Wonderful Wooden Toys
Warwickshire County Museum Service are currently installing a brand new display at St John’s House Museum, Warwick to highlight exciting & intriguing wooden toys that have been loved and played with since ancient times.
All the toys on display come from the collection of local toy maker Cyril Hobbins from Kenilworth, who has spent much of his life collecting historic and replica wooden toys from around the world. He has used many of them as a source of ideas and inspiration for making his own wooden toys, dolls and games.
Selected toys from Cyril’s collection will be on display at St. John’s Museum, Warwick, from Tuesday 24th February 2009. The Museum is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm, and also Sundays from 2.30 to 5pm during April to September. Entry to the museum is free!
Cyril has long been a friend of the Warwickshire Museum Service and has produced some wonderful replica toys that school children use in activity sessions and visitors touch and play with in the galleries. Cyril had considered offering his collection to one of the museums in London but was happier to see it going to a good local home, where it can be used and seen by Warwickshire people and as a resource for future generations.
Cyril’s collection grew from a great interest in and love of wooden toys, and from a concern that, with the growth of plastic and electronic toys, the humble wooden toy might vanish altogether.
Nicola Sherhod, Assistant Keeper of Human History, said: “We are really pleased Cyril decided to offer his collection to Warwickshire Museum Service. The collection includes approximately 500 toys and games and 200 books about toys and toy making. The new exhibition displays a varied selection of the many wonderful wooden objects that have been collected or made by Cyril during his life.”
Displays include historic and replica wooden toys from around the world and, closer to home, include a hand-made Punch and Judy set from Birmingham! There is a simple homemade pull-along horse together with homemade toys made with very little during World War 2 which include a pecking-bird toy made by a German Prisoner of War and some clever jointed and articulated toys, tiny toys and toys modelled on people.
Cyril has always been a local celebrity, but he will now be internationally known as “a modern day Geppetto” as he is soon to be seen on the extra footage on the new Disney’s Pinocchio- Platinum Edition DVD.