measurements
250 mm (height, to top of hump) x 50 mm (across body and legs) x 385 mm (tip of tail to end of nose)
Collection
Sudbury Hall Museum of Childhood, Derbyshire
NT 672188
Summary
Hand-made wooden camel comprising four legs, two body parts, two humps, tail, neck and head with a movable lower jaw. The back legs and the tail are attached to the two body parts by a hand-made metal rivet with a metal washer on each side. The legs are on the outside of the body parts and the tail is positioned between the body parts. The front legs and neck are attached to the two body parts by a hand-made metal rivet with a metal washer on each side. The legs are on the outside of the body parts and the neck is positioned between the body parts.The head is attached to the neck by a hand-made metal rivet with a metal washer on each side and the movable lower jaw is pivotted on a metal pin. The two humps are placed between the two body parts and are secured by a single small metal pin. The head has eye and ear shapes burnt into the wood on both sides of the head. The templates to produces the camel are catalogued under number 672320 1 to 10.
Provenance
Part of a large collection of handmade toys and puzzles donated to the Museum of Childhood in 2019 by Nigel Briggs. They were made by John Doble, father of the donor's wife Hanne. He had worked with Nancy Catford (of the Nursery Schools Association), the designer of the toys, during the Second World War. Together they produced paper patterns that people could use at home as templates for thin ply patterns which could in turn be used to make their own wooden toys. Other toys were made from dowels and empty cotton reels.