CHRISTMAS SHOPPING.
FVERY year since the War the Spectator has had an article on toys and Christmas presents, having been inspired to this effort by the sense of beauty, constructive honesty and knowledge of the needs of children displayed by the new English toy industry. But it must be admitted that the English toy industry, which last year seemed stationary, has this year almost gone back. It is not that there are no English toys to be procured, but they arc not to he seen in such profusion, and this year there is no more invasion of comparatively conventional shops.
At Messrs. Heal's I saw a very nice plain hobby horse with round black spots (4s. 9d.), and there were some admirable unbreakable dolls, about seventeen inches high, with charming childish faces (dressed, 37s. 6d. ; un- dressed, 23s.. 6d.). There were also some wooden toys painted white and very highly varnished ; a most con- vincing polar bear, and a cluck, who was the soul of motherhood, with eight little ducklings. These are toys that would delight most children of from two to four ; they arc on stands and wheels ; the bear is lls. 6d., the duck 9s. 6d. A sort of simplified black Moorish donkey- boy and his mount I did not like half so much. For a child of, say, five to seven there was a pink and yellow village of about twelve pieces for 10s. 6d. There was also a box of paper shapes with a book of directions, which I thought delightful for a child from seven to twelve. The shapes were small pieces of coloured paper with gummed backs, and the book explained how to use them for decorating such things as the back of the exercise book in which you arc writing your novel, the nursery biscuit tin, or a useful box. Baskets of fruit, animals and all manner of charming conventional pat- terns can be made. It would surely have been a good thing to include in this set a little glass and sponge, and so, somewhat pointedly, replace the human tongue.
Heal's have also a great many presents for grown-up people. I liked very much the coloured brush and comb sets, price £5 10s., alternatively in grey, purple, green or blue.
Not quite so beautiful in colour, they are more practical than enamel sets which chip, or silver sets which (for town-dwellers, at any rate) open up a ,vista of plate powder. I liked, too, the topaz glass, which ranged from ls. 9d. for wine glasses to 25s. for a ten-inch fruit stand. These arc not in the least the colour of topaz, but are of a curious thundercloud colour, thin, and of a beautiful shape. They are Swedish in origin.
At Liberty'S there is also a good selection of toys. They have again this year their pretty, carved. headed dolls, price 31s. These have such charming little faces that they might almost rank as statuettes. They are dressed in hand-sewn or hand-knitted clothes, and, though perhaps somewhat expensive, seemed to me to be " good value." There were here, too, small fantastic palm trees (price 2s. 6d. each) in which sat brilliant macaws and monkeys. Perhaps the most interesting toys Liberty's are showing this year are their Eskimo dolls (twelve inches high, 8s. lld.) made in Greenland and adorned with native beadwork. They show to perfection the cheerful sense of colour and design for which we turn to simple commu- nities. Liberty's have, as usual, their Russian dancers, which are well-modelled little wire statuettes dressed in fabrics. They also have the real Chinese marionette dolls (15s. 6d.) which have lately begun to be imported into England again. Neither the marionettes nor the Russian dancers are suitable for children.
Wayletts' (16 Upper George Street, W. 1) have some quite delightful toys from which we might here select a few for little girls of between five and nine, such as a little set of four rush-bottom chairs and a table, " doll's house size," for 2s. 6d., a delightful doll postman in uniform with bending joints, and a most charming col- lection of letters, which are addressed in real hand- writing. There are a nurse and a baby who really stand up (" doll's house size," like the postman), some delightful mantelpiece and bedroom china, and some most charm- ingly modelled little chairs and sofas in black and gold " chinois " lacquer. A charming minor present would be a little rush-seated chair (price 6d.). Another shop in which handwork is well done is a small, unpretentious saddler's in Romsey (W. Pinnick, Market Place, Romsey, Hants). Here delightful lambswool mocassins can be had for children of nine or ten, while they have a re- markable collection of hand-made motor gauntlets and suede hand-bags, all made "behind the shop" and most moderate in price. It is delightful to find this sort of solid, matter-of-fact, traditional, yet up-to-date work still being carried on in the country apparently without any encouragement from societies or guilds of handi- craft.
At the Chelsea Furnishing Company, of Sloane Square, there are some gaily painted hobby horses with frills and bells. for 7s. 6d. There is a big, solidly made rocking horse of a pleasant modernized design for £6 6s., and a small replica of the wild-eyed galloper on wheels for ls. He is, I imagine, just large enough for a child of two to sit on and trundle himself along.
For grown-up people there are very pretty sprays of Japonica fox: 3s. 6d., in the natural pinky flame colour or bright blue, besides leather mats, with flowers painted on them, for 2s. each.
Messrs. Dean's collection of soft toys for young children is this year admirable as usual. These, if not quite as beautiful as the unbreakable dolls with material or carved faces at Heal's or Liberty's, are quite sufficiently delicately made to please the children for whom they arc intended. They have, besides, the great advantage of being cheap. The " Tru-to-Life " Cherub doll at 10s. is a charming little person, about 14 ins. high, dressed in silk jersey and cap. Another delightful doll for a small child is the " Tru-to-Life " rag doll called " The Sun- bonnet Baby," price 12s., who squeaks. Nothing could be better for first toys than the very cheap series of plush animals—" Quack " the duck, " Pitch " the cat, " Tubby " the dog, the rabbit and the lion cub—which range in price from 8s. 6d. to 100.; or the more roughly- made dolls, about 10 ins. high, priced at Is. 3d.
Messrs. Waring and Gillow's display is most successful where they show things of use. They have some attractive china, for instance, for those whose furnishings Messrs. Heal's rather modem table-ware does not suit. There is a dinner service in a discreet Chelsea design of fifty-two pieces for £6 10s. which struck me as extraordinarily good value. There is also a most presentable tea service of forty pieces, costing LI 17s. 6d., t hus competing with the very cheapest china which can be procured. • A useful present for a housewife-would be a set of six tea knives at 10s. 6d. ; these have bright red, green or mauve handles of a rather unusual and attractive shape. All the textiles at Messrs. Waring and Gillow seem to me cheap. There is some beautiful striped damask, fifty inches wide, to be had at Ils. 6d. .a yard. A length of furniture fabric is a safe and rather attractive present for any .householder. A solid and most accept- able present for a woman who did her own work at a week-end cottage would be a kitchen cupboard (price Ell lls.), which, while not fitted in the elaborate, and to some people finicking, manner of the kitchen cabinet, has vet a most excellent selection of drawers, shelves and little compartments.
Messrs. Hampton, like Waring's, have an attractive display of furnishings, both decorative and useful, while for those who like to give jewellery or silverware of sound workmanship and fairly conservative design, Messrs. Elkington art• a very good firm. Of their things we shall hope to write critically and in more detail in a subsequent issue.
The Merchant Adventurers (Sloane Street, S.W.) have the best display of small hand-made Christmas presents for grown-up people that I have seen this year. Particularly cheap, but an attractive present for 2s. 6d., is a cigarette tin. It holds about twenty-five cigarettes upright, in lacquer-red or jade-green and gold. There is a great variety of sachets, bags, purses and cushion covers, sewn or knitted from silk, which range in price from 4s. 6d. to £2 2s. There are also one or two little objects which were quite new to me. " Hetty the Hotty," price 25s., is a ridiculous but attractive doll, who is also a hot-water bottle and cover. There is the usual Magic Tablet (which erases and is ready for use again in a flick), adapted to the use of a menu card, at 5s. 6d., and a limp tooled leather case for horn spectacles (price 13s. 6d.). There are also stiff. ones at 9s. 0(1. An object of great character and some beauty is a raven made in Java from a black cow's horn picked out with gold (12s. 6d.). Raffia table mats range from ls. 8d. to about 4s., according to size, and there are also exquisite, probably everlasting but rather expensive shell flowers made by Lady Susan Birch—lotuses, tulips, marigolds, every sort.
For children there were the same unbreakable dolls as at Messrs. Heal's, including a smaller size, price 14s. 6d. These dolls are made by Mme. Kruse, the wife of a sculptor.
By ancient tradition, foods and drinks of the richer and more costly sorts are recognized as specially appro- priate for presents at Christmas-time—an idea that the present display at Messrs. Fortnum and Mason's is well calculated to foster. There you may see " Collectors' Pieces " in the way of hams and cheeses and other table heavy-weights, whilst the gastronomical flourishes are most worthily represented by preserved fruits, foie-gras and caviare—the latter in patent pots at from 7s. 6d. to Ills. 6d. - • One cannot pretend that caviare is a cheap food, and most of us have to be content with looking forward to eating it and back to having eaten it rather than much actual eating. It is, in short, a food only safe for philosophers. To many of us such things as chocolates seem to have more probability, and we recommend those, for example, which Messrs. Cadbury so laudably sends to the Spectator office year by year for review, and which this year came remarkably well out of the exhaustive tests to which they were submitted by members of. the literary staff.
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