Excerpt from The Page, Vol. 2

Penny Wooden Toys, 20 Tailpieces (mostly wood= cuts), and 20 verses. No inferior metal toys are introduced. Metal toys are warranted to injure children and break more easily than those made of wood or paper. 6 Besides all this the wooden toys are far more interesting, have more expression, and are of a beautiful colour. Perfect things in their way-humorous, delightful, and the older they are (the earlier made) the better the make. For instance, the Monkey up a Stick, good as he is, is but a descendant from the Admiral up a Stick, or one can call him Nelson attempting to mount his Column in Trafalgar Square. A long name, but to the point. This toy I take to have been originally made in about 1799, but age, honour, and beauty are of little account in the shop of the toy=seller. When I bought my Admiral, I asked for his name, and was told they called him White Monkey - that never could have been the name in 1799 was it perhaps Lord Nelson? 3 Another fine toy is what I know as The Oilcake Crusher - a toy of red, black, and white wood. A little man, with hat on head, turns a handle (when you turn another handle) and makes several heavy organ=pipe like beams rise and fall. The fall crushes the cake - or rather, that is their intention. 3 It took a great artist to dreamthis toy, and a great craftsman to make it. It is as intricate in plot as are the stories by Dumas (papa). Then there are the'expressionistic toys, the noisy toys, and so on. Each one as clever as it can stick. 3 The four roundabout horses must be difficult to make. They are certainly difficult to beat. I call them The three musketeers and d'artagnan. Are they not One for all, all, for one - one penny? With but the tiniest space between the horses, and fixed on a flat circular piece of wood, above them a triumphal arch, they revolve, chasing each other round a pole, never satisfied, for ever moving as one man to the sound of Moorish music, which rises from beneath their feet. 3 In all these toys, search how you may, you'll find no suspicion of anything that is fearful. The little Duck seems to have no care for the approaching Spring, and the Cock will not cry at the sight of the sun. The Dog, all patience, refuses to beg, and the tail of the Peacock is carefully clipped lest it trail in the dust. I In fact, in every way the penny wooden toy is as superior to a sixpenny metal one, as the Wooden War Ship Victory is to h.m.s. Horrible - Ironclad. 3 In an old cupboard, behind the little panes of glass, they look far more beautiful than mostchina, and a mass of them make a blaze of colour not to be beaten. It is difficult to get an Oilcake Crusher or an.

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