FIRST AID TO UNCLES. T HERE are not very many new
developments in the toys which are to be seen in the shops this Christmas, but the toys were so good last year that in spite of this the " Christmas bazaars good still show a large proportion cf sensible, well-designed toys. It is sometimes very diffi- cult to choose presents for children, especially if they are other people's children and if our purchases must not be very costly. Perhaps the following table and summary of likes and ages, though it will be all stale news to parents, may be a help to uncles, aunts and god-parents. In the first place :- Babies up to four or five months do not play with toys at all.
From five months to nine months babies like toys which, when they are shaken, make a noise. But they will knock themselves over the head with whatever they hold in their inexpert hands, so sharp or heavy rattles should be avoided. They also put things in their mouths, so that furry and painted toys are a snare. When it is about nine months old a child realizes that a doll is an image of another child, and that a fluffy cat, dog or rabbit has a face and paws. It is amused by bright colours. Unfortu- nately, it still puts things in its mouth a good deal. This is the age for rubber toys. At about eighteen months the baby has reached the zenith of its destructiveness. As soon as it can walk, it will begin to stagger about with its toys in its arms and, of course, to fall on the top of them. At this age it is cruel to give it brittle, easily broken things. But from now to two and a-half or three is a great age for stuffed creatures and rag dolls. All the toys should be fairly big and simple, as even with their best - pains children of this age are very clumsy, and a finicky set of dolls' furniture, for instance, which would be their delight at five, would probably only be a source. of tears at this stage. From about two and a-half to four is the great age for dolls' prams and hoops on handles, also engines that can be pulled along the floor. Cradles with real bedclothes, in which strangely assorted creatures can be put to bed, are a great joy, so are unbreakable dolls' tea sets. After this, from four to six or seven, comes the age for tin soldiers for little boys and dolls' houses and dolls' furniture for little girls. A child is beginning to get clever with its fingers, and now enjoys small possessions which give it a sense of its increasing size and deftness. Now is the time for paint-boxes, for ninepins, and for transfer and basket-making outfits. (But beware of the outfits sold attractively tied on to the lids of neatly fitted cardboard boxes ! The so-called tools are very apt to drop to pieces as soon as they are taken out.) Scooters, skipping ropes and hoops are all popular at this age, and some children who are clever with their fingers might be ready for Meccano, accurately made bricks and well made constructional toys in general, while all children would like plasticise.
It is impossible to generalize for children after seven or eight. Many will have begun to go to school, and the question of fashion comes in besides that of individual taste. At this age, also, the power to hint has been evolved, and the uncle or aunt will probably have been advised as to a choice of presents.
I still think that toys ought to come down in price—at any rate those meant for small children. To begin, for example, with the toys at Messrs. Liberty's. Last year there were sonic very charming dolls with carved wooden heads made at some Women's Institute. The girl dolls were dressed in sun bonnets, print dresses and aprons, the boys in smock frocks and slouched hats, their pnce, so far as I can remember, being, according to size, between 2s. and 4s. This year Messrs. Liberty's still have admirable dells with beautifully carved wooden heads, but these dolls, though only 13 inches high, cost 31s. 6d. Of course, they have the great merit of being unbreakable. Small children cannot be careful with their toys ; the bumps and scratches on their own legs and foreheads show that their "careless- ness " is inevitable, resulting from muscles which are not properly under control But even though it is unbreak- able, 31s. 6d. seems a very high price to give for a compara- tively small doll. However, there are some other un- breakable toys at Liberty's of a kind that were new to me. They are made of coloured suede. There is a delightfully absurd cow for 15s. 6d., and a lion for 10s. 6d. They could, I imagine, easily be cleaned with a stiff brush, much in the way that one cleans suede shoes. At Liberty's, also, I was very much attracted by some ridiculous cretonne horses with ginger or crimson manes and tails. They stand about 11 inches high and cost 5s. 11d. Some Japanese rag dolls here were, I thought, extremely pretty, with very nicely drawn features. Those of about 10 inches high cost 5s. 6d., and there were also quite big dolls, standing nearly as high as a year-old child, which cost about 31s.
These are charming toys, as the bright-coloured kimonos in which they are dressed could easily be unsewn and look as if they would wash well. Only those who know the state of squalor to which a really beloved doll can be reduced by two or three months of life in London know just what this possibility of washing means to parents and guardians.
Messrs. Liberty's also sell the " Lawson Wood Toys." There are charming, small, squarish elephants and goats at about ls. apiece, very strongly made and attractive in colour and design. The forms of the creatures are simplified, and this simplification in itself makes them amusing to look at. There is nothing in these of the strained humour which too many comic toys possess—the " Jackie Coogans" and the " Gilbert the Filberts," " Ally Sloper " and police- men—which are much too violent and exaggerated for I.
child's unsophisticated tastes. These qualities of exagger- ated and unexaggerated humour are exemplified in some of the plain wooden toys made by disabled soldiers in the Lord Roberts' Memorial Workshops. They are nice, flat creatures, cut out of inch boarding. The pig and the rabbit are delightful, but the dog has been " comicalized." These creatures cost about ls. 6d. apiece. They would be charm- ing presents for a baby who is still at the age of putting things in its mouth but beyond that of knocking itself over the head with its toys. Alternatively, might they not be great fun for an older child who had a pot of paint ? To provide such creatures with spots and stripes would be a most amusing wet-day occupation. Messrs. Dean's toys remain delightful, though I depre- cate " Peck's Bad Boy," price 10s. 6d., with a cloth cap pulled down over his nose, broken braces and baggy check trousers. A child who was amused by that sort of joke would be too old to play with dolls. Jacko, a sort of plush monkey, dressed as an Admiral, is pleasant, but perhaps the nicest thing that Messrs. Dean supply this year is the " Tru-to-Life " rag doll which they call The doll with the disc " ; she is about 14 or 16 inches high and costs 6s. This is a good deal less than most dolls of that size cost. Her face is quite pleasantly modelled, and she has beautiful curly hair ; the only fault I had to find with her was that her hands might break, otherwise she is indestructible. Very pleasant, too, are some of the smaller stuffed animals—stout, plethoric dogs, rabbits and cats costing between ls. and 2s. In an article last year I wrote about a " Tru-to-Life Baby Puck," who cost 2s. 9d.
Since then I have had a proof of his qualities. He has lasted a whole affectionate year, and has not split a seam nor turned a hair, and is still very popular. The bears and golliwogs on scooters, though attractive, have not proved nearly so durable, the scooters not being strongly enough made.
Good scooters, by the way, of a size for a child to ride on are rather hard to get, several shops supplying a kind which is a real snare, the wheels not being true and _ catching on the platform and handle struts. The best scooters I have seen are to be obtained at Harrods. They are strongly made on the principle of a bicycle, and would obviously stand knocking about. Perhaps the pleasantest toy at Messrs. Hamley's is the Humpty-Dumpty Circus. I don't think this has been on sale for a year or two, but I am familiar with a pre-War clown, a mule, a buffalo and an elephant of the circus which have survived two generations of children. They are charming toys, rather too good for toddling chil- dren. I should give them to children about six or seven. Most delightful circus performances can be arranged with them, as the creatures are all jointed so that they will stand in the most acrobatic positions and recall the delights of the ring to the least imaginative.
For small children, the Chelsea -Futnishing Company still have their charming frilled hobby horses and their beautifully carved-solid little farmyard creatures. But this year perhaps the best wooden toys are to be found at Messrs. 'Heal's. I liked the amphibious Dutch barge there, price 19s. 6d. It will sail but, being flat- bottomed, will also push about the nursery floor with credit to its owner. I thought the rocking-horses here and every- where had degenerated. I saw none of the wonderful creatures with flame-like manes and tails that were so beautiful last year. At Messrs. Heal's the toy department is decorated with really pretty wreaths and garlands of fruit and leaves which can be bought for 20s. a piece of three yards. They will provide really gay and charming Christmas decorations, and though of paper would obviously be quite strong enough to be used again next year. Here, and also at Messrs. Woolland's, beautiful Italian dolls are to be bought. They are made of modelled felt, and each doll is a genuine piece of artistic expression. There was a really pretty Early Victorian lady in scalloped and flounced white dress, a poke bonnet and ringlets ; several charming pierrots and harlequins, and a delightfully fat coachman in a red pelisse with innumerable capes. He, I think, however, was not really a doll, but a tea cosy. The pure, brilliant colour and the extremely well modelled features are the special qualities of these dolls. Too good for the small child, they would be ideal for the rather big little girl who still played with dolls. M. E.
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