Toy boat
Category
Toys
Date
Unknown
Materials
Stained wood
Measurements
15 mm (Height) (25 mm (Height to top of dowel) x 250 mm (Length) x 64 mm (Width)
Collection
Sudbury Hall Museum of Childhood, Derbyshire
NT 672284.2
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 upper deck, stained light brown, with a rounded hull, a pointed 'fore' and a rounded 'aft'. There is a small piece of dowel, also stained light brown, about one-third of the way along the deck from the pointed end. This is to hold a further piece of deck in place as the boat is built. Half way along is a large hole, through which the thickest piece of dowel is inserted as the 'funnel'. There are smaller holes at each end through which the dowels catalogued as 672284.1 need to be passed, in order to hold the deck pieces together, and there are really small holes at each end which will hold the very narrow 'mast' dowels. These dowels also hold further pieces of deck in place.
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.