New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-05-10
TOY SHOW AT ROTTERDAM.
THE DOLLS OF VARIOUS PERIODS AM of
DIFFERENT NATIONS EXHIBITED.

Rotterdam, April ~.
Rotterdam is 20 have an exhibition OF toys
which will prove Of interest, not alone to TIE
Juvenile population, but to manufacturers and 10
the general public. The affair is to be under
the patronage of the Queen Regent and Princess
WiIbelmina. and already the designers are vying
With each other in the production Of odd and
original subjects Holland has invariably led in
the supply of toys to every market of the world,
md in Rotterdam as early as the sixteenth century
tbere were manufactured some curious mechani-
col dolls. among them troubadour, who WIN
tinv mandolin stood beneath window and
serenaded an invisible sweetheart. This toy was
DESIGNED for German princess who was unfor-
tunatelv deaf and dumb. The troubadour cost
$500 of our money and was exhibited TO the
public at that time. 1t is doubtful II any oil the
mechanical boys can surpass this Chef doeuvre OIL
tho mast At the coming exhibition Will be dis
nlaved all the most intricate and costly speci-
mems Of recent invention There are garnecocB
in mock battle, the birds perfectly formed and
supplied with gaffs. Then there is a race-course
with seven horses, the revolving track composed
Of n raised disc under which is the machinery
that causes the horses to start or: stop at WILL
II is wound up by o key and Che interior WORKS
are as complicated as those Of watch. linen
there are humming birds that set in motion NY
through the air short distance and alight with
most life-like suggestiveness, the craze running
to mechanism in every case, for the toy OF TO-
day must possess the semblance OF reality
The exposition however, will not only display
these perfected playthings Of the present. but the
clumsy toys of the past. There will be specl-
mems of every conceivable description from the
unbending wooden images that recall the house
hold gods of the ancients, down to the modern
An ant
pean celebrity Dolls are the most ancient as
well as the most popular of all toys. During the
excavations Of Pompeii sketches OF chill
dren were discovered with rude dolls
clasped in their hands, and in ancient Gaul
dolls were found in the tombs that had been sealed
for centuries In the time of Madame Pompa-
dour AN admirer in court cicles caused to be
made a miniature representation of that lady
The doll measured foot in height and was at
tired in all the splendor that characterized the
famous beauty The owner placed the doll upon
a pedestal in his bedchamber. wher. after con-
spicuous failure to win smile from the original,
he consoed himself by addressing his signs and
lamentations to the etigy. Madame Pompadour,
learning of his eccentric id0latry, procured LOT
him a most profitable place in the service OF
her royal lover. Since that time Paris dolls
have in point of elegance fairly divided tne
honors with their cousins German Inc COILS oil
different countries are characteristic and distinctly
national For example, the French, doll is an
exaggerated expression OF the Gallo type OF
beauty 1t has abnormally large eyes, tiny
mouth, and rather an elongated face; The German
doll, on the contrary, has round plump cheeks,
short neck, and chubby hands, with short arms
the ewes being smaller and more deeply set. Both
however, represent the national type of beauty
Toys made at present, although dls-
playing more ingenuity are much less expensive
than those OF early manufacture. At the period
of Louis XIV playthingS cost, small fortune
Louis. at the age of five years had twenty squad.
rons of cavalry and ten Of infantry, moulded OF
silver and designed by the sculptor Glssey These
even to play at war he had to pay dearly. BY
coincidence later these silver toys were sent to
the mint and actually helped TO defray the ,eX;
penscs Of the army at a time when men hld
aside trhes and prepared for the grave exigencies
of nations crisis. At the coming exposition
there will be a number Of interesting toys sug-
Cestive of political incidents. Notably a repre-
sentation OF Bismarck in the act Of smoking
pipe, which the miniature Emperor OF Germany
snatches from his hand and returns with droll
grimace