The Colouring Toy
Colouring Toy
1955 - 1958 (published)
1955 - 1958 (published)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
“A jet assist into the world of colour, drawing, shapes and play”
The Eames Colouring Toy was in production from 1955 to 1958.
The boxed set contained printed cards, colouring pencils and and butterfly clips: “All the ingredients for a kind of fun that children have enjoyed for a long time.” The cardboard shapes can be used to create jointed figures or structures. Rather than prescriptive activities, the Toy suggests that children use ‘clues’ in the kit to play in “an ever-expanding variety of ways”.
Charles and Ray Eames produced several toy designs for children in the 1950s, developing from a toy masks project that they started in 1950.
Each sheet of card-stock came with a variety of outlined die-cut shapes for children to colour, punch out, and attach together. They could play and create by making objects, architectural structures, and abstract or realistic figures.
The Eames Colouring Toy was in production from 1955 to 1958.
The boxed set contained printed cards, colouring pencils and and butterfly clips: “All the ingredients for a kind of fun that children have enjoyed for a long time.” The cardboard shapes can be used to create jointed figures or structures. Rather than prescriptive activities, the Toy suggests that children use ‘clues’ in the kit to play in “an ever-expanding variety of ways”.
Charles and Ray Eames produced several toy designs for children in the 1950s, developing from a toy masks project that they started in 1950.
Each sheet of card-stock came with a variety of outlined die-cut shapes for children to colour, punch out, and attach together. They could play and create by making objects, architectural structures, and abstract or realistic figures.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Parts | This object consists of 58 parts. (Some alternative part names are also shown below)
|
| Title | The Colouring Toy (manufacturer's title) |
| Materials and techniques | Paper, card, wax crayon |
| Brief description | Boxed colouring toy, with shapes, instructions and crayons, designed by Charles Eames, c.1955 |
| Physical description | Colour printed cardboard box with removable lid, containing 8 template sheets for children to press out and colour in, and 12 wax crayons. This set has been used, and the shapes have been removed from the templates. There are 33 different paper shapes which have been coloured in, and some have been joined together with clips and threaded with string to make puppets. Some are coloured on both sides. |
| Style | |
| Production type | Mass produced |
| Marks and inscriptions | The Colouring Toy
Designed by Charles Eames
Shapes and colours and clues for you to make more things than you thought you could think of
Published by Summit Games Ltd. Leeds.
Manufactured under license from Tigrett S.A. Zurich (on box lid) |
| Credit line | Given by Joanna Pocock |
| Object history | Jasmine Pocock was President of the Toy Testing Council of Canada. Her mission to change the way manufacturers made toys promoted affordable, well made toys in North America. This Charles Eames-designed toy was one product that met the Council’s approval, and was promoted through their work. Jasmine bought this set in the mid 1950s and gave it to her children to play with. The donor, Joanna Pocock was the youngest of Jasmine’s seven children, who were all brought up in a modernist house in Ottawa, and educated in modernist ideas. |
| Association | |
| Summary | “A jet assist into the world of colour, drawing, shapes and play” The Eames Colouring Toy was in production from 1955 to 1958. The boxed set contained printed cards, colouring pencils and and butterfly clips: “All the ingredients for a kind of fun that children have enjoyed for a long time.” The cardboard shapes can be used to create jointed figures or structures. Rather than prescriptive activities, the Toy suggests that children use ‘clues’ in the kit to play in “an ever-expanding variety of ways”. Charles and Ray Eames produced several toy designs for children in the 1950s, developing from a toy masks project that they started in 1950. Each sheet of card-stock came with a variety of outlined die-cut shapes for children to colour, punch out, and attach together. They could play and create by making objects, architectural structures, and abstract or realistic figures. |
| Bibliographic reference | |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | B.26:1 to 58-2014 |
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| Record created | February 20, 2015 |
| Record URL |
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