One of DT's contributors, Andy Beach, has been going crazy with his own new blog the last few weeks, Reference Library; it's so sweet, I don't mind a bit that he's diverting most of his vintage toy and eBay tips away from Daddy Types now...sigh.
For example, one of his favorite toy clusters is from ADO Speelgoed, a legendary Dutch community of tuberculosis patients and later, disabled folks, who sustained themselves by making and selling incredible wooden toys and kid's furniture. ADO survived through various incarnations from 1925 until just last year, when it ceased production.
During the early formative years, the excellently named designer Ko Verzuu helped ADO create its simplified, modernist, utilitarian-bordering-on-indestructible, handmade style. These nesting boxes from the 1930's are just a taste. Keep an eye on Reference Library and see what else turns up.
ADO Nesting Boxes [referencelibrary]
Related: sure, they're old, but can they stack like this?
Ko Verzuu was in many ways, less a designer himself, but more of a fan or admirer of modern design. He was doing knock-offs of Gerrit Rietveld's earliest De Stijl furniture — for ADO dollhouses — within weeks and months of the originals.