International studio (59.1916)

Toys at the Whitechapel Art Gallery


“the house that jack built”
TOYS DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY NOBLE BROTHERS

tion handed down from one generation to the next.
It is no exaggeration to say that the cleverest
draughtsman would be hard put to it to compass
the directness of the touches on the cheapest
German toy. He must know what pigment to
use and what degree of dilution and what brushes
and vehicles are necessary. Such work is out-
side the powers of our workpeople, to whom any
form of plastic art is unknown, because they have
no craving to express themselves graphically.
But at the Whitechapel exhibition there was
represented another section of workers—the artists,

and it was their work which had, as might have
been expected, the greatest variety and interest,
and in several cases showed what might be called
“toyfulness,” that is to say their exhibits were
really toys and not models. Also their work
evinced a feeling for form and colour and a fresh-
ness of invention which were pleasantly surprising
after the hackneyed productions of Germany. That
country’s superiority in toy production undoubtedly
rests on its powers of organisation and distribution,
that is, on its ability to produce the article at the
cheapest rate. In the great mass of the “ trade ”
toys produced in Germany there is an almost total
lack of vitality and expression. It is on this side
that British workers might succeed. Invention,
originality, freshness of thought, humour, are
qualities in toys that children would value highly,
though up to the present they have not had much
opportunity to rejoice in them.
In the designing and carrying out of toys the art
schools might find an outlet for the ability of those
pupils whose work has not already been earmarked
for other industries. First the design of toys might
be approached from the art school point of view.
It might be related to other studies, as drawing and
modelling and wood-work. All the factors which
go to the assembling of a successful toy might
be considered and threshed out. The National
Competition, -when next it is held, might help the
movement by awarding prizes and medals for
designs for toys.
Art students and teachers might attack the
subject in another way by forming Guilds of Toy-
making and carrying out the whole of the wrork,


“the VILLAGE SCHOOL” TOYS DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY NOBLE BROTHERS

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