From the ancient times right up to the Victorian Age, toys were handmade, either at home or in craft-shops. Craftsmen created toys using various materials like clay, porcelain, wood, leather, paper, cardboard, fabric, lead, tin and even silver, and then sold these to toy merchants and peddlers who in turn sold them to the general public. Toys were usually stocked with other merchandise in stalls and shops; it was only in the late 18th century that the notion of separate toy shops began to gain prominence.

Mass production of toys didn’t come about until the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries, when tin and cast iron toys became popular. Toy makers like Julius Chien, Strauss and Louis Marx in the USA made some rather creative and intriguing wind-up and spring-driven toys. Modern day parents will probably look upon many of these with askance, sharp edges and corners abounded and there were plenty of parts that an enterprising child could detach and swallow. Toy production was affected but not undermined by the Great Depression and the World Wars, and many types of tin and cast iron toys continued to be made until the toy manufacturers discovered the possibilities of plastic in the 1950s.

The toy industry in modern times is very big business, with brand names (Mattel, Lego, Fisher Price) and movie syndication deals (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter) adding enormously to the kitty. It helped too when smart advertising executives discovered that the appeal of toys wasn’t restricted to children and their parents, that there were other grown-up customers who liked to buy toys too – for aesthetic, sentimental or other reasons – and so began the business of creating toy collectibles with this segment in mind.

Now toy collecting is one of the most popular of all collectible activities around the world, with many collectible societies, groups, magazines, books and websites devoted to the subject.

To find the value of toys that are for sale or have sold recently at auction, check out the Worthopedia: it contains a database of prices, photos and descriptions compiled from hundreds of auction houses. Click on the word ‘Prices’ in the menu bar at the top of the page. That takes you to the Worthopedia. Use the search field in the right column to find specific items.

Click here for a direct link to the Worthopedia.

Click on any of the links below to find some noteworthy toy collectible societies.
The Mechanical Bank Collectors of America
The Association of Game Puzzle Collectors
The Train Collectors Association
The Toy Car Collectors Association
The Canadian Toy Collectors Society

You can also read about the toy-maker Louis Marx here –
Wikipedia – Louis Marx and Company
Marx Toy Museum

Children in the Victorian Age:
Much like in the present age, the kind of childhood you had in Victorian times depended on the kind of family you had and its social and financial standing.

Children of rich and aristocratic parents invariably had it good, with spacious, well-furnished bedrooms and play areas, plenty of toys and food, and governesses, tutors, nursery maids, riding masters and other servants in attendance. Boys usually later went to a boarding school, where they got the softness beaten out of them and became tough enough to shoulder the responsibilities of ‘the Empire’. Girls mostly studied at home and learnt home-making skills. Both attended dance parties and other social gatherings, and often traveled to popular tourist resorts around the UK or abroad with their families.

Middle-class children attended day schools and, although less privileged than the rich children, led reasonably comfortable lives.

Things could be comparatively tough for the children of the poor and many had to work for a living from a very young age, but life was not as bleak as is often made out. Kenneth Douglas Brown, in his book ‘The British Toy Business: A History Since 1700’, states that “Only 2 per cent of boys and even fewer girls between the ages of five and nine were at work by 1851. For those between ten and fourteen, the percentages of those classified as being gainfully employed were 36.6 for boys and 19.9 for girls. In other words, the overwhelming majority of children up to the age of 14 did have the time to enjoy toys.”

Toys in the Victorian Age:
Toys usually reflect the culture in which they were manufactured and Victorian toys are no exception. They were for most part meant to ‘edify’ rather than just ‘entertain’ and show the prevailing attitudes which keeled towards well-demarcated roles for girls and boys. Girls, expected to stay home and take care of the family, were nudged towards domesticity with an array of beautiful porcelain and wax dolls in silk and lace dresses, cozy and incredibly detailed doll houses and miniature china tea sets. Boys, expected to go out and take charge in a difficult, turbulent world, had sets of tin soldiers, toy guns, bows and arrows, tool sets, marbles, tops, yo-yos, kites, model cars, model trains, cricket bats, fishing tackle and other such sporting paraphernalia. Both girls and boys played with mechanical banks, rocking horses, musical instruments, blocks, chess and checkers.

Of course, only the rich and, to a growing extent, the middle-class children had such toys. Children from poor families had to be content with cheap or home-made toys fashioned from wood, cloth pegs, rags and other materials – unless they had rich neighbors who liked to donate their old, expensive toys at Christmas time.

Recommended Reading –
The British Toy Business: A History since 1700
by Kenneth D. Brown

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1852851368