The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1893-12-23
A TALK ABOUT TOYS.
GERMANY STILL LEADS IN THEIR
MANUFACTURE.
All the Inhabitants of the Town Make
DolIs-Many Wooden Toys Made in
America.

said a prominent wholesale dealer 10 a
writer of the Philadelphia Times, mine
tenths come from Germany. OF these a
large proportion are made in one little
little place, Sonneberg, a town OF about
10000 inhabitants in Thuringen. AL
most the entire industry Of this place is
confined TO the manufacture Of dolls.
The inhabitants are very poor people and
are brought up to doll making. Before
il is completed a doll passes through
many hands. The head, hands and feet
are made by one person, the body by
another. the hair is fixed on by another,
and the face is painted by two other diff
ferent people, one doing the rough
work and the second the finishing
touches. The clothing is made by
another person and the dresses are put on
by still another.
'All this work is done at such starva-
ton prices that Americans cannot com
pete in the manufacture, although the
duty is thirty-fve per cent. To this
town of S%onneberg there comes every
year a large number of buyers from all
over the world. | 60 there myself and
never fail TO meet a score or so of Amer
leans 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 attrac-
tive, but the Germans copy them so
cheaply that the worlds buyers 90 10 the
latter chiefly 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 the Ger
mans outspeed them. England fur
nishes very few dolls, and | can now re-
call only one kind that is distinctly
English-the English rag doll, made
wholly of rags.
There are French walking dolls,
smoking men and other automatic fig
ures, but they are mechanical and too
intricate to be classed as mere dolls. OF
the rubber dolls fully one-half are made
in America, where anything that is ma
chine made prospers TO the exclusion OF
the imported stuffs. The prices of dolls
range from l cent to $50, but the most
popular, of course, are those that sell for
25 cents, so cents and 81, although there
has recently been a great run on 3 and
10 cent dolls. AS with dolls so il is with
other toys. The most of them come
from Germany, where they are made so
cheaply. The same town of Sonneberg
furnishes many of them, but more come
from Nuremberg and small towns in its
vicinity.
at is in this district that magnetic
toys, swords, guns, trumpets, horns,
woody sheep, jumping jacks, monkeys on
sticks, jacks in the box, and ingenious
mechanical toys are made. The carved
wooden toys come chiefly from the Ba-
varian 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
these things are made you may Judge
from this instance: Here is a toy set con
sistingo Of three chairs. "A bureau, a table,
a sofa and "A mirror, carefully don. up in
a substantial pasteboard box. Now.
after having paid 30 per cent duty, and
having allowed 30 per cent. for freight
and other expenses, we sell such furniture
sets at % cents a dozen and make a
reasonable profit. Think of that. You
can figure out the original cost if you
choose.
Porcelain tOys-tea sets and things
Of that sort-are also made very cheaply,
the waste places in the potteries being
filed mp with their molds without much
cost. Toy horses, COWS, elephants. cats,
dogs lions. tigers and all kinds of AMI
mails are maize chiefly in German pris-
ons. Many of these are ingenious novel
ties, being so constructed as TO be able
10 move heads and emit a noise re-
sembling more or less the natural cries
IS .,,l, ,,;,oo1 IT, ,n.,,l ,x:,o e H.
toys runs from fifty cents to fifty dollars.
OF the wooden toys. fully one-half are
made in America. They include \ b c
blocks. building blocks and games, and
are easily turned out by machinery. Iron
toys are also made largely here, aud so
are tin toys. The tin for the latter is i'm.
ported from Europe, and when the toys
are finished they are exported for the
European market.
The majority of rubber toys come
from France. mostly from Paris, although
the manufacture Of this line OF play
thing is constantly increasing in Amer
lea. and the American rubber toys are
really the best TO be had. The reason
that America has not taken the cad in
the manufacture of rubber toys is found
in the fact that the great demand for
other goods shuts out the toys. Toy
watches are remarkably cheap and are
made in France. We sell watches with
chains, charms and movable hands for
% cents a dozen. after having allowed
for duty and freight. OF the standard
games the best chessmen cong from
England; backgammon and checkers are
made altogether in America; bone domi.
noes, Dice and the cheaper grades of
chessmen come from France; TOY print
ing presses, locomotives and all that line
OF goods are domestic.
Toy printing presses were formerly
almost wholly furnished by the Germans,
but latterly the Americans have super.
seeded their Teutonic brethren. In edu-
c%ational toys America leads the world
and exports large quantities. SO it does
also in the manufacture of the necessary
articles for outdoor games