Toy boat
Category
Toys
Date
Unknown
Materials
Stained wood
Measurements
15 mm (Height) (40 mm (Height to top of dowels) x 250 mm (Length) x 64 mm (Width)
Collection
Sudbury Hall Museum of Childhood, Derbyshire
NT 672284.1
Summary
Part of a construction toy (tug) boat consisting of eight wooden pieces. It has two levels of deck, three extra pieces on the top deck and three pieces of dowel holding all the pieces together and forming two masts and a funnel. This is the lower deck, stained red, with a rounded hull, a pointed 'fore' and a rounded 'aft'. There are two small pieces of dowel, also stained red, one very near to the pointed end and one a small distance in from the rounded end. These are to hold further pieces of deck in place as the boat is built.
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.