Toy boat
Category
Toys
Date
Unknown
Materials
Stained wood
Measurements
15 mm (Height) x 63 mm (Width) x 60 mm (Length)
Collection
Sudbury Hall Museum of Childhood, Derbyshire
NT 672284.3
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 an extra part of the upper deck, stained light brown, and fits at the rounded 'aft', taking up about a quarter of the length of the boat. On its underside, near to the straight edge, is a hole drilled almost all the way through. This is to attach the piece to the main upper deck piece catalogued as 672284.2 using the dowel which is part of the lower deck. There is a really small hole near the rounded end which matches the one on the main deck piece and will hold one of the very narrow 'mast' dowels.
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.