DOI Heft:
Nr. 122 (May 1903)
DOI Artikel:Studio-talk
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19878#0309
Studio- Talk
played with, only to be looked at. For one
thing, the workmanship throughout is too delicate
and involved. If all the toys of the little Russian
princesses were of a kind with the dolls that
President Loubet gave them in the name of the
French Government, each costing over fr. 2,000,
they are much to be pitied, for I believe they
can get very little enjoyment out of them.
The idea underlying the " Dresden toys " is to
give children something substantial, that stands
being played with, and which need not be care-
fully handled. As far as young children are con-
cerned, thorough likeness to nature is a waste
of energy. They cannot grasp and appreciate
it. Their sense of sight and of touch is not yet
sufficiently developed.
More than this, it is not only a waste of energy,
it may be even detrimental to their development.
If they are presented with some object that offers
them only the general lines upon which nature
runs, so to say, it will encourage their imagination
to finish the image set before them ; whereas an
elaborate toy will leave their faculties wholly
dormant. We generally find that children, especially
small ones, will cling to some awkward, simple toy
DRESDEN TOY DESIGNED BY URBAN
after scores of "beautiful, lifelike" ones have
been laid aside in a few days.
Simple toys have always been obtainable, and are
still, in little country shops and out-of-the-way
places. But with them simplicity meant imperfec-
tion and awkwardness. In the case of the " Dresden
toys" simplicity means marvellous skill. All
DRESDEN TOYS
DESIGNED BY
EICHRODT
297
played with, only to be looked at. For one
thing, the workmanship throughout is too delicate
and involved. If all the toys of the little Russian
princesses were of a kind with the dolls that
President Loubet gave them in the name of the
French Government, each costing over fr. 2,000,
they are much to be pitied, for I believe they
can get very little enjoyment out of them.
The idea underlying the " Dresden toys " is to
give children something substantial, that stands
being played with, and which need not be care-
fully handled. As far as young children are con-
cerned, thorough likeness to nature is a waste
of energy. They cannot grasp and appreciate
it. Their sense of sight and of touch is not yet
sufficiently developed.
More than this, it is not only a waste of energy,
it may be even detrimental to their development.
If they are presented with some object that offers
them only the general lines upon which nature
runs, so to say, it will encourage their imagination
to finish the image set before them ; whereas an
elaborate toy will leave their faculties wholly
dormant. We generally find that children, especially
small ones, will cling to some awkward, simple toy
DRESDEN TOY DESIGNED BY URBAN
after scores of "beautiful, lifelike" ones have
been laid aside in a few days.
Simple toys have always been obtainable, and are
still, in little country shops and out-of-the-way
places. But with them simplicity meant imperfec-
tion and awkwardness. In the case of the " Dresden
toys" simplicity means marvellous skill. All
DRESDEN TOYS
DESIGNED BY
EICHRODT
297