DOI issue:
No. 281 (August 1916)
DOI article:Seaby, Allen William: Toys at the Whitechapel art gallery
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21262#0194
Toys at the IVhitecImpel Art Gallery
for it must not be supposed
that toys, except when they
are of metal, demand an
expensively equipped fac-
tory. Wood-working and
wood-carving tools, a light
lathe for turning wood, with
a few benches, would suffice
for an experimental ven-
ture. It must be remem-
bered also that besides the
cheap toys exported in
great quantities, both
Germany and Austria pro-
duce toys of a better and
more expensive kind, but toy poultry designed and executed
these are rarely seen in by misses m. v. wheelhouse and louise Jacobs
England, and, like all other
artistic productions, are of course made in a studio conscious funniness, but by that humour which is
by a small group of art-workers. attained by direct and clear-cut form with simplifi-
The exhibition under review showed evidences cation brought about by economy of means. Thus
that these groups are already at work, if only here a toy representing an animal or person which has
and there. It must be emphasised that they must been produced by plain sawing with little or no
consist of art-workers or be controlled by such. carving is likely to be more humorous than one
Mere patriotism in the form of encouragement of on which so much labour of carving has been
home arts is not enough, as the difficulty of sustain- expended that the object loses vitality—becomes
ing rural centres for metal-work, weaving, wood- a model rather than a toy.
carving, etc., has repeatedly shown. Perhaps the deepest pitfall some of the modern
A toy should possess several qualities for toymakers have fallen into is to make their toys
which we must go to the artist. First it should consciously picturesque or quaint, by simulating a
possess humour; beautiful in the hackneyed sense look of age. The doll's-house, let us say, appears
it need not be, for it is to appeal to children, whose to have a leaky thatched roof, its walls are painted
sense of beauty has not fully developed. They are with cracks and broken plaster. This is quite
attracted by that interest of form which we call beside the mark. In the ages of great art,
grotesque; hence in short the toy should be a when work was at its freshest, the notion of
caricature. But the toy designer who sets out to " picturesqueness " was quite absent. Nothing in
caricature may miss his mark. The quality of Japanese art suggests age ; the houses and streets
form which appeals to the child is obtained not by are clean and rectilinear as if just built. The same
toy village designed and executed by misses renee dunn and toan de bude
174
for it must not be supposed
that toys, except when they
are of metal, demand an
expensively equipped fac-
tory. Wood-working and
wood-carving tools, a light
lathe for turning wood, with
a few benches, would suffice
for an experimental ven-
ture. It must be remem-
bered also that besides the
cheap toys exported in
great quantities, both
Germany and Austria pro-
duce toys of a better and
more expensive kind, but toy poultry designed and executed
these are rarely seen in by misses m. v. wheelhouse and louise Jacobs
England, and, like all other
artistic productions, are of course made in a studio conscious funniness, but by that humour which is
by a small group of art-workers. attained by direct and clear-cut form with simplifi-
The exhibition under review showed evidences cation brought about by economy of means. Thus
that these groups are already at work, if only here a toy representing an animal or person which has
and there. It must be emphasised that they must been produced by plain sawing with little or no
consist of art-workers or be controlled by such. carving is likely to be more humorous than one
Mere patriotism in the form of encouragement of on which so much labour of carving has been
home arts is not enough, as the difficulty of sustain- expended that the object loses vitality—becomes
ing rural centres for metal-work, weaving, wood- a model rather than a toy.
carving, etc., has repeatedly shown. Perhaps the deepest pitfall some of the modern
A toy should possess several qualities for toymakers have fallen into is to make their toys
which we must go to the artist. First it should consciously picturesque or quaint, by simulating a
possess humour; beautiful in the hackneyed sense look of age. The doll's-house, let us say, appears
it need not be, for it is to appeal to children, whose to have a leaky thatched roof, its walls are painted
sense of beauty has not fully developed. They are with cracks and broken plaster. This is quite
attracted by that interest of form which we call beside the mark. In the ages of great art,
grotesque; hence in short the toy should be a when work was at its freshest, the notion of
caricature. But the toy designer who sets out to " picturesqueness " was quite absent. Nothing in
caricature may miss his mark. The quality of Japanese art suggests age ; the houses and streets
form which appeals to the child is obtained not by are clean and rectilinear as if just built. The same
toy village designed and executed by misses renee dunn and toan de bude
174