The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1889-04-11
WHERE TOYS ARE MADE.
And Why the United States Can Not Max,
the Cheaper Kind.

l
the Cheaper Kind.
''Of the dolls sold in America" said
prominent wholesale dealer in toys
| TO New York Times man, '.nine-
tenths come from Germany. Of these
large proportion are made in one
little place. SOnneberg, town of
about 10000 inhabitants in the Thur
ingen Vaal. Almost the entire indus
try of this place is confined to the
manufacture of dolls. The inhabitants
are very poor people and are brought
up to doll-making.
"BefOre it is completed a doll passes
through many hands. The heads,
hands, and feet are made by one per-
son, the body by another, the hair is
liked on by another, the face is painted
by two different people, one doing the
rough work and the second the finish
ing touches. The clothing is made by
another person and the dresses are put
on by still another. All this labor is
done at such starvation prices that
Americans can not compete in the
I! manufacture, although the duty for
importation is 35 per cent.
TO this town of Sonneberg there
come every year a large number of
buyers from all over the world. | 90
there myself and never fail to meet ut
least score of Americans engaged in
the same business. There are at least
500 different kinds of dolls, and the
variety is remarkable. The French
invent many of the most attractive,
but the Germans copy them so cheaply
that the worlds buyers go to the latter
for their stock. For the manufacture
of fine dress dolls the French still hold
the lead by long odds. 1t is only in
the cheaper goods that the Germans
outspeed them. England furnishes
very few dolls, and l can now recall
only one kind that is distinctly English
the English rag doll. which is made
wholly of rags, even to the face, the
eyes being sewed on. There are French
walking dolls, smoking men, and
other automatic figures, but these do
not really belong to the family of dolls.
They are mechanical figures, too intri-
cate in their mechanism TO be classed
as mere dolls. OF the rubber dolls
fully one-half are made in America,
where anything that is machine made
prospers to the exclusion of imported
stuffs.
1.-The price of dolls ranges from 1
cent to $50, but the most popular are
those that sell for % cents, 80 cents,
and 81, although there has been a
great run recently on 5-cent and 10
cent dolls.
'As with dolls, so it is with other
toys. The most of them come from
Germany, where they are made very
cheaply. This same town of Some
berg furnishes many of them, but
more come from Nuremberg and small
towns in its vicinity. 1t is in this dis
trict that magnetic toys, swords, guns,
trumpets, horns, woolly sheep, jump
ing jacks, monkeys on sticks, jacks in
the box, and ingenious mechanical
toys are made. The carved wooden
toys come principally from the Bavar-
ian highlands, but they are brought
to Nuremberg to be sold. The cheaper
grades of wooden toys are made in
poorer Saxony and comprise cheap
arks and sets of furniture.
"How cheaply they make these
things you can judge from this in
stance. Here is u toy set of furniture
consisting of three chairs, bureau,
table, sofa, and mirror, carefully
done up in substantial pasteboard
box. Now, after having paid 35 per
cent duty and having allowed 20 per
cent for freight and other expenses,
we sell such furniture sets at IS cents
per dozen and make a reasonable pro-
fit. You can figure out the original
cost if you choose.
"Other toys are made with CORES
ponding cheapness. Here are outfits
for painting. They are done up in
well-made mortised wooden boxes.
with a painted picture on the top, and
including twenty-four pigments and
brush. We sell them for 80 cents a
dozen and make profit, after allow
ing the same percentage for duty and
expenses as before. We have other
boxes of paints, the cost of which is
almost infinitesimal, possibly not
more than 10 cents per gross. They
are SO cheap, indeed, that l can't name
the cost price. l know that we had
to mark them up to sell them at all.
Porcelain toys-tea sets and things
of that sort-are also made very
cheaply. the waste places in the pot
teries being filled up with their molds
without much additional cost. Toy
horses, cows, elephants, cats, dogs,
lions, tigers, and all kinds of animals
are made largely in the German pris-
ons. Many of these are ingenious
novelties, being so constructed as to be
able to move heads and emit noise
resembling more or less the natural
cries of each animal. The retail price
of these toys runs from 5Ocents to 500,
according to size and perfection. We
sold toy horse the other day for $5O
about the same time real racer was
disposed of at auction uptown for
much less sum.
'.Of the wooden toys fully one-half
are made in America These include
ABC blocks, building blocks, and
games, and are easily turned out by
machinery. Iron toys are also made
largely here, and so are tin toys. The
tin for the latter is imported from Eu-
rope, and when the toys are finished
they are exported for the European
market. The majority of rubber toys
come from France, chiefly from Paris,
although the manufacture OF this line
of playthings is constantly increas-
ing in America, and the American
rubber toys are really the best to be
had. The reason that America has
not taken the lead in the manufacture
of rubber toys is found in the fact that
the demand for other rubber goods IS
SO great as to shut out toys. Toy
watches are largely made in France
and are remarkably cheap. We sell
watches with chains, charms, and NOV
able hands for SO cents per dozen.
after having allowed for duty and
freight.
..Of the standard games the best
chessmen come from England; back
CANNON and checkers are made al
most altogether in America; bone
dominos, dice, and the cheaper grades
of chess some from France; toy print
ing presses. locomotives, and all that
line of goods are domestic. Toy
printing presses were furnished for
merly almost wholly by the Germans,
but latterly the Americans have super
seeded their Teutonic brethren IN this
industry. In educational toys America
leads the world, and exports large
quantities. So it does also in the man
ufacture of outdoor games, lawn ten
mis-, croquet, baseball, etc."