![]() ![]() Hansons reserve the right, in forming their opinion, to consult and rely upon any expert or authority reasonably considered by them to be reliable. How appropriate, then, that Margaret Woodbury Strong collected these living pictures for what she called her “museum of fascination.” Even though you might not be a bored kid in 1896 and living pictures no longer represent the latest in home entertainment, they still remain amusing, fascinating, and integral elements of the collections of The Strong’s National Museum of Play.Terms and Conditions of Business for BuyersĬare is taken to ensure that any statements as to authorship, attribution, origin, date, age, provenance and condition are reliable and accurate, but all such statements are statements of opinion and are not to be taken as statements or representations of fact. Nevertheless, they fascinated everyone with their cleverness, humor, and connections to everyday tasks and experiences, illustrating Victorian values imaginatively in a miniaturized space.Īccording to Christian Bailly, author of Automata: The Golden Age, 1878–1914, the essential appeal of any automaton or mechanical toy lies in its power to mystify and fascinate. Very young children, no doubt, needed supervision around these delicate clockwork toys with their sheet glass windows. This type of simple automata, like its more sophisticated cousins usually found in wealthier homes, also functioned as a parlor decoration (an adult toy, if you will permit the expression) rather than a child’s plaything. Either way, it’s wonderful.Īs popular late 19th- and early 20th-century toys, living pictures once entertained children of all ages with a blend of fine art, craft, and mass-produced clockwork. You have found play! Or, in this case, maybe play found you. Now the day no longer drags by and is instead miraculously filled with wonder and happiness. ![]() Finally, your aunt lets you wind it up once or twice more. You just can’t get enough mouse-swatting. Delighted, your winter blahs evaporate as you ask to see it one more time. ![]() “Cool!” you exclaim (or whatever kids said in 1896). It’s over quickly, but you finally get to see whether or not the man ever clobbered the mouse. Carefully, using both of those hands, she lowers the picture to a table and grasps the key.Īfter about three turns, the action starts. “I’ll do it,” your aunt shouts as she hustles into the room, wiping her hands on her apron. What a funny image-an odd-looking, bespectacled man in his nightclothes wielding a flyswatter and trying to try to smack a mouse! Then you find the key. “Can I look closer?” “Yes, you can,” comes the curt reply from the kitchen, “But don’t touch it!” Just then, you see an interesting box on the mantel. Spring seems too far away to even think about and melancholy starts to settle over you. Your aunt fetches you a hot cup of cocoa, and you sit on the sofa to watch the snow fall. You don’t play the piano and radio, television, and the Internet don’t exist-there’s not even a cat to play with. Even worse, there’s nothing to entertain you. Your aunt’s parlor is cold, with the wind whistling in through the single-pane windows and the wood fire barely taking an edge off the chill. To your dismay, you find yourself stuck at your aunt’s house one particularly dreary winter day with absolutely nothing to do. ![]()
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