Andy from Stork Bites Man and Ryan from The South Willard are having a colabo joint for kids starting this weekend. It's called the Shrimp Shop. Here's just a taste of what to expect:Boro Pants Ceramic Mobiles Creative Playthings...
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Category archive: vintage
November 17, 2009
Hey You! Go To Shrimp Shop This Saturday In Los Angeles
The Fageol Walkee Tricycle On eBay, Tetanus Shot Not Included
Wow, this looks incredible. Vintage industrial kid gear. The Fageol Walkee Tricycle takes its name from its inventor, Christopher Walkee. Haha, no. William B. Fageol and his brother Frank built the first bus. Their company, the Fageol Motor Company,...
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November 15, 2009
From LIFE: Junior NASA Astronaut
Just fantastic. Andy posted a couple of great b&w photos of this "Young Space Pioneer" taken by veteran photojournalist Arthur Rickerby in 1962 the same year John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth, but the entire...
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[read the full post...]
November 10, 2009
OG Ply At Design Council
You know how, though he made an entire nursery for his own kids in his listed-and-open-to-the-public house, and how he did a bunch of toys for them, too, this is the only picture of Erno Goldfinger's modernist toys that ever...
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November 3, 2009
A Is For Anvil: Spectacular Dutch Childrens Books Online
Het ABC voor Holland's Kleintjes met 156 Plaatjes, by Daan Hoeksema, 1923 Bibliodyssey's found another incredible trove of vintage children's books, this time at The Memory of The Netherlands. The digitized collections of libraries and institutions spanning 160 years--including...
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[read the full post...]
October 31, 2009
Vintage BRIO Rox: Molded Ply Ox
You know what might turn BRIO's fortunes around? Bringing back this molded plywood rocking ox with the red horns and foot rests and the blue felt seat that they introduced in 1967. Seriously, stack those things like Pringles and...
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[read the full post...]
October 29, 2009
Vintage Playground Indy 500 Simulator
It looks kind of unwieldy, but this sweet piece of OG playground equipment is only 4' long and 2' high, small enough for toddlers--and small enough to ship via Greyhound. Even better--for me, anyway, I'm sure it means jack...
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[read the full post...]
Ouch. Kristian Vedel See-Saw
If you were wondering why it's so hard to find vintage Kristian Vedel's molded ply kids desk-chair-cradles in good condition, now you know: see-sawing Swiss urchins. Kristian Vedel children's chair wins Silver Medal at Triennale di Milano, Form 028,...
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[read the full post...]
October 23, 2009
Sesame Street Fight! SW Calls BS On AA T's PR
Haha, you know how a couple of weeks ago, everyone was scratching their heads and going, "Really?? Sesame Workshop approached American Apparel for a Sesame Street throwback T-shirt licensing deal?? Can you guess which one just doesn't belong here?" I...
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October 13, 2009
From The Mixed Up Archives Of Mrs British D. Sign Council: Play Rocker Prototype By John Millns
No sooner is one vintage kids design mystery solved than another takes its place. The British Design Council has published its slide collection online, including this rather awesome-looking "child's rocking play fixture," which uses the same special, NASA-designed bend-into-shape...
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Holy Smokes, It's The Tyng Toy!
The Tyng Toy was created by the brilliant young architect Anne Tyng in the late 1940's. It's probably the least well known of toy from the Golden Age of postwar modernist kid's design, an era which also saw toys...
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Random 1940s See-Saw Still Around, Mistaken For Antique
New Jersey auction house Rago Arts has a $1,000-2,000 estimate on this c. 1940s homemade ply & pine see-saw they're selling in a couple of weeks. Even if it does convert to "a stepping toy," when you flip it...
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[read the full post...]
October 5, 2009
Awesome In Theory: Fisher-Price Classic Toys
The Fisher-Price Teaching Clock I had as a kid is long gone, but the kid honed right in on Joel's yesterday at the flea market. She bought it for ten bucks. [I know, but I wasn't planning to teach...
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[read the full post...]
October 1, 2009
Dutch Plywood Awesomeness By Gerrit Van Bakel
Whether it was the name of his collection or it's just Dutch for "plywood furniture," Gerrit van Bakel's "meubel multiplex" phase lasted from 1966 until the around 1981. During that time, the artist cranked out nearly 80 different rounded-edge...
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[read the full post...]
September 18, 2009
Prisunic Fiberglass Kid Furniture? Peut Etre!
There's apparently no marking on any of them, and I can't find any identical models in any catalogues, but the seller of these three pieces of vintage fiberglass kids furniture sourced from a local preschool says they are "surement...
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[read the full post...]
September 15, 2009
Mid-Century Kids Rooms As Photographed By Maynard Parker
Maynard Parker was a prolific architecture and design photographer based in Los Angeles who shot for House Beautiful, Sunset Magazine, Architectural Digest, for decades. Though he died way back in 1976, his massive archive was donated to the Huntington Library...
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September 10, 2009
Buy The Set And Save! Not Really. Kids' Noguchi & Bertoia At Auction
They're not technically a set, but Lot 472 in this weekend's Rago Arts auction in New Jersey proves that Knoll has been pushing the kid-sized Bertoia chair/ Noguchi Cyclone side table combo on design-y families for years. I don't...
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[read the full post...]
September 8, 2009
Thank You, Creston's Mom!
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } , originally uploaded by creston funk. DT reader Creston Funk's parents rather awesomely saved his...
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September 3, 2009
This Week In Doll-Sized Real Estate Marketing
This Creative Playthings, slot-together, 2-story dollhouse is a later model, being sold unfurnished, and it's in good-but-played-with condition, so no museum piece. Still, I'm surprised it hasn't gotten any bids yet; back in the day, $99 might have been...
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[read the full post...]
September 2, 2009
Old Timey Pedal Cars At Bonhams Run The Awesome Gamut
There are three standout pedal cars in Bonham's upcoming auto memorabilia and classic vehicle auction Sept 12. They are presented here in decreasing order of estimated price... Lot 293, a bare metal restoration of an Austin J40 pedal car, complete...
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[read the full post...]
September 1, 2009
Mad World: If Kids Designed Their Own Xmas Toys
Seeing this old Al Jaffe spread from Mad Magazine was an "epiphanic" window into the design process for either Wary or Meyers, I'm not sure which. Also, it was one of the first things she or he picked out...
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[read the full post...]
August 31, 2009
Gold-Plated Creative Playthings Dollhouse Bathroom
Now I love Dino like a brother--a brother who gave me a very fair price on a beautiful, old, Elephant Gray Eames RAR shell, and who added a truly excellent reproduction Eiffel Tower base--and who attached it for free,...
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[read the full post...]
August 30, 2009
Old Timey Kid Book Awesomeness At BibliOdyssey
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } I picked this for the easy laugh, but my favorite title in this BibliOdyssey collection...
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August 29, 2009
FOUND: The Ford Buckminster Fullerwagon
There we go, that's better. Behold, Internet, the full glory that is/was the Ford Buckminster Fullerwagon. If you'll recall, a 1952 dinner discussion of the awesomeness of station wagons between Fuller and the editors of Ford's showroom magazine, Ford...
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[read the full post...]
August 24, 2009
Unplayed With, Ungnawed On: Awesome Creative Playthings Steamroller
It doesn't get any better than this, folks. If by "it" you're referring to vintage, 70s-era Creative Playthings wooden steamrollers, gift-ready and new in the original box. Whether it's worth at least $45 for your kid to have the...
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[read the full post...]
August 19, 2009
Larger-Than-Average Mickey Mouse Merchandise
1st Dibs: Come for the odd 1950's Mickey Mouse see-saw salvaged from a Miami Beach drive-in theater [$2,500 at Pierre Anthony Galleries in West Palm Beach, via anonymous works] Stay for the even more distended Mickey dresser, a head-scratching,...
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[read the full post...]
August 17, 2009
Thriftshop Find: The Family of Man, The Magazine
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Thriftshop Find: The Family of Man, The Magazine, originally uploaded by daddytypes. Obviously it's kind...
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August 16, 2009
Wow, Vintage Kid-Sized Levi's
I confess, I haven't looked very much, but if Andy's posting them, I going to assume that I'm right in assuming there aren't too many pairs of dead-stock, c.1945 kid-sized Levi's, complete with the tags, floating around out there....
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[read the full post...]
August 13, 2009
My Left Foot [Powered Hop-along Hobby Horse]
For want of a www., a day was lost. It took me until now to realize I was missing the www. on the URL for my blog server. Stay tuned for pictures of the Audi grille that was destroyed...
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[read the full post...]
August 10, 2009
WTD: The Ford Buckminster Fullerwagon
Don't let the old-timey photography fool you. The Ford Treasury of Station Wagon Living is not an artifact of the past; it is a blueprint of the future. From the foreword:Like most new ideas, the book has been a...
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[read the full post...]
August 9, 2009
Yes We Cane! Rattan Kids Furniture By Kay Bojesen [?!]
Is there anything that Kay Bojesen didn't make? In 1949, he created an export collection of rattan [spanskrør] kids and doll furniture for R. Wengler, basketmakers to HKH Frederic IX, King of Denmark. And the awesome pram above--sorry, doll-size...
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Nomadic Car Furniture: Ford Treasury Of Station Wagon Living
We're Ford country, y'all! This is so awesome, it's like someone slammed on the brakes, and I just got plastered by all the awesomeness bouncing around in the back of the Country Squire Wagon. Lash it down, people! As...
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[read the full post...]
August 3, 2009
Creative Playthings Store By Studio Works
I'm trying to remember how I found my way to architect Lester Walker's website, but I don't have any trouble remembering what stuck there: the sweet, futuristic retail store that Studio Works designed for Creative Playthings in 1969. Studio...
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[read the full post...]
July 31, 2009
Every Dad Thing Is Terrible
Wow, I'd never thought of it before, but the WTFound footage cesspool/paradise Everything is Terrible is also the most important parenting resource ever! Hi, I'm Yogi Ogi Dogi?? And my yogic black rooster friend Rasta? Dadaerobics? This video is barely...
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[read the full post...]
July 21, 2009
Joey, Do You Like Coloring Books About Cowboys?
The comic-sized Wrangler Western Museum Coloring Book is an obvious marketing tool--that was published in 1962 by Custom Comics for my high school buddy's grandfather's company, Blue Bell, which operated textile mills way out in the west-- -ern part...
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[read the full post...]
July 16, 2009
Changing Table Americaine, Années 60!
The off-kilter photo is giving me a headache, but otherwise, this vintage table a langer, or how you say, changing table, which DT reader Catherine [sweet blog here] just spotted on Belgian eBay, is pretty sweet. The seller thinks...
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[read the full post...]
July 9, 2009
Goodnight, Starched Moon
Interesting. Steve Roden posted images of a little children's bedtime storybook from like 1895 that came free with a box of Faultless Starch. A kid dreams he travels to the moon, where he finds that the lunar pixies clean...
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[read the full post...]
July 6, 2009
Slides Rule: The 517 Awesomest OG Suberidai In Japan
Andrew posted a few pictures of vintage Japanese slides [suberidai] on his blog, and I realized it's been two years since I visited iharay's amazing online collection. He's up to 517 slides now, and not even half of them...
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[read the full post...]
You Gank My Battleship!
The trick with the Monday morning What's New? email blasts from the vintage design gurus at Virginia-based Three Potato Four is realizing that they actually put the items in their online shop Sunday night. Usually, that means the awesome...
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[read the full post...]
July 2, 2009
They Might Be Patriots: A Schoolhouse Rockin' Weekend
We're going to take a little family trip to Philadelphia for the Independence Day weekend, so posting may be a bit scarce here on Daddy Types. Meanwhile, I've loaded some appropriate educational materials onto the iPod to help the kid...
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[read the full post...]
June 25, 2009
Thonet Bologna! 1875 Bentwood Bassinet On eBay
Wow, there's something you don't see turn up on eBay every day. Or ever. A vintage modernist furniture dealer in Bologna, Italy has an original c 1875 Thonet bassinet for sale. He's done a full restoration on it, including...
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[read the full post...]
June 20, 2009
Did Mister Rogers Really Save Public Television In That Hearing?
I was watching the classic footage again last night, where Fred Rogers testified before the Senate and powerfully defended public television and won over the steely hearts of the politicians by, well, by just him being him. As Graham...
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[read the full post...]
June 17, 2009
Just Do What The Muppets Say, And No One Gets Hurt
Yeah, sure I knew Jim Henson's Muppets predated Sesame Street and that most were created for commercials. In the abstract. There were even a few Muppet ads screening last summer at the Smithsonian's otherwise forgettable Jim Henson Legacy exhibition. But...
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So You Wish You Had An Oscar Mayer Wienermobile Pedal Car?
DT reader Katy sends along a photo of a cute kid in a wienermobile from flickr megapoweruser mattlogelin's photostream. And the obvious question is, "Where can I get one?" Well, they turn up on craigslist and eBay. About 16,000...
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[read the full post...]
June 15, 2009
More Than Model Trains: Mid-Century Modern Kibri Dollhouse
Well here's one hint that German model maker Kibri had a serious modernist thing going on in the early 1960's: check out the swingin' Kibri doll house at Virtuelles Puppenhausmuseum. The doll house, model 158/9, was modular and extendable,...
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Das Kreativische Spielthingen? 1960 Kibri 'Building Furniture'
If it's known at all outside Germany, it seems that Kibri is primarily a toy company specializing in dolls, models, and particularly model trains. So maybe this set of c. 1960 Kibri, Kindler & Briel modular play furniture that's...
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[read the full post...]
June 13, 2009
Found: That DIY Plywood Bed Set-Up From The 70's
You remember that kind of awesome, Supergraphic-equipped plywood bed the American Plywood Association was propagating in 1975? The one with the optional boxes for TOYS, SHOES, and THINGS? Well, it truly was the Age of Free Plywood Love, because...
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[read the full post...]
June 12, 2009
N Is For Nido? Gigantic Nest Sofa By Gianni Ruffi
You may know the Italian furniture company Poltronova as the one-time manufacturer of sofas shaped like giant baseball mitts. So you may not be as surprised as I was to find out that they produced Gianni Ruffi's La Cova,...
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[read the full post...]
June 10, 2009
Hey Wha?? Vladimir Kagan Bassinet At Wright20
Holy smokes. I've been chasing a sweet, modernist plexiglass bassinet since literally the day the kid was born. How is it possible I haven't heard of this insane Lucite and oak model Vladimir Kagan designed in 1970 before it...
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[read the full post...]
Bone Teethers, Perhaps Also Known As Gum Sticks
Andy posted photos of one of the things he didn't win on eBay recently, maybe because it's gross: a collection of circa 1850 baby teethers carved from cow bone. Or maybe he didn't win because antique baby teethers are such...
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[read the full post...]
June 7, 2009
Creative Playthings Miracle: "Immaculate" Play Kitchen
Just a sec, I need to update my list.... DT's Words I'll Never Hear Describing Vintage Creative Playthings Play Kitchens list Pristine Mint Immaculate Never Been Played With Free Shipping OK, I'm back. And what better to do on...
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[read the full post...]
June 3, 2009
Late Model Rietveld High Chair At Sotheby's
After he finished the Schroder House in Utrecht in 1925, Gerrit Rietveld turned over his furniture business to his assistant Gerard van de Groenekan, who produced the designs until 1971, seven years after Rietveld's own death. Sotheby's Amsterdam is selling...
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[read the full post...]
June 1, 2009
J. Crew Plays Hide The Awesome Kids Chair
I see some drop ceiling tiles, super-smooth floor treatments, and non-original moldings, so I'm going to assume that Mister Mort's sneak peek of J. Crew's fall/winter 09 menswear collection went down in a showroom somewhere, not a store. Which...
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[read the full post...]
May 31, 2009
They Don't Make Rickshaw Tricycles Like They Used To
Yes, venerable playground fixture Angeles Tricycles still makes a tricycle rickshaw, the Silverrider. But a few decades of lawyering and design tinkering has taken the edge off. And added some paint to the raw, simple beauty of the galvanized...
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[read the full post...]
Lord Have Murphy! ECS, Eames Contract Storage
"ECS we hope will help architects, designers and school administrators whose planning and maintenance requirements are extraordinary and multitudinous." In an attempt to expand their reach into the dorm and contract furniture market, Herman Miller launched the ECS, the Eames...
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[read the full post...]
May 28, 2009
We Mourn Not For Thee, Irvin The Magnificent, But For Us
Holy Smokes, people. Put down the sandwich, stop your Twittering, step out of the meeting, and call your parents RIGHT NOW to demand to know why they didn't love you enough to buy you an Irvin the Magnificent. Because...
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[read the full post...]
Malaise Era Creative Playthings Dump & Derrick Truck - NIB
The compleatist, collector, or gnawed-wooden-toy-ophobe will be bidding against each other for this New In Box Creative Playthings Dump & Derrick Truck that just appeared on eBay. Me, I'll sit this one out. Even though the ability to switch...
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[read the full post...]
Mecha Bojesen Mega Auction
Though Kay Bojesen has been reduced to expensive teak monkeys today, back in the day, he was a veritable one-Dane, wooden Playmobil, replicating even the most random corners of the modern world in his signature, modernist toy style. At...
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[read the full post...]
May 26, 2009
Actually, Someone Did Put Baby In The Corner
Miss Ann M. Coleman graciously donated this painted wood & iron baby tender, complete with seat, to the Nantucket Historical Association in 1895, baby tender being the olde fashioned term for "crate fo fmall it renders a child immobile...
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[read the full post...]
May 24, 2009
Avril 68! To The Prisunic Furniture Catalogue, Citoyens!
Spectaculaire. Except for the launch date, which turned out to be a couple of weeks before France imploded in a massive wildcat strike and student revolt, the affordable furniture collection launched by the French department store Prisunic looks damn...
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[read the full post...]
May 22, 2009
From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs Lif E. Magazine: Woodward Cradle By Fritz Goro
When the history of dramatically lit photographs of quirky 19th-century American inventions is finally written, February 9, 1945 will have its own chapter. That's the day LIFE magazine's legendary science photographer Fritz Goro unpacked his Klieg light at an...
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[read the full post...]
May 19, 2009
Wharton Esherick's Captain's Bed Was Sweeter Before
I know it was a little rough--OK, a lot rough--but seriously, this twin-sized captain's bed with built-in drawers that Wharton Esherick made for Julian Bloch in 1925 was much cooler before it was stripped clean and refinished. On the...
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[read the full post...]
May 13, 2009
How To Draw Robert Lambry Animals The Albert Verbrugghe Way
You know, I'm always debating with myself over how much info is enough for a good post. Is it really useful for anyone to dig up the publishing history of the pre-war French Augustinian version of Highlights magazine? Isn't it...
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[read the full post...]
How To Draw Animals The Robert Lambry Way
In case you're ever called upon to draw some animals, you may want to brush up on this flickr set of scans from Robert Lambry's les Animaux tels qu'ils sont [Animals as they are]. Lambry's instructions were originally made...
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[read the full post...]
May 7, 2009
Hans Christian Andersen's Alphabet
Steve Roden is always finding the most unusual things. Now it's a little square book, Hans Christian Andersen's Alphabet, published in 1955 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth. The illustrations are by the Danish artist Dagmar Starcke,...
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[read the full post...]
April 30, 2009
Living On The Earth [While Mostly Naked, And With A Kid]
As soon as I saw the cover of Alicia Bay Laurel's Living on The Earth at the library sale, I knew I was buying it, and as soon as I opened it and found out the whole thing was...
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[read the full post...]
April 28, 2009
Just One Word: Plastic Crawligators. OK, Two Words
Dads of future boogie boarders of America take note: there's a Crawligator on eBay, and right now, it is only eleven bucks. $77. still not a record. UPDATE: The Crawligator bubble has not popped. It went for $405. Crawligator,...
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[read the full post...]
April 27, 2009
Birds On A Tree? How Can That Be?
The Creative Playthings junkies mourn today, at least all the ones who didn't win the auction yesterday for this pristine and rarely seen Birds-on-a-Tree puzzle from Creative Playthings. Fantastic, and in a palette that'd match the kitchen you grew...
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[read the full post...]
April 24, 2009
Dick Bruna And The Seven Dwarfs
It still blows my mind sometimes what libraries will get rid of. In 1966, when Miffy was barely 11 years and six books old, Dick Bruna published a series of fairy tales: Tom Thumb, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood,...
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[read the full post...]
April 23, 2009
Pocahontas Went To London On A Yellow Submarine
Another awesome library sale find: a beautiful copy of the 1967 psychedelic classic [I'd never heard of], Pocahontas in London, by Jan Wahl, illustrated by John Alcorn. The kid points out it's not as historically accurate as the D'Aulaire,...
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[read the full post...]
April 22, 2009
We're Comic Books From The Government, And We're Here To Help
The library at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has a collection of government-sponsored comic books. Here are some of them, starting with my favorite. The rest are just filler, pretty much: Pogo: Primer for Parents from the TV Division of the...
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[read the full post...]
April 14, 2009
The Most Famous Stroller In Cinema? Is For Sale
Southern California auction house Profiles in History specializes in movie memorabilia and historical documents and such. Their Spring sale on April 30th-May 1st includes items from the incredible sci-fi collection of the late Forry Ackerman; a whole slew of...
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[read the full post...]
April 10, 2009
Everything But The Syrup Holder: 1957 Ford Country Squire Do-It-All
While I was trying to figure out which ancient station wagon Ford was referencing when they designed the Flex, I came across this rather insane photo in a vintage ad gallery The Old Car Manual Project's website. Now TOCMP...
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[read the full post...]
April 9, 2009
Zeus's Roommate
When the kid was born, one of my wife's best friends gave her a vintage copy of Norse Gods and Giants [1967], by Ingri and Edgar d'Aulaire. Apparently, they all used to read it together in elementary school. It's...
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[read the full post...]
April 8, 2009
Someone? Anyone? Is Historien Om Någon Invisible To The Non-Swedish World?
While we're on the subject of 1951 and Sweden and Egon Möller-Nielsen, that also appears to be the publication date for Historien om någon, a children's book he illustrated by Åke Löfgren. It's a ubiquitous classic of Swedish children's literature;...
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[read the full post...]
The Egg and Stuff: Mod Swedish Playgrounds by Egon Moeller-Nielsen
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Stockholm - Tessinparken, originally uploaded by jaime.silva. I don't like to get my awesome vintage...
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[read the full post...]
April 7, 2009
Child Crawling, 1887, By Edweard Muybridge
The painter Thomas Eakins convinced the University of Pennsylvania to underwrite Edweard Muybridge's massive, multi-year study of motion using high-speed photography. From 1882-86, Muybridge camped out in Philadelphia, photographing seemingly everything that moved. The result, Animal Locomotion, was an...
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[read the full post...]
April 6, 2009
Who Knew? Pre-Bearpocalypse, The Berenstains Were Awesome.
Wow, who knew? Who knew that before they completely sold out and flooded the world with 300 million-and-counting books about their brainless Bear Family, Jan and Stan Berenstain were apparently excellent, talented, witty, and even famous illustrators of the...
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[read the full post...]
The Toys Our Grandfathers Built Are Now Antiques
On the way to get a haircut this weekend [in DC, Georgetown], I was stopped by this awesome, homemade pedal plane in the window of Metro Interiors, one of the few clean 20th century vintage shops I've found in...
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[read the full post...]
April 4, 2009
The Family That Bikes Together Can't Steer Together
Found this awesome Family-Cycle in a story titled "Eccentric Cycles," which ran in the September 1949 issue of Mechanix Illustrated magazine. It was right under the French guy who strapped a 56-pound, four-tube radio to his bike so he...
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[read the full post...]
March 31, 2009
There's A Sale At Jenny's!
It's true, I am constitutionally incapable of passing up a chance to make an Airplane! reference. It's also true that Jenn from Minor Details is doing some major Spring Cleaning, which means clearing out her private hoard of vintage children's...
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[read the full post...]
It's A Miracle! Giganta And Rocket Slides Are From The Same Company
It's obvious now, but until a couple of minutes ago, I had no idea Giganta the scary/awesome playground robot and the biggest, awesomest rocket-shaped playground structures were both made by the same company, Miracle Equipment Company of Grinnell, Iowa....
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[read the full post...]
March 30, 2009
BRIO On Swedish eBay: They Don't Make'em Like They Used To
And for a moment it looked like they may not make them at all anymore. But thanks to the excellent sleuthing of previous DT advertiser Christopher Robin of Our Children's Gorilla, we can enjoy a few sweet vintage BRIO...
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[read the full post...]
'Rocket Science': Rocket-Shaped Playgrounds By Lauren Orchowski
Giganta reminded me that I hadn't posted anything about the awesome photos of vintage rocket- and space-themed playground equipment that had been making the blog rounds recently. Not wanting to just do a me-too, "sweet! check it out!" reblogging,...
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[read the full post...]
March 29, 2009
Giganta The Playground Robot Automatically Produces Fun, Nightmares
Giganta is certainly not the creepiest piece of playground equipment on this list. But it definitely leads the Non-Russian Surrealism, Most Prison-Like, and Robots Will Enslave Us categories. I'd love to see where these things were ever installed, if...
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[read the full post...]
March 25, 2009
Richard Dattner's Habitot, The Ur-PlayCubes
Wow, awesome. While poking around a bit more on urban planner/architect/playground designer Richard Dattner's PlayCubes concept--which, according to the 2000 monograph of Dattner's work, seems to be doing just fine, thanks--I found this: Habitots. And this is what we...
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PlayCubes: The Richard Dattner MidCap That Didn't Stick
Along with Paul Friedberg, architect Richard Dattner has been one of the most influential forces in modern playground design in the US. They both championed the adventure playground concept in the 1960's, which called for the transformation of underused...
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[read the full post...]
March 23, 2009
Baby Remember My Name? Mystery Mid-Century Artist Pool
Can you identify the source of this photo and the artist who lovingly decorated a concrete box in the forest for his kids to play with? Andy posted it to his Reference Library flickr stream last spring, but he...
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[read the full post...]
March 21, 2009
Happy 50th "Birthday" To All The Little People Out There
What could warm a parent's heart more than sharing a treasured memory of a favorite toy with his own child? Today, March 21st, is the "officially marked" 50th birthday of Fisher-Price's Little People. That's right, the awesome little figurines...
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[read the full post...]
March 17, 2009
Sudden Birth: Berkeley's Finest Cops Are Also Berkeley's Worst Actors
Unlike most of the digitized educational films in the A/V Geeks' vast library, Sudden Birth was almost certainly not rescued from a school dumpster. The training film was commissioned by the California Peace Officers Association in 1966 so that,...
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[read the full post...]
March 13, 2009
Caonimama? Pushmi-Pullyu The Next Symbol Of Chinese Internet Freedom
When I bought this sweet, fuzzy vintage Pushmi-Pullyu doll on eBay a couple of years ago, I thought it'd be fun for the kid. Only when it arrived did I see how hilariously unplayable it was for a toddler,...
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[read the full post...]
March 11, 2009
Why Buy A Calder When You Can Make Your Own Abstract Mobile?
From the December 1954 issue of Popular Science, "How to make an abstract mobile," instructions which were preceded by "How to Make a Christmas Tree Mobile": You can really express yourself in an abstract mobile. Unlike the Christmas-tree mobile,...
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[read the full post...]
March 9, 2009
Live Long And Rocker
To the Star Trek purists who will scoff at my Vulcan reference in the title and claim that clearly Jack Roger Hopkins' carved and laminated wood rocking chair shares obvious design vocabulary with Imperial Klingon culture, most notably the...
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The Lost Adventure Playgrounds of New York
Adventure playgrounds are designed to facilitate various kinds of free-form, unprogrammed play. They were first conceived in Denmark in the 1930's and took off after WWII, when children were observed having a fine, old time on piles of rubble....
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[read the full post...]
March 6, 2009
Barn Find? Creative Playthings Moon Buggy
My wife works for NASA, and yet I had no idea our country faced a dire shortage of wooden moon buggies until this old-timey Creative Playthings moon buggy turned up for sale on eBay. It's the first one I've...
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[read the full post...]
March 3, 2009
Milca Mayerova's Abeceda: The Czech Alphabet Book To End All Czech Alphabet Books
I worry that I'm slipping. When I first found out a couple of weeks ago about Abeceda, a pioneering artist book created in 1926 by members of a Czech collective in which photographs of dancer/choreographer Milca Mayerova "dancing" each...
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[read the full post...]
February 16, 2009
Francoise, Je Vous Aime. Vous et Votre Sweet Illustrations
K2 was still not asleep, so the kid and I had to scavenge a bedtime storybook from the random pile of eBay and library sale finds in our bedroom corner. The result: a thrashed copy of Bruno Munari's Zoo...
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[read the full post...]
February 15, 2009
The ATCO Junior Safety-First Trainer Was Not A Toy
Growing up, I never felt life's brutal unfairness more acutely than when my mom would tell me about getting to drive the tractor when she was ten. Times were different back then, she'd say, by way of apology for...
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[read the full post...]
February 12, 2009
Brother, Can You Spare A Crawligator?
The Creative Playthings Crawligator is one of those awesome, fun-looking, no-brainer toys that looks like it should be on the market forever. Like a Hula Hoop or Rock'em Sock'em Robots. Unfortunately, the little baby belly skateboard didn't survive the...
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February 9, 2009
Righter Than I Knew: Rolly Crump's Tower Of The Four Winds
A couple of years ago, when I posted about the Solar Do-Nothing Machine, created in 1954 for Alcoa by Ray and Charles Eames, I mentioned that though the single prototype didn't survive, its spirit lived on in the facade...
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Ronin Playtown Fire Truck By Creative Playthings On eBay
In the mid-1960's, Julian Winston designed the Playtown series for Creative Playthings, which included playsets for an airfield, a marina, a garage, and a fire station. With no fire station to serve, this masterless wooden fire truck, sweet and...
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[read the full post...]
February 4, 2009
A C'est Pour Antipathie: Grand Alphabet Amusant
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Grand Alphabet Amusant (Morel) ABCDE, originally uploaded by peacay. Nice. How Peacay keeps finding these...
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[read the full post...]
February 2, 2009
Naef Bau Bau: Swiss Building Toys NOT For Tinkering
Who's ever even heard of this Naef Bau Bau birch building set designed in the 50's by Gert Muller? As far as I can tell, the thing's only been published in two tiny pictures in the Kurt Naef biography....
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[read the full post...]
February 1, 2009
Yeah, Right. You're Not Gonna Fool Me With That "Naugahyde Comes From Naugas" Crap Again
You know how when you were like seven, your dad told you that the bar stools in the rec room were not vinyl, but a special kind of leather that only came from these mysterious creatures called Naugas? And...
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January 30, 2009
Creative Playthings And, Uh, Other Playthings
Andy found a 1970 New York magazine review of the Creative Playthings store on 53rd Street which, unfortunately, replaced their awesome original store in Rockefeller Center. Here's my favorite line: "I do wonder about the value--educational or play--of live fish...
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[read the full post...]
January 19, 2009
Betty Thomson's Multiplications Got Spanked By The Yoshimoto Cube
90% of dadblogging is just what shows up. Just a few hours after I stumbled across Multiplications, I stumbled across the Yoshitomo Cube. Here's the deal: In 1969, The Museum of Modern Art commissioned artists and designers to create some...
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[read the full post...]
January 14, 2009
Alright People. We Have A Serious Creative Playthings Situation In New Jersey
If you thought the recent eBay appearance of some unusual--and unusually well-preserved--Creative Playthings toys being sold from Hamilton Square, New Jersey--a town within easy commuting distance of CP's vintage headquarters in Princeton--was a fluke, think again. The same eBay seller...
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[read the full post...]
January 13, 2009
A Book Of Snails [Photographed By Martin Iger]
I'm a sucker for a good photographic picture book. And Three Potato Four has one. It's A Book of Snails, by Sally Moffet Kellin, with photographs by Martin Iger, published in 1968. Following the not-slimy trail backward, I see...
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[read the full post...]
January 12, 2009
Mama Mia! That Is An Awesome Throwback Nursery
Just when you think you've seen all the awesome, old school nurseries the LIFE Magazine photo archive has to offer, Andy finds another one. How did he do it? I have no idea. There's no caption, no date, no...
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[read the full post...]
January 9, 2009
DIY Pre-School & Playground, Topaz Internment Camp, Delta, Utah
The Central Utah Relocation Center near Delta was later renamed Topaz Camp, after Topaz Mountain, which loomed over it to the west. When it opened on Sept. 11, 1942, several rows of tarpaper barracks had been finished and outfitted...
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Awesome OG Illustrator: Taniuchi Rokuro
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Rokuro Taniuchi 11, originally uploaded by A Journey Round My Skull. For nearly 26 years...
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January 8, 2009
CPSC Tells Junksellers: CPSIA Is Not The Big One, We're Not Coming For You
The CPSC says the "clarification" issued today about the new CPSIA lead-testing regulations which go into effect Feb. 10. is "Intended for Resellers of Children's Products, Thrift and Consignment Stores." But it's also great news for thrifters, eBay sellers, craigslisters,...
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January 2, 2009
The Greatest Generation's Nurseries, Cont'd
I suppose I could write about how, now that K2 realizes we pick the food up from the floor and put it back on her tray, she's started refusing to eat in her chair, and would rather get down and...
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[read the full post...]
January 1, 2009
Russian Auto Factory Nursery, By Margaret Bourke-White
For all the enlightening fun the archive is providing, I haven't found many images from LIFE Magazine I'd actually want to buy. But Margaret Bourke-White's incredible 1931 photograph of the nursery [sic] in a Moscow auto plant makes the...
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Playing For Kepes
So far, I haven't been able to get the LIFE Magazine photo archive on Google to return more than 200 images at a time. So who knows how many photos Ralph Morse actually took of the awesome nursery Juliet...
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December 31, 2008
I'm Gulliver, Dammit!
Uhh, wow. Just, wow. With only a few hours before the deadline, I have found The. Craziest. LIFE Magazine Archive Photo of 2008. It's by Ralph Morse, and it was a, uh, well, it's about the introduction of Troll...
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[read the full post...]
Creative Playthings Playsack Turns Classic "Bag-On-Head" Punishment Into Hours Of Flame-Retardant Fun!
Hmm, look what else is in that New Jersey basement. An unopened Creative Playthings Playsack, which, as you could probably guess, is a giant paper bag that a kid is supposed to play in. The eBay description is intriguingly...
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Vedelesque: Creative Playthings Molded Ply Chair On eBay
Look what turned up in a basement in Hamilton Square, New Jersey. It's a sweet kid's chair from just up the road apiece in Princeton, the old stomping grounds of Creative Playthings. Though the design is from CP's Golden...
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[read the full post...]
December 20, 2008
Not In Time For Christmas: OG Handcarved Pull Toy By Antonio Vitali
Don't not buy this incredible hand-carved wooden donkey pull toy from Antonio Vitali's early, Swiss National Crafts Store days before he started working with Creative Playthings, because the opening bid is a whopping $399. Don't buy it because the...
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[read the full post...]
December 19, 2008
Good For The Poohs
The rest of the economy may be tanking, but people who have their money tied up in original EH Shepard artwork for Winnie-the-Pooh books can take comfort from the results of the big sale at Sotheby's Wednesday. The results...
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[read the full post...]
December 17, 2008
Straigh From BF Denmark: OG Peter Table & Chair By Hans Wegner
Hans Wegner made Peter's Chair and Table as a present for Borge Mogenson's new kid in 1944. Mogenson loved it, and he helped put it into production at FDB, the furnituremaker where he was lead designer. . This example...
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December 15, 2008
Awesome Molded Ply Slide Of Doom From Creative Playthings
They sure don't make'em like they used to. And even as the safety-loving half of me is relieved, the awesome, molded plywood simplicity-loving half of me is in mourning. Just take a gander at this vintage portable slide from...
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[read the full post...]
December 11, 2008
Back When I Was A Boy, We Built Our Own Damn Cribs!
As you may know, Google has begun scanning magazine archives, something which was apparently completely impossible until this year. Among the first batch are the venerable DIY bibles, Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. If it doesn't give you an...
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[read the full post...]
December 9, 2008
Miroslave Sasek's This Is The Hub of the Universe United Nations
The kid loves her Miroslav Sasek book, This Is Paris, even if she'll be disappointed when she gets there to find the Metro has no first class car, and all the cape-wearing policemen on bicycles have retired. Grain Edit...
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[read the full post...]
December 8, 2008
In Soviet Union, The Catalog Orders You
Back up a minute, comrade. Can somebody explain how it is that we--the Americans--supposedly won the Cold War, and yet I'm the one who has to wrestl with a pile of catalogs as big as a bear cub and...
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[read the full post...]
December 5, 2008
Ooh La La, Check Out This Chaise d'Ecole de Charivari
I think you have to add Rouen to your French vintage children's furniture pilgrimage next summer. The kid's design store l'Atelier Charivari has a seemingly endless supply of awesome, 50's-era school chairs, desks, and tables, but so far, I've...
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[read the full post...]
DT Nursery Trendwatch: Grey Is The New Orange!
Or is it the new lime green? Either way, the French and/or Euros are loving the grey baby furniture. First [on my radar, anyway] was Oeuf's lower-priced Sparrow collection, which came in other colors, but which debuted in Spring 2007...
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[read the full post...]
December 4, 2008
Dutch Museums Pony Up For Rarest Rietveld High Chair Of Them All
Via the European chair blogger at chairblog.eu comes this, the latest development in Daddy Types' all-consuming mission to know the whereabouts of all of Gerrit Rietveld's many, many high chairs. It's a press release published at design.nl: The Centraal...
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December 3, 2008
FOUND: Large, Slightly Mangy Toy Dog, Answers To The Name Of Bojesen
Are you on a sacred quest to find a Kay Bojesen pull toy dog woodworking project that's larger than a tuna can? Because it appears that an outfit called Find The Grail Auctions has posted one on eBay. But...
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November 30, 2008
Auction At Pooh Corner: Original EH Shepard Artwork At Sotheby's
Stanley Seeger and Christopher Cone have amassed and divested themselves of several major collections over the years: Picassos, early and mid-20th century art, and now Ernest Howard Shepard. In London December 17th, Sotheby's will auction off the couple's incredible...
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Babar Heartily Endorses This Event Or Product
I picked up a copy at the library sale of one of the stranger Babar titles I've ever seen: the 1965 Babar Comes To Amerca. Any history of the decline of children's culture into the pit of commercialism will...
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[read the full post...]
November 28, 2008
To Shop: Reference Library @ Kiosk, Nov. 28 - Dec. 7
If you shop at only one blogger-curated pop-up store this holiday season, make it Andy Beach's Reference Library Mini-Exhibition at Kiosk in SoHo. Despite his fame as a retail artist/design guru/dad/ex-DT guest blogger is probably best known for his...
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[read the full post...]
November 24, 2008
The Mystery Of Life: Who Designed This "Modern Playground Equipment"?
The search results for "playground" at Life magazine's photo archive are dominated by one series of images: nearly 200 photos of surrealist bent steel playground equipment from 1951-2 created by an unidentified female sculptor. The stuff is awesome: creatures...
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[read the full post...]
November 21, 2008
Before MTV, There Was Life Cribs
Here's a short thematic post from the archives of Life featuring some of the cribs of our parents' generation which serves as a roundabout tribute to the CPSC: I'm guessing that after Leonard Mccombe's 1957 photo of "Babysitter Judy...
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[read the full post...]
November 20, 2008
M-I-C C Is For Cigarette
Wait, he's only two and he's reading Mickey Mouse comic books? And wearing French cuffs? That's so advanced for his age! A 2-year-old smoking, 1959 for Life magazine by Michael Rougier [images.google.com via daringfireball]...
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[read the full post...]
November 19, 2008
Life Is Good. Pappy's Pram
Another awesome find from the freshly digitized photo archives of Life magazine. This is a closeup from a 1943 portrait by Frank Scherschel of the crew of "Pappy's Pram," a B-26 Marauder bomber from the 322nd BG, which flew...
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[read the full post...]
Ko Verzuu? Don't Mind If I Do
FWIW, I toggle back and forth between the just-the-facts headlines and the annoying, jokey ones. Guess which one this is? A couple of very interesting looking ADO toys designed by Ko Verzuu just popped up on eBay Austria: a...
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[read the full post...]
November 18, 2008
To Life! Orthodox Hipster Dad Strolls Through Promised Land
Another sweet find from the archives of Life magazine: John Phillips' 1949 picture from Israel of a hip-looking Orthodox Jewish dad out for a walk with his kid: Full size image: Orthodox jewish man pushing a pram with his child...
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Such Is Life! Harold's Club's 1949 Silver Dollar Buick Super Estate Wagon
Google just opened a high-res archive of all the photos from Life magazine, and it's pure surfing gold. But the first awesome thing I found was silver. Harolds Club in Reno was the first themed casino in the world,...
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[read the full post...]
November 17, 2008
"RETRO SUV"
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Spotted at Target, originally uploaded by daddytypes.Alright, suburbs, you win this round. This pristine Buick...
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November 14, 2008
Patentastic Standup Car Seat, c. 1959
Between the advent of the car and the formal legislation of the car seat, thousands of inventors spent decades laying the innovative groundwork for the modern products we depend on to protect our children. And though patents expire, these...
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Sweet Slot-Together Rocker/Chair From Master Woodcraft [?]
If it becomes as useless as "Eames Era," I'm sure I'll come to hate it, but for now, I count it as progress that an eBay seller tries to rope in business by calling something "Creative Playthings Era." It...
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[read the full post...]
November 12, 2008
Suddenly I Want 1,700 Japanese Babies [By Reiji Esaki]
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } 1700 JAPANESE BABIES -- Back in the Days When the Japanese Were Actually Having SEX,...
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[read the full post...]
November 11, 2008
Hey, Little Buddy! Mingei Bamboo Stool/High Chair
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, A tale of a shopping trip Involving Euro Modernists and architects--so hip. The greatest: Charlotte Perriand, Designed Corb's furniture. Bruno Taut also sailed that way For an East Asian tour,...
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[read the full post...]
November 6, 2008
For Sale: Creative Playthings Carriage, One Owner
Jenn from Minor Details spotted this sweet 1960's Creative Playthings plywood wagon/carriage on Craigslist. It's being sold out of Huntington, Long Island by the original owner, who is a big girl now, and can do things like research the...
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[read the full post...]
November 3, 2008
Lost New York: Gary Panter's Paramount Hotel Playroom
Uh, Campana Brothers, can I see you outside for a minute? When Ian Schrager reopened the dumpy Paramount Hotel in Times Square in 1990, it had been redesigned by Philippe Starck. The rooms were still tiny, but the lobby...
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[read the full post...]
November 2, 2008
Whoops, Missed The [OG Milk Crate] Potty
There's milk crates, and then there's Milk Crates. The brands branded [is that where that term comes from?] on the sides of some of the crates used to make this old potty chair date to the turn of the...
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[read the full post...]
October 30, 2008
Not Luigi Colani?? Another Non-German Engineering Scandal
Where's Brooke Shields when German engineering and design need her? First, we were forced to contemplate the reality that the "German engineered" VW Routan minivan is, in fact, a reskinned Chrysler Town & Country. And now, it turns out...
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[read the full post...]
Gregslist: Blobby Architect Wants To Recycle Your Toys Into Furniture
Remember last month how I mocked the Venice Biennale-winning installation, Recycled Toy Furniture by blob-loving architect Greg Lynn for being neither recycled, nor toy, nor furniture? I mean, seriously, you expect me to believe there are giant, plastic ride-on eggplants??...
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[read the full post...]
Eine Kleine Matchbox Zoo
This awesome vintage toy zoo from Germany fits into eight beautifully designed matchboxes. The pieces are so small, you have to wonder if they might actually not even be a choke hazard; just wash'em down with an extra bottle....
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[read the full post...]
October 21, 2008
Here Comes The Lost Steven Zuckerman "Imagination Rain" Again
Old School Sesame Street fans--and readers of DT and The Onion AV Club--will recall that of the three classic songs he recorded in 1970, composer/performer Steve Zuckerman liked "Imagination Rain," the ode to mind expansion, even more than his...
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[read the full post...]
October 20, 2008
Creative Playthings Family Scandal! Rocking Beauty Had Sister Named Rocking Ugly
As everyone hopefully knows now, the iconic Creative Playthings design, the red ball-equipped Hobby Horse, was not designed by Philip Johnson, and the Philip Johnson who didn't design it was the creative director of Creative Playthings, not the feisty,...
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[read the full post...]
October 19, 2008
Crewel Kids: Vladimir Kagan X Erica Wilson Mashup Rocking Chair
So swoopy furniture designer Vladimir Kagan and pre-eminent needlework artist Erica Wilson are married? Who knew? Besides, that is, the folks who bought this Kagan Contour Rocking Chair covered in Wilson's crewel forest scene back in the day? Rago,...
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[read the full post...]
October 13, 2008
That's Eye Candy We Can Believe In
I like context, backstory, credits, and yes, the occasional "put in shopping basket" link, so I don't like random web collections of sheer eye candy. But for this 500 image-and-counting flickr pool, I'll make an exception: This artist, Ric Hugo,...
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[read the full post...]
October 11, 2008
Rubber BetterBaby Cages
It kills me to think of the vast trove of historical information that's been dumped by eBay over the last decade. If nothing else, I'd think it'd be valuable to have the price history of certain types and categories...
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[read the full post...]
A Peaceable Kingdom, The Shaker Abecedarius By The Provensens
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } A Peaceable Kingdom, The Shaker Abecedarius, originally uploaded by Hillary Lang. I backed into this...
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[read the full post...]
October 8, 2008
Remember That One Kid With The Prouvé Bed?
The one in Paris, whose mom is an antique dealer? And he had that dog lamp on the pull-out night table attachment? Yeah, well, there may be another one. One of those 1953 Antony daybeds by Jean Prouvé &...
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[read the full post...]
Wow, Mark That To Market: Noguchi Baby Monitor At Wright20
If you have an extra one of those Zenith Radio Nurse and Guardian Ear sets designed by Isamu Noguchi in 1937 lying around, you might want to dust it off. A very fine-looking example just blew through the pre-sale...
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[read the full post...]
October 4, 2008
Seriously, Who Wrote The Music For That Sesame Street Crayon Movie?
PBS has been advertising on Daddy Types lately, for which I am grateful. But Sesame Workshop's media office has not responded to several requests for production information about the classic "How Crayons Are Made" movie. The Muppet Wiki information is...
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[read the full post...]
Many Of You Feel Bad For This 1966 Maclaren Stroller
That is because you are crazy. The new one is much better. [1] And if you really want one like this, you can get a Kolcraft for $12 at the drugstore. O.F. Maclaren, Baby Stroller, 1966 [moma.org] 1966 and...
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[read the full post...]
October 2, 2008
More Dutch Memories: Canada And The ABC's Of Dental Care
A couple more interesting-looking vintage children's books from The Memory of The Netherlands: Hi Ha Canada is a sweet, modernist celebration by graphic artist Mart Kempers of the liberation of Holland by Canadian and Scottish troops in World War II....
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[read the full post...]
The Worst Mercedes 450 SEL 6.9 Station Wagon, Except For All Those Others
Oh my. A classic Mercedes aficionado blogging at Tamerlane posted this sighting of a 450SEL 6.9 wagon, supposedly the "only one commissioned by Mercedes" itself for "the head of MBUSA." That raised roofline was causing me much pain, until...
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[read the full post...]
October 1, 2008
W Is For White Baby's Burden: Nieuw Indisch ABC Book Looks Pretty Awkward Now
Make no small web plans. The ambitiously titled site, "The Memory of the Netherlands" combines nearly 400,000 objects from 67 different collections, including selected scans of nearly 700 illustrated books from 1810 to 1950. The 1925 Nieuw Indisch ABC...
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[read the full post...]
Classic Cosco Chair In Rare, Sweet Rocker Format
These molded plastic Cosco chairs from the early 1970's are kid design classics, [don't they look nice in Swiss-Miss's living room?] though I always look at them funny when I remember they were originally intended to be used as...
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[read the full post...]
Childsform: So Far, We Know There's A Spool Stool By Michael Marriott
Looks like it's one-off, mushroom-shaped stool day around here this morning. DT readers from a few months back might remember Childsply, the 1999 children's design challenge sponsored by the London design/vintage dealer twentytwentyone. The concept was to see what children's...
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[read the full post...]
September 30, 2008
Eighty Bucks For The Ur-Big Wheel?
The company that made the original Big Wheel, Louis Marx, sold out to his competitor in the early 1970's. That company, Empire Plastics, went bankrupt in 2001. Some other company reconstituted Empire and now makes the Original Big Wheel...
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[read the full post...]
They Reissued Kristian Vedel's Kid's Chair! Wait, Who's They?
Sure enough, there it is, staring right up at me from the front page of Modern Child [a shop which has advertised on Daddy Types before, btw]. Kristian Vedel's 1952 plywood chair/table/desk/stool has always been a tough buy; the...
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[read the full post...]
September 29, 2008
Poetry About William Blake, By Nancy Willard
I just stumbled onto Nancy Willard's interesting-sounding book of poems for children by a kind of circuitous route, while researching the illustrators, Alice and Martin Provensen. See, they'd done a sweet and simple version of Robert Louis Stevenson's A...
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[read the full post...]
All We Like Sheep
Wow. Just, wow. Look what was caught in the glare of the spotlight on this Metafilter thread about the 1980's Christian ska band Sonseed and their jawdropping music video, "Jesus is a friend of mine." Besides the John & Yoko...
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[read the full post...]
September 27, 2008
Yet Another Rietveld Kids Chair [And Table!]
Just got my copy of the 2001 edition of Peter Drijver and Johannes Niemeijer's How to construct Rietveld Furniture; it's pretty sweet. There are designs and plans for 38 pieces, including four kid-specific designs: two high chairs and two toys,...
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[read the full post...]
September 23, 2008
Il Ritorno!! Corraini Reissues Enzo Mari's Play Wall
In 1967 Danese debuted Enzo Mari's Il Posto dei Giochi, The Place of Games, otherwise known as "Wall." Kids could use the ten-panel corrugated cardboard play structure printed and perforated with Mari's designs to create various kid-sized spaces. The...
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[read the full post...]
Animal Families By Abbatt Toys
Abbatt Toys were sort of the Creative Playthings of England. Paul & Marjorie Abbatt founded their toy company in the 1930's with a focus on education and design. Their friend, the British modernist architect Erno Goldfinger, designed their innovative...
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[read the full post...]
September 17, 2008
Say Hello To The Schaukelwagen's Little Friend
Kinderstoele this, Kinderspiele that. A few days of poking around the kinderweb has turned more stuff I thought I would've known by now, but there you go. For example, I totally missed "Zappel, Philipp! - Die Welt der Kindermöbel," an...
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[read the full post...]
Two High Chairs, Both Alike In Uncomfortableness: Piet Klaarhamer's Rietveldian High Chair
In fair Utrecht where we lay our scene... I'm trying to clear the deck of reproductions of painful-looking De Stijl high chairs here. In 2005, Treadway-Toomey sold this high chair for $1,200. It's by Piet Klaarhamer, a "later production of...
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[read the full post...]
The Awesomely Unsittable High Chairs Of Gerrit Rietveld
The world--if I may speak for the world for a moment--may have Gerrit Rietveld all backwards. The world sees Rietveld as a leading furniture designer and architect of the geometric purity-obsessed De Stijl movement who just happened to make...
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[read the full post...]
September 15, 2008
Crate Chair Junior By Gerrit Rietveld, Reissued By Other Rietvelds
In 1934, the Dutch architect and furniture designer Gerrit Rietveld sought to combine the utopian geometric elementalism of de Stijl with an economics and authenticity of material by--look, everyone was broke, so he made furniture out of wood from...
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[read the full post...]
Wait, I Didn't Even Know There Was A Jens Risom High Chair
Made in 1941 as part of Knoll's introductory collection, with Risom's trademark woven web seat? And it sold yesterday for just $275?? My only consolation is that it caught Andy off guard, too. Seriously, people, there oughta be a...
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[read the full post...]
September 14, 2008
In 1970, Arthur Espenet Carpenter Created The Coolest Rocker In The Entire Alpha Quadrant
Fascinating. Arthur Espenet Carpenter was like the fifth Beatle of American woodworking. In 1972, he was in "Woodenworks," the genre-defining show at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery, along with George Nakashima, Sam Maloof, Wharton Esherick, and Wendell Castle. By that...
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[read the full post...]
September 13, 2008
Hey Internet! Günter Beltzig Made This Molded Fiberglass Slide In 1966!
It turns out not to be so easy to identify the maker of a random piece of play equipment using just a captionless photo from a 1968 craft magazine, and not just because I didn't know how to say...
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[read the full post...]
September 12, 2008
Behold, The Ur-Leather High Chair
After seeing Monte Design's new Tavo, I thought I'd research the vast, untold history of leather high chairs, and here it is: one chair. One, Masterpiece Theatre-ready, wingback leather high chair/low chair/potty chair submitted to some author's website by...
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[read the full post...]
September 10, 2008
It's A Small Maoist World: Communist Children's Songs
Ho-ly Smokes. The cover of "I am a Sunflower - Children's Songs" is like Mao's Little Red Book of Verses illustrated by Comrade Mary Blair. Even if it didn't have the most incredible track list of any communist propaganda...
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[read the full post...]
August 28, 2008
Why Is The Ferrari Tipo 500 The Rolls Royce Of Pedal Cars?
OK, so there's De Parma, a slightly cheeky antiques dealer in London, who's selling this vintage Ferrari Tipo 500 F2 racer pedal car--dated to the 50's and sourced to Italy, but otherwise no manufacturer is mentioned--in very nice original-looking...
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[read the full post...]
Kinda Eamesy Kid's Chairs Put The Phen Back Into Phenolic
Welcome to slightly lazy children's antique blogging week here at Daddy Types. But no sooner do I think that all this time, I'd had the wrong impression of all these antique dealers, than I come across a description like...
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[read the full post...]
Wise Australia Keeps Fantasies Of Bush & Naked Children To Themselves
After her bush baby characters appeared on the cover of another author's book, and in a series of popular booklets, Australian illustrator May Gibbs published The Tales of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie in 1918, during the country's Armistice celebrations. For...
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[read the full post...]
August 27, 2008
Vintage DIY Scooter: They Don't Make Them Like They Used To
Instructions: Take one set of roller skate wheels, an old handlebar, a 2x4, some boards. Add a bent sheet of tin to give it that proper Ralph Kramden Drives This Bus snout, then paint it with whatever's left over...
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[read the full post...]
Don't Sit On That! Kids Chairs In Fancy Pairs, Via 1st Dibs
I remember when 1st Dibs was just an email blast back to the States of one designer's weekly finds at the Paris flea market. But after signing up hundreds of shops around the world, it has long since turned into...
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[read the full post...]
Have You Seen My Dog, Monsieur? Ja, At Der Auktionhaus
So we're driving along one day and out of the blue, the kid goes, "Did you know dogs are hunters by nature?" It took us a while to figure out where she picked it up: Zoboomafoo, the animal TV...
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[read the full post...]
August 24, 2008
Got Too Many Euros? Kidstuff Roundup From German eBay Auction
You know how The Economist publishes the Big Mac Index, to show how over- or underpriced certain currencies are for the exact same thing? Well, the price estimates the Munich-based auction house Quittenbaum has placed on US vintage auction staples...
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[read the full post...]
August 22, 2008
AWE.SOME. Vintage Go-Cart-To-Stroller Conversion At Hemmings
Hemmings Motor News, the bible of the classic car world, just launched a new title: Hemmings Fifties-Era Midget Race Car Into 21st Century Hot Rod Stroller News. There's only one issue so far, but I'm hereby signing up for...
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[read the full post...]
August 21, 2008
Wait, What? Evel Knievel Was A Skanky Tool
Dammit, I wish I would've found this before I got caught up in my Evel Knievel nostalgic posting spree. Because really, nothing takes the gleam off a childhood hero like hearing him make casual homophobic rape jokes about his own...
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[read the full post...]
Evel Knievel Electric Toothbrush
Holy smokes, I just checked, and the kid has eight toothbrushes, nine if you count the ToothTunes Junior musical toothbrush a publicist recently sent. [1] It turns the kid's skull into a soundbox; she hears "Hakuna Matata" inside her head...
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[read the full post...]
How Many Evel Knievel Tricycles Do You Think Are Still Out There?
I'll take a flying leap--hehe, yes, pun totally intended--and say, uh, not that many. Maybe a hundred? A dozen? Only two mentions of a 1975 AMF Evel Knievel tricycle seem to have gotten themselves embedded in the auto-compiled text...
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[read the full post...]
August 17, 2008
Rolls Royce Station Wagon Back On Daddy Types, Still On eBay
I guess it is a small island, so how far could they go? DT's family car man in London Wesley first crossed paths with this 1976 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow wagon on the street, in front of the V&A....
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[read the full post...]
August 12, 2008
OG 1964 Ford Galaxie Fire Chief Wagon On eBay
Besides the remarkable, unrestored condition and the sheer awesomeness of growing up with sirens and flashing lights on top of your family ride--you'd be the star of every school dropoff line and carpool, and the kid'd totally be a...
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[read the full post...]
Mrs Mortimer's Bigoted, Victorian English Neighborhood
So great. Favell Lee Mortimer was one of the best-selling children's book authors in 19th century England. Her first book, a sadistic-sounding Bible primer for toddlers titled, The Peep of Day; or, a Series of the Earliest Religious Instruction the...
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[read the full post...]
August 11, 2008
Let's Go Outdoors, And When That Sells, Let's Go Other Places
More finds from the history of children's books that used photography instead of illustrations or paintings: I discovered Let's Go Outdoors in a used bookstore in St. George, Utah a couple of weeks ago. It was Harriet Huntington's first...
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[read the full post...]
August 9, 2008
Leopard Prints Valiant
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Safeway Valiant, originally uploaded by Telstar Logistics. Todd spotted this clean 1964 Plymouth Valiant wagon...
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[read the full post...]
August 8, 2008
Luigi Colani's Rappelkiste Kid Unit, Just For Compleatness
Last winter, I had sort of a designcrush on the wacky futurist Luigi Colani. So when Andy posted about this awesome piece of lots-in-one kids furniture, the Rappelkistein, in January, I just assumed I'd linked to it. So since...
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[read the full post...]
August 1, 2008
Action Baby Has Nothing To Do With U2
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } IMG_3481, originally uploaded by Pulp-Secret.com. I had to look it up. Captain Action was the...
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[read the full post...]
Greg Learns About Didactic Children's Book Publishing
In the 1960's, at the height of the Cold War, and just as their country needed them to fight the Communists in Southeast Asia, America's Youth were abandoning the ideals their parents had fought so hard for, turning into...
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[read the full post...]
July 31, 2008
The Daddy Reads At Night
St George, Utah, a sleepy Mormon pioneer town in the desert my in-laws just retired to, has all grown up. It even has a great used bookstore run by friendly, rainbow stickered Subaru-driving Obama supporters, which is where I...
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[read the full post...]
July 27, 2008
Whoops, Missed That Herman Miller Kite
Just checking in on the vintage goods at the awesome Landscape Products in Tokyo, and what do I find? A little kit for a Herman Miller kite. It seems to date from around 1980. The triangular pieces covered with...
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[read the full post...]
July 26, 2008
Mio & Mao & The Other Awesome Stop Animation Of Francesco Messeri
Who knew, Francesco Messeri is the Florentine master of stop-action animation, and he has been for at least a generation. Messeri's Mio Mao is a series of short adventures of a pair of claymation kittens. Quaq Quao is a...
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[read the full post...]
July 25, 2008
Mamma Mia, El Gatto Meo di Bruno Munari, Senza Volto!
Turns out vulcanized rubber cats have less than nine lives. In 1949 Bruno Munari made some special promotional black cats called Gatto Meo for Pirelli using the company's flagship product. It's not known how many survive [the image below...
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[read the full post...]
July 20, 2008
It's Not Easy Being In The Smithsonian's Jim Henson Exhibit
The girls and I went to the Jim Henson Legacy exhibition that just opened in some basement gallery at the Smithsonian, so you don't have to. Seriously, just put it in a book. Or a file folder, what a...
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[read the full post...]
July 16, 2008
Hmm, Lots Of Vintage Video Clips In This New SesameStreet.org Screenshot
According to the dutiful Times article, the new & improved Sesame Street website will be previewed at BlogHer this weekend. Seeing as how I'm not going, I will just wait patiently to hear the reviews. But judging from the...
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[read the full post...]
July 15, 2008
Whoops, Old School Sesame Street Not Graded For Spelling
Was just scrolling through the YouTube with the kid for a minute and found this. It looks like the work of Fred Calvert's studio, which also did the animation for Steve Zuckerman's "I in the Sky." Did I mention...
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[read the full post...]
Whew! Kids And California Modern Houses DO Mix
The nursery in a fastidiously restored, mid-century modernist California tract home. It's the space that launched a thousand trips to Ikea. CA Modern magazine has a story about how kids are not actually incompatible with your Eichler house's modernist lifestyle....
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[read the full post...]
July 10, 2008
OG Torendo! Japanese Wooden Kindergarten Chairs
[via] [other nice pics here] The love of post-war design in Japan isn't only for Eames chairs and the homegrown 60's Danish knockoffs. There's also the simple, rustic, functional furniture that had to be made locally from whatever wood...
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[read the full post...]
July 9, 2008
It's Just An LSD Cocktail: Timothy Leary Psychedelics Coloring Book
Dear Buyer Of It Now for this rare, unmarked copy of Timothy Leary's 1967 History of the Psychedelic Movement Cartoon and Coloring Book: If you're not planning on publishing a facsimile version, please at least post a set of print-quality...
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[read the full post...]
July 4, 2008
Area Baby Hates Getting Shots, Socialized Medicine
Well, we're off to Grandma's house for a patriotic dip in the pool and some patriotic meat. I'll wish you all the same. Meanwhile, if you're looking for a Friday Freakout, try this on for size: evil communists touting...
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[read the full post...]
June 27, 2008
Antiques Backroadshow: Vintage Vinyl In Goldsboro
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Olde Country Store, Goldsboro, NC, originally uploaded by daddytypes. Full of Wilber's barbecue and looking...
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[read the full post...]
June 26, 2008
Garden Gnomes Not Included: Sweet Community Playthings Tractor On eBay
Dayton, Ohio bidders will have the advantage on this awesome, old Community Playthings ride-on tractor. Though it's just under 11 inches high, all that maple lumber and those chunky Firestone tires will cost a bundle to ship. Maybe when...
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[read the full post...]
June 25, 2008
Daddy Rhymes
I just got my copy of Ogden Nash's The Bad Parent's Garden of Verse; it's pretty wordy. But here's one short, sweet, cautionary poem for dadbloggers:My Daddy I have a funny daddy Who goes in and out with me And...
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[read the full post...]
June 23, 2008
Tryon Toy Makers: For Kids By Kids
Didn't see that one coming. While getting in touch with my North Carolina roots by poking around the special collections at UNC-Asheville, I stumbled across the archives of the Tryon Toy Makers, a company founded in Tryon, NC during...
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[read the full post...]
June 21, 2008
Florent, We'll Miss You! But Check Out These Awesome Maps--And Morellet Guerineau??
Last weekend we took K2 for her first visit to Florent. Also her last, because Florent's closing in less than two weeks. I'd planned on many years of boring brunches where I'd explain to the kids how daddy and...
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[read the full post...]
June 20, 2008
The Relationship of Neo-natal Stroller Hurdling And Your Becoming A Doctor Like Your Father
In order to bring a more people-y focus to what is by definition more of an "inside people" publication, the editors of the American College of Physicians' Annals of Internal Medicine invite readers to submit photographs. Of people. I'm...
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[read the full post...]
American Post Office, @)#($* YEAH! Children In The Mail
And I'm proud to be an American Where at least I know I'm free To mail children via parcel post by sewing stamps to their clothing. But then the Postmaster General did stand up! And changed the regulations about...
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[read the full post...]
June 19, 2008
Wow, Sweet Vintage Kids Clothes, Err, Vetements
Seriously, is it me, or are there just next to no good places to get vintage kids clothing? There was one rack of kids stuff at a vintage store in Huntington, mostly old t-shirts and Tufskins. [here it is on...
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[read the full post...]
June 17, 2008
Sweet, Church-Tested Folding Climber From Community Playthings
Demand for this awesome, folding Community Playthings climbing gym must have dropped off some time after the Planet of the Apes trend faded away, because it's no longer in production. Fortunately, this one is available for pickup in Rochester,...
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[read the full post...]
June 16, 2008
Sweet Gilbert Rohde Playpen Now A CPSC-Certified Objet
When he persuaded D. J. de Pree on the moral imperative of his streamlined designs, Gilbert Rohde brought modernism to the Herman Miller Furniture Company. Though he apparently didn't bring an urgency to produce modern children's furniture. Because even...
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[read the full post...]
June 13, 2008
Jean Prouvé Nursery School Chair
I guess I haven't followed the development of the Jean Prouvé market as closely as I'd thought; otherwise I might have known that TECTA, the German manufacturer of some early Prouvé furniture--and the contemporary re-issuer of others--also produced a...
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[read the full post...]
June 12, 2008
We'll Wrap Up Our Own Nostalgia, Thanks, Strawberry Shortcake
So there was a big licensing expo in New York this week, which apparently resulted in a phony trend story in the NY Times about companies redesigning their old licensed character properties to milk a new generation of nostalgic parents:...
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[read the full post...]
June 11, 2008
Prouve/Corbu/Perriand Kid's Room? But Where'd That Dog Come From?
Though the picture's from Elle Decor, not Interior Design, I think this is Florence Lopez's son's "lacquered Jean Prouvé bed" with "a cork bulletin board that Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand designed for two French universities" over it. I...
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[read the full post...]
Wigs And Cigs And Writing Gigs
If the Theresa in this photo is the Theresa I think it is, let the record show she did not, in fact, grow up to be a lounge singer like her parents wished; she's a writer who works for a...
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[read the full post...]
Mathieu Mategot Kids Chairs, S'il Vous Plait
Mathier Mategot was the other mid-century designer, the one who wasn't Corbusier, Perriand, or Prouve. Left Bank interior designer Florence Lopez put these sweet 1950's painted iron kids chairs ["inspired by Mathieu Mategot"] in the window of Luco, her...
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[read the full post...]
Rad Mod Play Table & Stools At Hi+Lo Modern
Here's where I'd normally suggest that buying this sweet, vintage table and stool set for just $80, and installing it in your kid's room. But they're only 1 1/2 inches high, so you'd probably store them in your kid's...
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[read the full post...]
June 7, 2008
Found: That Jean Prouvé Swing Set
I didn't think much of it at the time, but once the kid came along, I always wondered where that 1960's Jean Prouvé swing set Patrick Seguin showed at Sonnabend in 2003 ended up. The answer is on art...
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[read the full post...]
June 3, 2008
Holgate Soda Set One Bottletop Shy Of A Six-Pack
I like this cool set of wooden bottles, tinted in the colors of six common wine cooler flavors. They're made by Holgate, one of the earliest US companies to develop educational toys. Unfortunately, one of the bottle stoppers is...
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[read the full post...]
June 2, 2008
Montgomery Schoolhouse Rocks
Montgomery Whohouse? I've been following the items eBay seller Creative Magpie has been putting up for sale from the inventory of her mother's 1970's toy store. In the last couple of days, several very fine-looking wooden toys have turned...
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[read the full post...]
May 30, 2008
Hmmm: Herman Miller Stuffed Centaur Looks Like Marilyn Neuhart Stuffed Centaur
Wright20 dates this shaggy centaur stuffed toy to 1961, but for some reason, they don't mention Marilyn Neuhart at all, just Herman Miller, thanks to a label on the back that reads, "Licenciatarios de Herman Miller Industria Argentina Coleccio'n...
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[read the full post...]
May 29, 2008
Interesting Kids Stuff Coming At Wright20
I start wondering what's the point of pointing this stuff out. But then I think, if I can touch just one heart, change just one life, by helping someone find the $3,000 stool shaped like an Andy Warhol soup can,...
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[read the full post...]
May 28, 2008
Old Toy Shopful Of Creative Playthings On eBay
There's been a whole slew of vintage Creative Playthings toys turning up on eBay the last few days, all in beautiful, unused, condition. For collectors or just folks who like their vintage wooden toys unbeat and unchewed-on, it's like...
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[read the full post...]
May 27, 2008
Citroen Kar-A-Sutra Had Room For Seven Horny Mimes
Mario Bellini created the Kar-a-Sutra as a collaboration for Citroen and Pirelli in 1972. It was first exhibited at a groundbreaking show at MoMA that introduced Italian modern design to the US, Italy. The New Domestic Landscape. Not just...
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[read the full post...]
May 23, 2008
SHO-wing! Shostar: The Ford Windstar SHO Concept Car
I know some Dodge Caravan's got a hemi, but I had NO idea Ford ever contemplated an SHO version of the dreariest minivan they ever produced. Oh wait, that was the Aerostar. The Windstar was what it was. But...
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[read the full post...]
May 20, 2008
CP^2: Old Minimalist Dollhouses On eBay
Not sure if this is a sign that the doll real estate market is softening, but two fully furnished classic modernist dollhouses just went up on eBay. The big Creative Playthings house above is like an analog version of...
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[read the full post...]
May 16, 2008
Mmmmm, Toyota Tercel 4WD Wagon, The Ur-Scion, On eBay
Sheesh, the last thing in the world I need right now is another 1980's project car. So why do I have a saved eBay search for the weirdo-classic Toyota Tercel 4WD wagon? It looks so tame now, but I...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 15, 2008
OG AMG Mercedes Benzes Laying Down Black Stripes Across My Breaking Heart
In case you haven't guessed, all these years of station wagon smacktalk are really just about me trying to alternately psych myself into or talk myself out of getting an actual family car. Or maybe it's a friend car?...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 13, 2008
Yes, The Jerrari: Sultan Of Reno's 1969 Jeep-Ferrari Mashup On eBay
Wow. After Enzo did that chin flicking thing when he asked for a 4x4 Ferrari, casino pioneer and car junkie Bill Harrah made one his own damn self. Or rather, he had his people do it. "It" being the...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 12, 2008
Hey You Guyyys!!! CTW Is Remaking, Probably Ruining, The Electric Company
Let's be realistic; with it's third-generation Laugh-In format, cheesy acting, and random-at-best pedagogy, the original Electric Company was not great television to begin with, and it definitely has not aged well. So any OG purist objections to the recent...
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[read the full post...]
May 10, 2008
Fantastique! Bronze Bassinet By Philippe Hiquily
After debuting as an organic modernist sculptor in the 1950's, Philippe Hiquily became the Surrealist Metal Furnituremaker To The Stars [of the French aristo jet set] in the 1960's and 1970's. For example, the limited edition coffee table, "Poupouce,"...
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[read the full post...]
May 9, 2008
Check Out These Vintage Hospital Symbols
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } IMG_6581.JPG, originally uploaded by crabstick. E. Christopher Klumb & Associates designed a symbol and signage...
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[read the full post...]
May 8, 2008
How! Sweet Creative Playthings Totem Pole [??] On eBay
Sure, there's a fine-looking Creative Playthings dollhouse on eBay at the moment, complete with a family of squatter dolls, who at least haven't tossed out the matchy [if not all matching] furniture. But who cares when there's a freakin'...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 6, 2008
Come On And Pontiac Catalina Safari With Me
Wow, just wow. From the era of $0.55/gal. gas, by way of Burlington, VT's craigslist:1973 Pontiac Catalina Safari station wagon with 47k original miles. Rare 455 cu. in. engine with 4bbl carb. Great for towing that vintage trailer. Very...
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[read the full post...]
April 30, 2008
Hmm, Not The Phaeton Station Wagon I Was Dreaming Of
I noticed that a neighbor in DC recently bought a VW Phaeton, and since every other house in our DC neighborhood has either a Volvo wagon, a Mercedes wagon, or a Passat wagon in front of it, the walks...
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[read the full post...]
April 28, 2008
We've Come A Long Way, Childcraft?
Hi-larious. From the hippies to the CPSC to women's lib, the times in 1974, they were definitely a-changin'. Here are some items from the 1974-5 Childcraft catalog that I can't imagine seeing at a Toys R Us near you...
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[read the full post...]
Sweet Vintage Ply: Childcraft Nesting Chair Blocks
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Childcraft Nesting Chair Blocks, circa 1974, originally uploaded by daddytypes. I just got a fat...
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[read the full post...]
April 25, 2008
My First Pixi Books
Pixi Books, or Pixi Bücher, are the German equivalent of Golden Books. Since 1953, the Vaterland's Kindershelves have been filled with over 1,500 identically sized titles, [10x10cm], and all grouped and numbered in little series with German precision. I'm sure...
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[read the full post...]
April 19, 2008
Sweet Sport France Jouet A Bascule
Just in case you didn't learn how to say "rocking horse" in French--because frankly, you were only learning French to pick up chicks, not shop for playground implements--now you know: un cheval à bascule. Thus, this jouet à bascule,...
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[read the full post...]
April 18, 2008
Papst Red Ribbon: Vintage Fiberglass Kid Furniture Goes 1 For 2 In Vienna
Last we heard of Walter Papst, the German pioneer in the design of fiberglass furniture, his Rocking Sculpture was being reissued in a limited edition by Wilkhahn. [Also, he was hunting aliens.] After the Rocking Sculpture won an award...
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[read the full post...]
Creative Playthings Houseboat, Minus The Wet T-shirted Playthings
The seller has titled this 1960's Creative Playthings boat Noah's Ark, even though there are no animals. Obviously, though, it's from the very rare Creative Playthings Lake Havasu Spring Break Playset. If only Antonio Vitali's hand-carved, bikini-wearing co-eds and...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
April 15, 2008
Now That's A Hackable Wall-Mounted Metal Changing Table
At EUR650, this very changing table-esque, modular shelving unit, made in Holland in the 1950's by Pilastro, is approximately 25 times the cost of the modern, lawn chair-like Ikea alternatives. Then again, Ikea has 25 million Google results; Pilastro...
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[read the full post...]
April 14, 2008
Papa Poems From Siv Widerberg's I'm Like Me
It's not perfect, but it's a perfect artifact of the era: The 1973 collection of poems by Swedish poet/writer/school teacher Siv Widerberg was published by The Feminist Press under the title, "I'm Like Me: Poems for people who want to...
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[read the full post...]
We Need A Montage! Children And Their [Babywearing] Fathers
While the wife and K2 were in NYC, the kid and I went to the book sale at the library over the weekend. It was in unusually good form: seven books for an embarrassing $1.40, including Bruno Munari's Zoo;...
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[read the full post...]
April 11, 2008
Now That's A Disney Dad: Awesome Dork Films Family's 1956 Trip To Disneyland
Dr. Robbins Barstow began his amateur filmmaking career directing himself and his brothers in a Tarzan movie in the 1930's. By 1956, little Robbins was all grown up and living in Connecticut, where he pursued more stable work in...
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[read the full post...]
April 9, 2008
"Blatantly Unfocused Play With Their Daddy"
I'm re-reading Calvin Trillin's 1998 book, Family Man, and it's rather more interesting now that I'm a dad. Jim's right, he's the godfather of all typing daddies, not just those who make a big deal about changing tables in the...
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April 8, 2008
Creative Playthings Tug Boat On The eBay
If there's wear on this vintage Finnish tug boat & barge set from Creative Playthings, I can't really see it in the photo. And before I start a bidding war at $22 shipped for a used wooden toy, I'd...
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April 3, 2008
Mr. Jalopy's Vintage Kid Chairs of Wonder
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Mr. Jalopy's Vintage Kid Chairs of Wonder, originally uploaded by daddytypes. I made a pilgrimage...
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Terry Fox's Children's Tapes At The Getty
Though he lies in Germany now, when he was living in the Bay Area in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Terry Fox "was a central participant in the West Coast performance art, video and Conceptual Art movements." In...
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April 2, 2008
David Cronenberg Would Definitely Approve: Vintage Thumbsucking Guard On eBay
We're just at the stage where we wish/hope the new kid will learn how to suck her thumb and self-soothe, but instead of giving her the chance, we usually seem to take the instant pacification route by plugging the...
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Vintage Kettler: Puts The Rad In Dreirad
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Chromjuwelen Kettler Dreirad, originally uploaded by chromjuwelen. With their Happy AIr, Happy Plus, Happy Plus...
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April 1, 2008
From Germany To Silverlake With Love: Flototto Kids Chair
So we went poking around Silverlake today, the girls and I. Yolk is nice. But hey-o, Monkeyhouse Toys?? Awesome. The hyper-indie toy store has more than a few kidult-oriented toys, but first and foremost, it's a toy store for...
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Childsply: Filling In The Pieces
I've been slowly hearing back from various designers in the Childsply Project that UK design gallery/store twentytwentyone organized in 1999. [13 designers and firms created twelve pieces of kid furniture out of a single sheet of plywood. The originals...
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March 29, 2008
Old Toyseller Coughs Up Two Sweet Antonio Vitali Animals
Clear out a few more curio cabinetsful of these new-old-stock Antonio Vitali animals, and I think a certain retired, Connecticut toy store owner will be able to get that condo in Boca. Of course, with the way the Florida...
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March 27, 2008
Where's Childsply When You Need It?
Robin Day's Rocking Bird Childpsly Chair, 1999, for twentytwentyone, via For an extremely awesome-sounding collection of affordable, sustainable, kid-related design that's not even ten years old, Childsply is pretty-near invisible on the web. Childsply was the name of a...
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"Hot Dog: A Program About Stuff" Starring Woody Allen & Jonathan Winters. Huh?
Hot Dog was a children's television series that ran for one season (1970) on NBC's Saturday morning. Called "The Show About Stuff," it was basically the network version of the "How do they make _____?" segments from Mister Rogers...
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March 19, 2008
Steve Zuckerman's Awesome, Moody, Hippie Songs On Sesame Street
These things are like Pringles; once you open the can and have one, you just can't stop. The kid was really withdrawn and bummin' when she came home from pre-school this afternoon, so we sat down to an episode...
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Recovered: Matt Jones' Unofficial History Of "Pinball Number Count"
Back in 2003, British blogger Matthew Jones pieced together an early unofficial, but informative history of "Pinball Number Count." While the details of it have mostly been incorporated into the Wikipedia entries for the song; the animators at Jeff Hale's...
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WTD: 4-Handed Swami To Count Pinball Number Count Cover Versions
Seriously, that DJ Food remix and The Family Guy are just the tip of the iceberg. At his music blog Fong Song, blogger Fongolia has tallied up at least 17 cover versions of "Pinball Number Count," the classic Sesame...
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D'Oh! Missed The Thunderball Wallpaper Auction
I'd flagged this eBay listing for posting, and then I totally missed it in the whirlwind of family that descended on us over the weekend: five rolls of Thunderball wallpaper, circa 1965, were sold on Saturday as part of...
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March 18, 2008
Sugoi: Japanese Folk Toy Design Database
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } halloweenesque octopus, originally uploaded by peacay. FYI, "sugoi" means "great!" and is used sort of...
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March 17, 2008
Pregnant With Meaning: A Reproductive Reading Of What's Opera, Doc?
This morning I wrote a bit about the origins of the phrase, "the rabbit died," which was a common, if inaccurate, euphemism for a positive result on a pregnancy test, which in post-WWII America was called the rabbit test....
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Win One For The Little Zipper! Creative Playthings Mail Scooter On eBay
Haven't seen one of these turn up on eBay before. It's a Creative Playthings Mail Scooter called the Little Zipper, presumably a reference to the 5-digit Zip Code, which was being promoted for general use in the late 1960's...
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March 14, 2008
Looks Like I'd Better Talk To The Boss: Cadillac Station Wagon On eBay
Uh-oh, it's put up or shut up time. That 1979 Cadillac station wagon Jalopnik spotted back in December is now online. On sale. on eBay. Back then, I said I'd suddenly felt desperate to buy one, and now one--the...
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The Other Cradle Of The King Of Rome
Of the over 14,000 vintage color slides donated by Charles W. Cushman to the Indiana University library, this 1960 photo of a cradle at Fontainebleau is the only one with a "children's furniture" tag. I did some searching, and...
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March 13, 2008
Wow. Shagtastic Lucite Rocker
If you'd given up on your groovy Halston-themed nursery and were about to return that silver metallic op art wallpaper, STOP. Your rocker just turned up on eBay. MODERN LUCITE ROCKING CHAIR 1970'S, $475 bid or $500 Buy It...
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March 10, 2008
Crosley Davidson: "I'm As Happy As A New Daddy!"
"On the hood, you will see the brown extends down the front. It follows the outline of the 'CROSLEY' badge that goes there. I'm as happy as a new daddy!!!!" That's Barry "Bearman" Dennis talking about the new paint job...
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Vintage Community Playthings Original Maple Airplane
Haven't had a lot of the random eBay finds on here lately, probably because I haven't had as much time for the random eBay surfing as I used to. But I always like to see these giant maple jets...
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Wow. Russian Winnie The Pooh By Fyodor Khitruk
It's like Winnie the Pooh, without the rampant capitalism. Literally. In 1969-1972, Fyodor Khitruk, who is considered the pioneering figure of post-Stalinist Soviet animation, made three short films about Vinni Puh, based on the Russian translation of A.A. Milne's...
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March 8, 2008
Going Back For A Day In The Neighborhood
When Google Video first launched, it seemed like no matter what you searched for, the results were always 9-part interviews with public television pioneers by the Archive of American Television. Joan Ganz Cooney can keep waiting, but I picked and...
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March 3, 2008
Wow. Sixteen Other Animals Puzzle NOT By Enzo Mari
vs. I have to agree with the design gurus at Tokyo's Graphio/Buro-stil on this one: sometimes a copy rises above the level of mere knockoff to attain a remarkable beauty of its own. Like a cover version or a...
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February 29, 2008
Mini-Eames Made By Eames, Shot By Eames
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } DSC08026.JPG, originally uploaded by eamesd. Andy just posted this photo from Eames Demetrios' flickr stream....
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February 27, 2008
Curriculumachine: Drunken 70's Japanese TV Show For Kids
Ho-ly smokes. Take hidden footage from The Electric Company's off-the-hook Christmas parties, where Rita Moreno turns her skirt-shaking Anita from West Side Story into a streetwalker. Combine it with bits from Laugh-in, and intersperse animation copied straight off the...
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February 25, 2008
Which Enzo Mari 16 Animals Puzzle You Talking About?
I imagine collectors of Enzo Mari's rather awesome puzzle, "16 Animali," already know this, but it seems like the kind of reference data that's worth filing away. Now when you find an old 16 Animali in a thrift shop,...
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What, Me Worry? Plastic Bozart Dollhouse Market Is Meltdown-Proof!
I don't care if they're New In Box. If you buy these two Bozart Kaleidoscope dollhouses for $3200 or more, we need to talk. Well, let me qualify that: we need to talk if you have some unique and...
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[read the full post...]
February 24, 2008
For Sale This Second: 1986 Rolls Royce Station Wagon, Bugaboo Not Included
Alright, for some inexplicable reason, it's Rolls Royce Station Wagon season around here. No sooner do I post a random photo from the streets of London, than DT reader JJ Daddy-o turns up a 1986 Silver Spirit, custom converted...
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February 23, 2008
This Is How They Rolls: Silver Shadow Station Wagon + Bugaboo Gecko
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } I was slow to pick up on its minimalistic charms, but I miss the Bugaboo...
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February 16, 2008
Flora You Didn't Miss Yet: Primer For Prophets Alphabet
While poking around the Jim Flora Store on eBay, I found another interesting, new release that's worth a mention in these here nursery-friendly parts: modern silkscreen editions of a rare promotional booklet that Flora did in 1954 for CBS...
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February 13, 2008
Helen Levitt's Photos Of Kids And Their Street Art
Lifelong New Yorker Helen Levitt is one of the masters of street photography, the kind of candid, revelatory imagemaking that, as a NYT reviewer once wrote, "combine[s] intuition and intellect to forge sophisticated, lyrical compositions from commonplace events." If...
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February 9, 2008
Come To Papa: The Only Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3 Wagon
Wow. The Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3 was the stealth supercar predecessor to the better known muscle car from the late seventies, the 450SE 6.9. From a single prototype in 1967, about 6,500 cars were sold over the four year...
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February 7, 2008
They Sure Don't Make'em Like They Used To: c1946 Cardboard Bassinet
It's my kid in a box, baby! From the 1946 advice book, Mother and Baby Care In Pictures, comes this cardboard box done up as a crib:An improvised bed made from a corrugated carton by an ingenious father. Not...
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February 6, 2008
Buckminster Fuller's Kiddie Koop Crib Revealed! Or, Uh, Someone's
Yeah, so I bought the book the Buckminster Fuller Master Index credits Bucky's crib design to: the all-new 1946 edition of Louise Zabriskie's parenting handbook, Mother & Baby Care in Pictures. Sure enough, there's the Kiddie Koop in all...
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High-End Auction Therapy, Maybe: Renata Mueller's Therapeutic Toys
Around 1969 and into the 70's Renata Mueller [that Müller, with an umlaut, btw] designed a collection of therapeutic toys with a former instructor, Helene Haeusler, for the venerable German teddy bear manufacturer, H. Josef Leven. Based in the...
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January 24, 2008
Like-A-Crawligator? Creative Playthings 'Comet' On eBay
The casters are a different color, there doesn't appear to be a box, and it's apparently called 'The Comet,' but otherwise, this 23" long biomorphic spaceship scooterboard looks an awful lot like Creative Playthings' Crawligator. Either it's the same...
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January 22, 2008
Bozart Kaleidoscope Doll Houses Will Certainly Be More Expensive Tomorrow
Real estate crisis? What real estate crisis? The market for seven-year-old plastic doll houses has NEVER BEEN HOTTER! If you don't buy today, prices will absolutely be higher tomorrow! And the next day! 100% financing available! Foreign investors are...
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January 21, 2008
DT eBay Scoutabout: Fire Sale Edition
Watching the live auctions today has wrought havoc on the ol' browser. In the time since I started trying to post about it, this sweet, vintage Creative Playthings fire station jumped from 99 cents to $21.50, which is more...
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Insane Penna. Antique Crib Quilt Would've Cost You $25,000+ Last Summer
Unless, of course, Boston folk art dealer Stephen Score had planned on bidding more. The 40-in. crib quilt is from around 1875, and was apparently never used; it was found in the bottom of a dower chest. It was...
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January 19, 2008
Lennart Nilsson's Portrait Of An Aka Tribesdad Tribesmom In The Family Of Man
There were some exceptions, but in the photos in Edward Steichen's massive 1955 exhibition, The Family of Man, they liked their women nursing or pregnant, and they liked their black people naked, maybe holding a spear. As Louis Kaplan...
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January 16, 2008
The Moral Of The Story: Don't Turn Your Back On The eBay
Seriously, do you need any starker proof that you can't let your eyes off the eBay even for one second? Even if it's Christmas?? Even if your wife just gave birth??? Check this out: eBay seller id.london had a truly...
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January 15, 2008
Damn Straight, The 'Street's Not For Kids! That Gordon Dude Freaks Me Out!
Yeah, no one's paying too close attention, right? So if I've been posting about vintage Sesame Street for years without actually sitting down to watch the Old School episodes on DVD, no one'd notice, right? BECAUSE HOLY CRAP, WHAT...
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January 9, 2008
Suh-Weet Plexi-less Plexi Hospital Bassinet On eBay
It needs a plexiglass baby bucket and maybe a bit of scrubbing, but there's one of those awesome hospital bassinet's on eBay right now. With an opening bid of $125 and to-the-Greyhound-station shipping of $50, that's definitely retail price,...
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January 8, 2008
Mommy, Where Do Jean De Brunhoff Lithographs Come From?
Something's been bugging me since visiting the otherwise over-the-top awesome baby department at Takashimaya [remember the $50,000 white lacquer Richard Meier-ian playhouse?] In a corner, there was a little stack of framed "vintage Babar lithographs, c. 1930's, by Jean...
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January 7, 2008
Wayne Miller's Family In The Family Of Man
I made a mental note a couple of months ago to look up Toni Frissell's photos in The Family Of Man, the landmark photography exhibition Edward Steichen curated at the Museum of Modern Art in 1955. The show featured...
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January 2, 2008
Look For Buffy Breastfeeding! Sesame Street's Lakota Lacktivist Returns
Alright lactivists, you may now drop your placards along with your tops. The vintage Sesame Street breastfeeding clips that disappeared for a while are back on YouTube. The one above was from the mid-1970's and featured American Indian folk...
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December 31, 2007
Did You Know The Juno Bed?
During a regular check of the website for Danish auction house Bruun-Rasmussen, I came across this old hyper-convertible bed called the Juno Bed [ends 8 Jan., est EUR405]. Ever heard of it? I hadn't, though the creators of Denmark's...
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Hmm, I Love The Smell Of Dutch Mahogany Modular Kid's Furniture In The Morning
Hmm, the subtly carved chair legs in beautiful mahogany; the matching mahogany connector system on the stool corners; the seemingly interchangeable chair seat and stool top; the four bolt holes on the side that could be for attaching another...
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December 28, 2007
This Week In Stump Book News
After discovering these cool-shaped Stump Books series published by Anthony Treherne two turns of the century ago, I thought, wouldn't it be awesome to buy one? If only it didn't cost $750 and/or wasn't full of wildly offensive racist stereotypes......
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December 21, 2007
The Stump Books For Children, By 'The Pilgrims'
Last week, while following some links from Things Magazine ["the spectre of roaming, near-feral children" ring a bell?], I came across a 2005 Japanese university library exhibition of the Opie Collection of Children's Literature, over 20,000 titles, works of art,...
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December 17, 2007
Achtung, Baby! Sweet Bauhaussy High Chair
Note to self: add "hochstuhl" to my list of saved eBay searches. Andy sent along this rather awesome-looking vintage high chair from Germany. It's made of painted bent wood and some kind of thigh boots-and-riding crop-friendly pleather. Sehr Gut....
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December 14, 2007
Teaching The Heir The White Man's Burden
I bought that 1944 Toni Frissell edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1885 classic, A Child's Garden of Verses I wrote about recently. It's pretty good, but not headsmackingly great; Frissell's photos are a nice change from cutesy pastel drawings, but...
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December 12, 2007
Ted Sears' Awesome Homemade Christmas Cards
Wow. Ted Sears was an animator and the first head of the story department at Walt Disney Studios. According to his IMDb bio, he was very influential in the adoption by the film industry of storyboards. He wrote the...
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December 10, 2007
Saul Bass's Kid's Book: Henri's Walk To Paris
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Saul Bass - Henri's walk to paris c1962, originally uploaded by Grain Edit. Nice. Word...
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December 9, 2007
Microdorm 2: Ken Isaacs' Living Structure For Kids
In 1963, Isaacs was contacted by a University of Chicago child psychiatrist, who wanted to provide individual work/play/living/storage spaces for handicapped and disabled children in state institutions. The resulting design was two 35 5/8" plywood cubes with storage spaces...
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December 6, 2007
Pee Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special, Plus Grace Jones
Except for the theatrical release of The Last Emperor and the Iran-Contra hearings, I didn't think I missed anything culture-wise while I was a missionary in Japan in 1988. I didn't realize how wrong I was. The intro to Pee...
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When Was Sesame Street Cool Enough To Have Philip Glass Animations?
Seriously, Philip Glass? And all this time I thought his first project for children's television was the South Park Christmas Special. Now it turns out he did at a trippy composition for a set of animated color wheels. Did anyone...
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December 5, 2007
Waldi The Munich 1972 Olympic Wunderhund
Apparently the pinnacle of mod Olympic graphic design was reached in 1972 for the Munich summer games. The logos, signs, marketing, and mascots--everything down to and including the souvenirs--represented a triumph of the will, so to speak, of Otl...
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December 3, 2007
It's My Hippie Kid In A Box! Ken Isaacs' Living Structures
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Where are all the hippie visionaries when you need'em? In the 50's and 60's, designer...
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Can You ID This Vintage Eskimo Playset?
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Vintage Eskimo Playset from the 70's, originally uploaded by daddytypes. In the off chance that...
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December 2, 2007
Is That A Cardboard Doll House I See Before Me?
I've had this 1969 Form Magazine photo of cardboard kid's furniture on my desktop all week, but I just noticed the dollhouse to the right. Ilse-Werke KG, the German company behind the furniture, leaves no trace that I can...
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[read the full post...]
November 30, 2007
Toni Frissell's Photographic Children's Books
One of my ongoing complaints with the Children's Book Industrial Complex is how few titles are illustrated with photographs instead of painting or drawing. Though there are some sweet exceptions, it feels like the whole modern photography world just...
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We Hail Thee, Old Yale: The New Political Alphabet, Circa 1813
Alright, now that DT reader Rebekah has revealed the secret handshake for accessing the Beinecke Library's children's book collection online [search for "Shirley"], I may have to clear the calendar of any actually useful tasks and posts. Check out the...
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Y Is Not For Yale, Because V Was Already For The 'Varsity, Duh.
Some of the analysis bugs, but Emily Bazelon and Erica Perl ultimately get high fives from me for their Slate slide show on the history of children's books. The reason: they introduced me to Caroline Ketcham Eaton's incomparable 1890...
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[read the full post...]
November 29, 2007
The Other 1937 Snow White
Ouch. You've gotta feel for the budding children's book artist who introduces her meticulously translated, true-to-Grimm, three-color labor of love retelling of Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs in 1937, the year Walt Disney revolutionized cinema with his own...
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[read the full post...]
November 28, 2007
Tobifant: Luigi Colani's Knock-Together Activity Table
I am familiar with the work of Pablo Neruda. The work of Luigi Colani, not so much. I did think I'd ferreted out most all of the kid-related design from the online archives of the incomparable German design magazine,...
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[read the full post...]
November 27, 2007
"And You've Got The Whole Idea Behind The Volkswagen Station Wagon."
"Maybe you work it so you could walk to the back to change a diaper, or squash a rebellion." Yeah, maybe. Previous DT coverage of great VW ideas squashed flat like a shoebox...
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Suh-weet Elephant Bank By Luigi Colani
In the 1970's, Luigi Colani took a break from designing the future to create a little elephant-shaped bank for Dresdner Bank to give out to the kids. One has found its way to Lancaster, PA, and from thence to...
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[read the full post...]
November 25, 2007
Sweet Creative Playthings Trove From Finland Via Texas
Just in time for the holidays, eBay seller twobluepups posted a great-looking trio of vintage Creative Playthings wooden toy lots. All the auctions end Dec. 3rd. The two Playtown sets are in good condition and complete with the box,...
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[read the full post...]
November 23, 2007
Vintage Creative Playthings Kaleidoscope: Meh.
Last month I bought an old wooden Creative Playthings kaleidoscope on eBay. The transaction went fine, but the toy itself is not that great. Now don't get me wrong: I'm with it enough to dig the potential beauty of...
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[read the full post...]
E Is For Expo 67 Puzzle & Coloring Books, Also For Eh
I got all excited last night when I saw a big jigsaw puzzle from the Expo 67 in Montreal, which was the overall raddest Expo ever. [Even if there were no Buckminster Fuller sphere, Habitat, or Dutch pavilion made...
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Supergraphic Wall Painting System Contains Everything An Expert Canadian Wallpainter Needs!
My elementary school had swoopy graphics like this once, I think. And according to the box, Canadian designer Ted Butler's complete Supergraphic set makes it super easy to create your very own Electric Company-ish graphics, "even if you've never...
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[read the full post...]
November 21, 2007
Vintage Pop-Up Book Teaches Important Lessons On Global Climate Change, Natural Selection
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } The little polar bear - rudolf lukes c1964, originally uploaded by Grain Edit. When the...
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November 19, 2007
NYT: The Street Is No Place For Children
To the eye-rolling amusement of the parents who grew up on the stuff, NY Times TV critic Virginia Heffernan writes about the ironic warning label on the just-released Volume 2 of Sesame Street: Old School:These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are...
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In Greece They Do Potty Training The Old-Fashioned Way
They urn it. [Sorry, long weekend.] Tech exec Bill Bliss snapped this at the Agora museum in Athens. My question: is that image of mom & kid for real? Because it looks made up. Boingboing has a larger version. Of...
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[read the full post...]
November 13, 2007
DT Retail Scoutabout: Cities & Trikes & Marinas Edition
I'll probably add a couple of items to this retail scoutabout, since two of them aren't really retail: Befuddled Citydweller Baby Gift Alert Marilyn Singer and Carll Cneut's countdown to naptime book, City Lullaby, got a pretty glowing writeup in...
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[read the full post...]
November 8, 2007
Sweet & Minty: Creative Playthings Giant Magnifier
Now that's nice, a Giant Magnifier from Creative Playthings, new in the box. I got one of these for the kid before she was really able to play with it; after about 2.5-3yo, she fell in love with sticking...
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[read the full post...]
November 7, 2007
Found! That Sick $790 Mod, Spinning Dollhouse
Q: Is the obsession with mini-sized modernism that leads someone to pay $790 for a sweet-yet-anonymous, architect-made, Plexi-on-a-lazy-susan, modernist dollhouse on eBay the same kind that leads someone to create a blog devoted exclusively to modernist dollhouses? A: Yep....
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[read the full post...]
November 5, 2007
Teak 182: Danish Spindle-back Rocker By Frank Reenskaug
One day you've never heard of Frank Reenskaug; the next, his teak rocking chairs from 1958 are everywhere. But even then, you can't find out much more than that a handful of chairs are for sale [or sold.] Good...
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[read the full post...]
November 4, 2007
Danish Rattan Rocking Horse At Jennifer Delonge, Craigs Delist
From Design*Sponge we learn that Jennifer Delonge, the paragon of Westside infant chic, is now offering a carefully edited selection of "fresh" vintage furniture, or as we say in the biz, "a few great pieces." Among them: a very...
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[read the full post...]
October 30, 2007
FYI, Japanese Folk Toys Are Called Kyoudo Gangu
taiguruma by Futabashi Hariko, Shizuoka pref. image via That's 郷土玩具, kyoudo gangu if you're surfing at home. [that Google link will survive the posting process, even if the characters get mangled.] After seeing that beautiful suite of woodblock prints...
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October 28, 2007
Viva La Revolvolution! Viva La PV445 Wagon At Tokyo!
Not since last Spring, when Colin Powell tinkered amiably under the hood of his 122S for the New York Times, has Volvo challenged the world to ask, "Uh, and you don't make cars this awesome anymore because...why, exactly?" Jalopnik...
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Sweet Vintage Suburban Playthings
There's a reason this eBay auction of a single-room Creative Playthings dollhouse stuffed with original matching Antonio Vitali furniture is already $75: because it's freakin' awesome. Most of it looks to be in excellent condition, even the more played-with...
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October 27, 2007
Unaru No Tomo: Awesome Old Old Japanese Toys
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Japanese toy designs k, originally uploaded by peacay. From the always spectacular BibliOdyssey comes Unaru...
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October 26, 2007
Sweet Community Playthings Convertible Ready To Hit The Strip
From the same eBay seller--who's donating the proceeds back to the church where these old toys came from--comes this sweet, giant Community Playthings car. You could fit the whole Rat Pack in that thing, and still have room in...
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Community Playthings Phone Will Require Much Explanation
My first thought when I saw this vintage Community Playthings maple phone appear on eBay was, "Yow, better watch that phone cord doesn't wrap around the youngster's little neck." But then I realized, it'll take so much to explain...
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October 24, 2007
Wha? They Said "Breast" On Sesame Street??
Yeah, like 30 years ago. That's when Big Bird gets a lesson in breastfeeding from the folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie and her infant son Cody. Of course, Big Bird also has a personality, and Buffy carefully anunciates, "ve-ge-tuh-bles," so...
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Vitra Doesn't Know Where This Kid Rocking Chair Comes From
Who is running the tour schedule Vitra's exhibition, "Kid-Size: The Material World of Childhood"? That is seriously the hardest-working, slightly self-promotingest exhibition in the museum business. As with so many other things in the baby world, it feels momentous...
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October 23, 2007
Are You Feeling Horny, Dad?
An ad from Canadian Club's Office of TMI [adrants via coudal]...
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Groovy Plastic Toadstool Table & Chairs
We're looking for a new sofa for DC, so I've been surfing the antique and midcentury store sites in DC. One store, Modernicus, has this kind of cool kids table and chair set from the 1970's. Of course, they...
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October 22, 2007
RAW Clothing, Awesome Handmade Gifts, By My Modern Life
My Modern Life is an eBay seller in Lincoln Nebraska who first crossed my radar when she posted some vintage toys in insanely great condition by Creative Playthings and Kay Bojesen. As if that wasn't awesome enough, My Modern...
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October 18, 2007
At Least We Can All Agree That Kids Need More Sugar
OK, so my flamethrowing blurb about vaccination didn't exactly have us all singing Kumbaya today. But I think we can all agree with the thoroughly unbiased research organization, Sugar Information, Inc., when they point out that Suzy here "needs...
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October 17, 2007
Holy Flatpack! Slot-Together Bumpalow School, Circa 1931
Put that in your Dwell prefab and compost it. As early as the 1930's, Milton-Bradley was producing sweet, slot-together wooden doll houses and other play buildings as part of Bumpalow Town. There was also a store, a church, a...
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October 14, 2007
"Baby On Board": The Vienna Museum Is Alive With The Exhibition Of Strollers
DT reader Scott and family were just in Vienna, where he saw this poster for what will be--let's face it--THE MOST IMPORTANT STROLLER EXHIBITION IN AUSTRIAN HISTORY. The Vienna Museum opens "Baby On Board" next week, which gives a...
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October 13, 2007
In The Nursery Of Good And Evil: Antonio Rubino At The Wolfsoniana
image: wolfsoniana.it Antonio Rubino was a leading comic artist and illustrator in Italy from between the wars until his death in the 1960's. He drew and edited some early Disney magazines [Topolino ring any bells?] and founded the kid's...
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October 8, 2007
Awww, My First Skis: Designed By Someone In New Jersey.
These vintage Creative Playthings skis are perfect--if you're one of those East Coast ski weirdos who thinks 12 inches of manmade ice and gravel counts as a ski surface. Killington? Sugar Mountain?? Gimme a break Buy the skis because...
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October 7, 2007
The Machine By Samsonite Toys
Alright, finally. The 1972 Samsonite Toys catalogue is up and running on flickr, though a couple of pages are out of order. Check out all the plasticky goodness. With The Machine here, Samsonite ends its toy section with a...
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O Is For Orbit: Space Alphabet, By Zacks & Plasencia
I love these kinds of discoveries. While poking around Dreams of Space, a compendium website of the history of space-related artwork in children's books, Ward Jenkins found this incredible, obscure 1964 children's book, Space Alphabet is by Irene Zacks,...
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October 6, 2007
DTbay Roundup: Wood Toys & Indians Edition
Some things that caught my eBay eye. For some reason, they all involve $25, which variously does and does not seem right: Creative Playthings Wooden FireChief Toy Car Red Wood, opening bid $10+14 s/h? Good luck, Goodwill! Auction ends Oct...
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October 5, 2007
Turn Samsonite's Zoo Zoo Into Samsonite's Gitmo Gitmo In Too Easy Steps
Still working to get the scans of this 1972 Samsonite Toys catalogue finished. There were sure a lot of roller skate-type products in that first, expanded collection. There was also the People Places series, their entry into the preschool...
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Whoa. George Nakashima Rocker Rocks
George Nakashima made this free-edge arm walnut rocking chair for his niece, Alene. Obviously, it rocks. I wonder if you could rout out a little hole in the arm to hold the bottle... KIDDING! KIDDING! I KID BECAUSE I...
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October 3, 2007
Like-A-Big-Wheel: The Mini-Bike, From Samsonite. Huh Wha?
How awesome is this? A ride-on bike for a one-year-old, with superfat tires so it doesn't tip over? Also, it has a badass set of ape hanger chrome handlebars? Naturally, it's from Samsonite. That's right, they were doing more...
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October 1, 2007
Yo Jersey, Don't Let Me Catch You Painting This Creative Playthings Kitchen!
Let's face it: 35-year-old play kitchens are going to be played with. It's usually enough to find one at all, much less one in pristine shape. A three-piece Creative Playthings kitchen--sink, oven, and fridge--just hit the eBay. The stove...
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September 27, 2007
DT eBay Roundup: CP Farm, Swing & Miami Beach Netto
A few things I'm seeing on eBay--and not bidding on, so I don't mind telling you about them. This is how [some of] your eBay news is made, people! CREATIVE PLAYTHINGS 60'S WOOD LEARNING TOYS FARM An early set of...
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September 21, 2007
Formwerks Went To The Eames Gallery, And All I Got Was This Lousy--Holy Crap, Dude! Is That A Molded Ply Rocking Horse??
This summer, the Eames Office and Vitra issued a limited-edition, molded plywood elephant based on an early, experimental design that Ray and Charles Eames made for their own kids, but never put into production. [Two were made; the Eames...
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September 18, 2007
Creative Playthings Slow Truck Perfect For Your Little Tank Girl
British toy designer Patrick Rylands created the Slow Truck in 1972. It was made for Creative Playthings by the German company Schuco. There was also a Slow Bus, which looks more like a bright red Slow Winnebago. Both toys...
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"Cuz That's The Z Of The Game": Richard Pryor's ABC's
Richard Pryor improv'ing the ABC's on Sesame Street is brought to you by the letter P and the number 1, P as in prudes, and 1 as in the number of PBS Sprout hosts they've booted so far for...
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September 10, 2007
Spumoni-esque Cradle Alle Genovese
Abandon rational concerns of outrageous, potentially dangerous protruding objects all ye who enter your kid here. This wrought iron [is there such a thing as overwrought iron?] and carved wood cradle by Sacca di Messina was included in the...
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Vintage Plastic: Efebino Stool By Stacy Dukes
In the late 1960's, the Italian manufacturer Artemide, best known for their groovy light fixtures, produced this stackable kid's stool by Stacy Dukes. It's called the Efebino, though there was also a slightly wider, 2x taller version called the...
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September 9, 2007
Peder Moos, Peder Moos Cribs Don't Do The Fandango
Master cabinetmaker Peter Moos was known to Swedish historians of Danish 20th century furniture techniques [pdf] for his use of exceedingly fine, even decorative, joinery. But that's about as much as I can turn up on the guy. That,...
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September 8, 2007
Play Furniture By Kay Bojesen & Magnus Stephenson
Kay Bojesen is probably best known in the kid design world for his teak monkeys and other toy animals for Rosendahl, designed in the early 1950's, when Danish modernism was really kicking in worldwide. But way back in the...
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September 3, 2007
William Hunter's Anatomia Uteri Humani Gravidi, 1774
William Hunter became one of the most famous anatomists and obstetricians in 18th century Europe. Over the courser of 30-odd years, he worked with the artist Jan van Rymsdyk to produce what's considered one of the greatest achievements in...
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August 28, 2007
Blockspotting: My Aunt's Sweet, Vintage Alphabet Blocks
I still can't forget how nice these blocks felt, and how beautiful they are. On a visit to my grandmother's this summer, the kid got to play in the same basement toy closet I did [it used to be...
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The Wagonmaster Has His Eyes, His Cunning, And Now His Strength
flickr user illtakeyourphoto! scanned in this sweet ad from a 1970 issue of Ford Times. And now that Andy's gone freelance, he's got all day to surf stuff up and pass it around! Stay at home, dads! The Wagonmaster...
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August 25, 2007
Synergroovy! Creative Playthings Toy News Truck & Camera
Hilariously inevitable. A toy TV news van with a detachable microphone and camera on top, that flips over into a giant toy studio camera, complete with a lens. From Creative Playthings, during the late A Division of CBS years,...
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August 19, 2007
Electricity Aquarian? Oh, It's A Source Family Name.
Isis, Omne, Magus, Electra, Orbit, Electricity, Djin, Sunflower, Damian, Lotus, Goddess, Octavius, Pythias, Rhythm, Sol Amon, Aquariana, Zoraster, Ahom, Omega, "cannot remember his name." Those are some of the first names I rounded up of members of The Source Family,...
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August 16, 2007
Pish Posh, It's Just An Air Raid: Blossom, The Brave Balloon
During WWII, the Royal Air Force deployed thousands of barrage balloons over British cities and factories to run interference with low-flying, divebombing German fighter planes. In 1941, someone decided a bit of backstory might help English kids understand what...
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August 12, 2007
There Is No Craigslist In Peru, Illinois
I've been to some remote places in Illinois in my day [Pontoosuc in the house!], but the closest I've got to Peru was that one crazy weekend I drove out from Chicago to the opening gala for the new...
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August 11, 2007
Patented Modernist Dollhouses
Ever the eBay shark, Andy found this sweet, modernist plywood-and-plexi dollhouse for sale on eBay and posted it to Stork Bites Man. The description says it was designed and built by an architect; the plexiglass walls can slide out...
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August 4, 2007
Pristine Eames Rocker, One Baby-Having, HM Employee Owner, On eBay
Wow. "A2" condition, no scratches, no dings and almost no wear on the original runners. "Strong and supple" shockmounts, paper label and beautiful manufactured-on datestamp. Being sold by "the original owner and 'child'"? The only way this vintage Eames...
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Vintage LA Strollermodding: Ladera Park Baby Show
From the Prelinger Archive, we learn that parents gathering in parks to show off their kustom strollers didn't start with pinstriped Bugaboos or AT-AT Walkers. But since the only mentions of the Ladera Park Baby Show are to this...
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July 31, 2007
Vintage Soviet Pedal Cars To Vintage American Pedal Cars: We Will Crush You
Jalopnik's already got the perfect headline for this sweet collection of vintage images of Soviet-era pedal cars, so I'll just add, "You had'em on the run, Comrades!" From this angle, the Moskovich looks a bit like The People's MB...
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July 30, 2007
It's Baaack: Sled Of Death, Other Creative Playthings Goodness On eBay
There's a pile of sweet old gear on eBay at the moment, both of the Creative Playthings and Creative Way To Break Your Neck, Young Man! Playthings varieties: CREATIVE PLAYTHINGS ESKIMOS PLAYSET vintage FP little Looks complete, in nice...
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July 20, 2007
Franklin Roosevelt's Jive Alphabet
One for the old folks out there. Franklin Roosevelt was the jive-talking black Muppet on the early seasons of Sesame Street. Here he is doing a call-and-response alphabet with his mother to with a funk bassline and a voice...
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Incredible Vintage George Nelson Children's Desk On eBay
Wow, he's not just for marshmallow sofas and whimsical nursery clocks anymore. Because it's never too early to learn how to take a memo, Herman Miller produced a child-sized version of George Nelson's secretary desk. This example is in...
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July 18, 2007
Mein Stroller Hat Zwei Wheelen
After the war, the Germans discovered that all their leading two-wheeled stroller designers had fled the country. Rebuilding the two-wheeled stroller industry would be hard, but they were determined to make a go of it, even if it meant...
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July 17, 2007
Tupperware Noah's Ark Triggers Flood Of Childhood Memories
So DT reader Tim writes about how their 1-yo son loves playing with their older friend's Tupperware Noah's Ark when they go to visit. And I'm like, "Tupperware Toys? Are you kidding me? I had no idea!" And sure...
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July 16, 2007
Creative Playthings Amphibious Assault Vehicle On eBay
The description says this is a trolley/street car, but anyone this side of Fallujah knows better. It's a maquette from a top secret, Cold War-era envisioning project for the Rand Corporation, in which Creative Playthings, Disney and others were...
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July 15, 2007
Please Someone, Knock Off This Kids Furniture
I gave ModMom a lot of grief for choosing to make and sell knock-off versions of prominent indie design companies like Offi, NotNeutral, and Argington. But wait, explains one ModMom Furniture Posse Member, isn't that what those companies are...
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July 11, 2007
Holy Moses! Wicker & Chrome Pram On eBay
Not a lot of info on this pram, just that it says, "Presty, Made in France" on the label. Oh, and it's made of airy wicker and heavy chromed tubular steel, it's in mint condition, and it's FREAKIN' AWESOME....
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1962 Citroen DS Wagon, Restored, No Reserve
I don't know why I torment myself like this. I really want to live a life where a 45-year-old French station wagon with hydropneumatic suspension and no rear seat belts is the most natural car in the world to...
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1955 PopMech Dad Makes Toy Rocket From Bomb
Don't worry, the 500-pound bomb was lined with rubber as part of the conversion to a toddler plaything. If there's any sense in the world, this thing should be turning up at a Honolulu garage sale someday. Popular Mechanics,...
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July 9, 2007
Whoa, Insane Vintage Stainless Steel O-L-I-V-E-R Letters On eBay
If you're on the fence about the name Oliver, maybe this will help settle things: there's a vintage Oliver Tractors sign for sale on eBay that's made of 3-D stainless steel letters, each 18" high. Un. Be. Lievable. As...
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July 6, 2007
Cool-But-Incomplete Toy Week Continues On eBay
A couple of otherwise promising toys on eBay seem to be missing a piece or two: 1975 Creative Playthings AMERICAN INDIAN Little People, ends July 10th, starting bid: $10+$7.55s/h result: sold for $11.50+s/h This is the coolest of the CP...
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July 2, 2007
AMC Gucci Sportabout Not Just Gucci, "Gucci"
And here I thought the Gucci baby carrier was the label's tackiest foray into the family market. No one told me about the AMC Gucci Sportabout, a souped up, "fashion-oriented Hornet" wagon featuring "boldly striped green, red, and buff...
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June 29, 2007
Cadillac To Offer First Station Wagon Since The Jackson 5ive
When GM announced that the mid-sized Cadillac BLS wagon and sedan will be unveiled at the Frankfurt Auto Show, they made the sweeping claim that the car "marks a new milestone for the brand" as "the first station wagon...
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Vintage Brio Pulltoys On Swedish eBay
train ends july 1, currently 120SEK [$US18], 4 bids Getting a little weary of posts about vintage Creative Playthings toys on eBay? How about something completely different: vintage Brio toys on Swedish eBay! You might think of Brio as...
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June 26, 2007
Vintage Creative Playthings Blocks, Mint Next To Box
Though it appears to be missing a block, and the original box has some wear, the eBay seller says this set of Creative Playthings Small Hardwood Blocks is in "perfect condition." Like new, you might say, except for this:...
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June 24, 2007
Going, Going, Gone: Kids Eames, Japanese Dump Trucks, Community Playthings On eBay
Here are a few interesting-looking kid-related finds on eBay at the moment: Charles Eames Childs Arm Shell Herman Miller CHAIR, ends Jun 29, currently $10+18 s/h When we last saw our mysterious child-sized, Eames-looking fiberglass shell chairs, their mod-savvy eBay...
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June 20, 2007
Chewbacca Drives A Maclaren!!
By 1979, Star Wars was in its third theatrical release in LA, and theater owners were cooking up promotions for luring people in. Like offering free admission to anyone who showed up in costume, even if it was the...
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June 17, 2007
Did Anyone Get A Handknit Golly Jumper For Father's Day?
Unbelievable. And an interesting discussion in the Threadbared comments, too. Maybe you could tweak them to be a Mr. T sweater instead, you know, to match the kid's doll. There are vintage patterns for Golly Jumpers coming up on...
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June 16, 2007
Daddy Surfs 6: Golliwogs
Turns out the inky black Rufty Tufty was just the tip of the golliwog iceberg [Oh wait.] Golliwoggs, as they were originally spelled, became a wildly popular staple of British kid life for most of the 20th century. In...
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June 15, 2007
Daddy Surfs 4: Dorothy Craigie
Graham Greene was a prolific lover, primarily of prostitutes and other men's wives. In the 1940's, Graham had an affair with Dorothy Glover, a costume designer, who later began a career as a children's book illustrator under the name...
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Daddy Surfs 3: Wha?? Children's Books By Graham Greene??
In addition to his own titles, Edward Ardizzone illustrated children's books for other writers, folks like James Kenward; Ardizzone's cousin Christianna Brand, whose Nurse Mathilda series told the stories their grandfather had told them; and Graham Greene. Huh? If...
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Daddy Surfs 2: Yachts On The Window Sill? Edward Ardizzone?
So the Domestic Interiors Database is nearly impenetrable, with pull down menus offering searches by "Dwelling - Specified Social Level" and such. Randomly trying to recreate Andy's search, I stumble across this excerpt from James Kenward's 1955 autobiographical children's book,...
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Daddy Surfs 1: 1933 Bertha Sander Baby Furniture
You just never know. You go along for a while, thinking you've got the hang of things, got it figured out. And then from one moment to the next, you slowly realize you are in wild, uncharted territory, and you...
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June 14, 2007
It's Already Too Late For The Rabbits: Creative Playthings Noah's Ark Of Death
This Creative Playthings wooden Noah's Ark looks fantastic--unless you're a small, chewing-prone child or a rabbit. The pieces are all in great shape, but they're smaller than modern safety standards require [as the description says, "...WAY to many 'choking...
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No Word On X-Ray Glasses, But Comic Book Ad Submarine Didnt' Suck
Like everyone else, I wanted sea monkeys and x-ray goggles. Unlike one guy, though, I was never able to convince my parents to pony up for the crap advertised in comic books. Now it turns out, the $6.98 Polaris...
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Think Of The Children's Furniture! Wright20 June 23 Auction Roundup
The Chicago auction house Wright20 has been a major force in the modern design world since Frank Lloyd's market started picking up. When Andy sent a link to their upcoming modernism sale, I thought there are some interesting vintage pieces...
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June 12, 2007
Can't Look: Bruno Munari Card Game/Book Things On eBay
D'oh I can't watch. Never mind that they've been in my browser window for three days. Someone is selling some incredible, scarce game/book things that Bruno Munari did for Danese back in the early 1970's, on eBay, and they're...
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June 11, 2007
You Should Buy This Citroen Station Wagon
And then let me live vicariously through you. And then when I can convince the wife of the wisdom of buying yet another Citroen, you should sell it to me. 1971 Citroen Safari wagon - $15000 [losangeles.craigslist.org via jalopnik,...
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Parts Is Parts: Piles Of Creative Playthings Vehicles On eBay
Yeah, the purist in me cries a little to see fragments from so many broken up Creative Playthings Playtown sets: there's the boat from a Marina; there's the helicopters from the Air Field. The luggage haulers, too [hey, weren't...
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June 10, 2007
Papa Mia, Thatsa Spacy Fiat Multipla
image: philseed When I lived in Monaco [long story, remind me not to tell you], I would sometimes luck out, and the Hotel de Paris would park my 2CV with the bamboo sunroof right in front, next to the...
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June 9, 2007
Sweet, Comfy-looking Danish Rocker From Surfing Cowboys
Not much to say about this sweet, simple, vintage Danish rocker that the folks at Surfing Cowboys upholstered in blue, cream, and green-flecked fabric. It looks comfortable, and the absence of a big designer name means it's not outrageously...
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June 8, 2007
Q: What Is The Pontiac TransAm Type-K Wagon By Pininfarina, Alek?
And the answer is, "What The Bandit and Snowman would drive if they ever came out, settled down, and adopted an adorable, little Guatemalan baby." I'll take Alternate Endings To Burt Reynolds Movies for $600. Gromit was right, the ultimate...
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June 5, 2007
Come Along, Children, You Can Shake Your Booties Down On The Creative Playthings Dock.
If you've been looking for just the right Flying Wasp for your kid to christen, hie thee ho, on down to this vintage Playtown Marina from Creative Playthings. Sure, it's a marina, not a yacht club, so there's not...
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June 1, 2007
Unfortunately, This Is Not My Father's Oldsmobile
Are people finally catching on/up? Jalopnik posts a link to VistaCruiser.com, and suddenly it's like the annual meeting of the North American Man-Station Wagon Love Association. There are so many wagonfans popping out of the faux woodwork, you wonder...
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No Idea Why This Was Called A Mickey Mouse Gas Mask
But it was. Doesn't look a think like Mickey, though. World War II-era. Gas masks for kids during the Blitz. This one's in a war museum somewhere near flickr user psmithson: Swansea, maybe? I have no idea. According to...
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May 31, 2007
From The Sweet Sweet Cradles Of Mrs Nanna D.Itzel
So I'm searching through the forums at Design Addict for something else, when I come across a discussion about collectors' greatest finds. Way down the page, below the heated discussion about the ethics of stealing a Ronald-colored Saarinen chair from...
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May 30, 2007
Better Homes & Gardens For Dolls, Circa 1972
Hey-o, a fantastically mod doll house--with a floating fireplace, no less--that you make yourself with tinted and transparent acrylic, balsa wood, an ice cream carton lid, and some blocks? Damn right it's better. You know what'd be even better,...
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WonderWood, WonderWood, We're On Our Way
If your summer travel plans take you to Amsterdam, you may want to schedule a trip to WonderWood, a veritable temple to plywood and wooden modernist design. The incredible, little, 1950's children's bucket chair made of molded ply with...
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May 28, 2007
Kid-Sized Molded Ply Chair By Gerald Summers [Yes, That Gerald Summers. No, Not That Chair.]
Gerald Summers was one of my first great modern design epiphanies, and my first big disappointment. When the groundbreaking exhibition, "Design 1935-1965: What Modern Was" came out in 1991, I discovered Summers' stunning armchair in the catalogue [which got...
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May 24, 2007
Fire Chief Car In A Box, Baby! Pristine Creative Playthings Fire Chief Car On eBay
Christmas: chief in a box Hanukkah: chief in a box Kwanzaa: a chief in a box Birthday party in the Fifties that someone ended up skipping, and so the present went undelivered and was stored in a cool, dry place...
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May 23, 2007
Jim Henson? Crazy, And Thank Heavens For It
No word on whether he was vegan, but the evidence is incontrovertible: Jim Henson was crazy. A crazy genius. Who else would go on The Johnny Carson show with three rubber bands, a roll of Saranwrap, a slide projector, and...
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May 22, 2007
Tour De Form: Alfred Mahlau's 500-pc Wooden Hamburg Harbor Playset
Unglaublicht. If you haven't clicked through to the pictures in that 1964 Form Magazine article about toy design yet, get going. We'll wait. ... ... OK, So now you've seen that there is no more over-the-top wooden toy in the...
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F Is For Fabulous: Vintage Wooden Sand Train By F. Linau, Hamburg
In 1964, Lieselotte Pee, the noted play and pedagogy expert and member of the Arbeitsausschusses Gutes Spielzeug [Good Toys Working Commitee], wrote an extensive article for Form Magazine about the state of toys and design. I have no idea what...
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[read the full post...]
Sweet Creative Playthings Playsets O'The World On eBay
Anal retentive parents of 1975 who made your kids keep track of all their toys and store them in the original boxes, we salute you. Three Creative Playthings People 'N Places playsets hit the eBay the other day; in...
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[read the full post...]
May 18, 2007
I Have One Word For You: Crawligators
Another one of them Crawligator baby skateboards from Creative Playthings just turned up on eBay, box and all. If it goes for as much as the last one did, I think we all need to get into the Crawligator racket....
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[read the full post...]
May 17, 2007
Vintage Nesting Boxes By ADO Speelgoed
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...
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[read the full post...]
May 16, 2007
Euuhhhrrr... Plastic Flower Cradle By Philippe Pradalie
I guess if it was the dawning of the Age of Aquarius or whatever, then where else would you put your Parisian love child, but in an injection-molded plastic cradle shaped like a tulip? It's as if the subtitle...
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[read the full post...]
Elmer The Patchwork Built-In Storage Unit
I had no idea Elmer even existed before the kid got a book and a stuffed animal as a newborn gift, so it's a little weird to grasp that the patchwork elephant actually came out, so to speak, in...
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[read the full post...]
I [Heart] Milton Glaser's MoMA Cube Puzzle
In 1971, after he had finished founding New York magazine and before he created the "I [Heart] N Y" logo, Milton Glaser designed Puzzle Cube, a set of 64 op arty, acrylic blocks, as a "Museum of Modern Art...
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[read the full post...]
May 14, 2007
Paper Or Plastic?
This is what I was planning to post about when I got sidetracked with the Grand Pronouncement. One other thing that's appealing about rooting around in the so-not-musty online archives of design magazines is the sense of control and...
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[read the full post...]
Regarding What's Up With The Vintage?
A couple of folks have emailed wondering about my "obsession" lately with posting random vintage stuff. I guess I'd be making more Amazon Nickels if I just posted about New! Exciting! Must-Have! baby gear all day. Obviously, we're living in...
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[read the full post...]
The Raleigh Dreamline RD2 Pushchair
I've placed information vital to the survival of the memory of this RD2 unit into this blog so fathers will know how to retrieve it. You must see this stroller delivered and realize it's an older one. This was Raleigh's...
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[read the full post...]
May 13, 2007
Borge Lindau & Lindekrantz Are Dead? Why Can't I Find Out Anything About Their Joker Furniture?
When I first discovered Joker, the sweet, knock-together series of children's play furniture by the Swedish designers Borge Lindau and Bo Lindekrantz, in the exhibition catalogue for Vitra's kidgear show, Kid Size, I was intrigued. When I tried to...
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[read the full post...]
May 10, 2007
Das Ist How We Roll: c.1967 Proto-Travel System
Yeah, I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of vintage Form Magazine posts the next little while. You have been warned. In 1967 at the Montreal World Expo, three students from the Folkwangschule für Gestaltung [Folkwang...
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[read the full post...]
Form Magazine Archives: 50 Jahren Of Awesome KidMod Design
Ausgezeichnet! Ten minutes surfing through the 50 year-archive that Form, the Swiss-German design magazine, just put online, and already I feel like Homer Simpson at the candy convention. My raincoat's stuffed full, and instead of one, there are like...
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[read the full post...]
May 2, 2007
Are Toys From Y2K Really Vintage? Gus Gutz, Harry Hairball By Rumpus
Rediscovering the forgotten kid-related awesomeness of the past is a favorite pasttime here on Daddy Types. But waxing nostalgic about a long-lost toy collection from 1999 makes me uneasy, like we're veering too close to VH1 territory. And yet, there's...
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[read the full post...]
I Never Saw A Purple Creative Playthings Hobby Horse
Very interesting. Gloria Caranica may beg to differ, but I'm not really minding the vintage mod on this Creative Playthings "Rocking Beauty" hobby horse. True, it doesn't have the elegance of the original natural wood and bright red ball...
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[read the full post...]
April 30, 2007
Creative Playthings Shape Sorting Toy Now Available In Non-Pre-Chewed Version
So you love everything about a cool, vintage Finnish-designed toy like the classic Creative Playthings Shape Sorting Box except the idea of your kid gnawing on something that's coated with 35 years of slobber and/or basement dust. Well you're...
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[read the full post...]
April 26, 2007
Fire Up The Ink-Jet & Break Out The Iron-on Paper: Weird Wheels Trading Cards
And get a case 'a them American Apparel bodysuits, because this summer, the kid's gonna be wearing nothing but Weird Wheels Wunzies, with pictures of vintage 80's grossout hot rods ironed onto them. Frankly, I'd like the source images...
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[read the full post...]
April 20, 2007
Vintage Mr. T Cabbage Patch-y Dolls
From now on, I pity the fool who tries to tell me pop craftiness is a 21st century trend. In 1984, "Miss Martha Originals, through a license with Big T Enterprises, (Mr. T’s licensing company) created a pattern book,...
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[read the full post...]
April 15, 2007
Russian Kids Furniture Smuggled Right Under My Nose
So Rago auctions off a trio of vintage Russian modern kid furniture last October without telling me? What gives? The set, a table, rocking chair, and side char in birch plywood, had "Made in USSR" labels, and was estimated...
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[read the full post...]
April 13, 2007
Harvey Kurtzman, Josef Schneider, And The Art Of Child Photography
After he founded and left Mad! magazine, Harvey Kurtzman edited Help!. Suck.com co-founder Joey Anuff posted a collection of Kurtzman art, including the layout notes for the Feb. 1964 cover above, which tell a bit about how they got...
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[read the full post...]
April 11, 2007
Wait, Don't Throw Out Those Old Paint Cans!
Does it explain a lot to know that Baby Boomers were apparently raised on a steady diet of lead paint, motor oil, and My Three Sons? According to Popular Mechanics [45 years, or in product safety testing and liability...
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[read the full post...]
Convert Your Back Seat To A Baby Bed!
...if I should die before I wake, it's cuz Dad hit the gas and not the brake. Frankly, it's a miracle any of us is alive to have kids at all. I just posted a scan of some plans...
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[read the full post...]
April 9, 2007
The Nauvoo Cradle
Nauvoo, Illinois was the Mormon Mecca before Salt Lake City. Now, it's the Mormon Colonial Williamsburg. [Does that make sense?] Anyway, during one visit a while back, my mom was antique shopping in the big city just across the...
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[read the full post...]
April 8, 2007
These Vinyl Hand-Shaped Kids Chairs Weird Me Out
Every time I go to Salt Lake, I come back thinking of carved wood handchairs. My stepfather collected a lot of art by Pedro Friedeberg, the guy who made those hand-shaped chairs, see, [Here's one in Mexican mahogany that's coming...
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[read the full post...]
Awesome Set Of Vintage Palaset Storage Cubes
So I'm surfing through eBay a bit and hey-o! here's a huge set of Palaset storage cubes for sale. This system was designed in the early 70's by Ristomatti Ratia, whose parents founded Marimekko. Victor Papanek and James Hennessey...
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[read the full post...]
March 30, 2007
The Checker Station Wagon: SubUrban Family Truckster
Can America's best-known taxicab bring happiness to a suburban family while masquerading as a station wagon? The question is not nearly as facetious as it sounds. - Jim Whipple, Popular Mechanics, Sept. 1962Oh, I wouldn't be so sure, Jim. First...
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[read the full post...]
March 28, 2007
Sweet Creative Playthings Slot-Together Ply Noah's Ark
In their heyday, Creative Playthings had a lot of wonderful toys of their own design, but they also distributed products from around the world. Those classic wood trucks were from some dude in Finland, for example. And this awesome,...
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[read the full post...]
March 16, 2007
Baby Hairy Bertoia Chair By Douglas Homer
You know how hilarious mid-century modern design aficionados get when they party. Lounging on the flokati rug, passing the hookah across that Eames surfboard table, getting silly with the puns... And then they wake up the next morning going,...
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[read the full post...]
March 15, 2007
Creative Playthings Rainbow Twirler Hanging [sic] Toy
It was great in the Sixties, man, all flowers and rainbows. Running naked in the grass, little babies cooing and playing with their feet. And then The Man came along in 1973 and started laying a lot of white...
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[read the full post...]
Fabulous Eames Child's Chair Comes Out Of Closet, Goes Straight To eBay
I love that the description of this pristine, vintage, molded ply chair starts out, "you are bidding on a child's chair designed by charles eames in 1946." Because with the bid currently at $1,525 and the reserve price still...
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[read the full post...]
March 10, 2007
That Praftalling Baker On Sesame Street
You kind of forget the multitude of clips that have been retired from the 'Street for one reason or another. Kermit, for example, was set free from CTW's nominally non-profit pen as part The Muppet Show spinoff [Did you know...
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[read the full post...]
Sesame Street Counting Yogi Now Complete, Available In Spanish
For a long time, the version of this classic clip floating around YouTube of the transmogrifying, four-armed, counting Swami from Sesame Street was missing the first part; it started counting at four. But thanks to the efforts of a...
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[read the full post...]
March 1, 2007
Some Vintage Swedish Kid's Furniture
I just bought a couple of musty 1962 issues of Popular Mechanics from 1962. They have huge spreads of photos and plans for building nine great-looking pieces of play furniture by Swedish designers: toy bins and play tables, little...
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[read the full post...]
February 27, 2007
Swiss-Made Antonio Vitali Dollhouse Will Warm You Up Inside
Before he started making organically shaped, abstract dolls for Creative Playthings in the late 50's, Antonio Vitali was making hardwood dollhouses for abstract dolls, which were sold in the Swiss National Crafts Store. Too bad the dolls and the...
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[read the full post...]
February 25, 2007
Nice Grouping: Block Puzzles From Creative Playthings And Naef
Great minds thought alike back then, I guess. Both Naef and Creative Playthings made square puzzles cut into strips. Turn them over, and there's a different animal on each of the four faces of--you know, why is it so...
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[read the full post...]
February 20, 2007
RIP: Mice Twice Illustrator Joseph Low, 95
This is one well-packed sentence, from Steven Heller's obituary for Joseph Low, author of Mice Twice, which won the Caldecott Honor award in 1981, and who just passed away last week at 95:In the 1950s Mr. Low was known for...
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[read the full post...]
February 16, 2007
It's An eBay Morning: Sweet Creative Playthings House, Furn.
This sweet Creative Playthings doll house has a bit of play wear on the edges--and, uh, it's missing the bottom floor--but the only thing bad I can say about all the furniture is that the doll family appears to...
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[read the full post...]
February 13, 2007
"Fun On Wheels" By Stephan Gip: Furniture In Disguise
This might just be cool enough to make up for the high chair. Swedish architect Stephan Gip is credited with the 1962 design for the all-wood, no-tray, trapezoidal stacking high chair that we wipe off a little every day...
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[read the full post...]
February 5, 2007
Celebrity Buys Mid-Century Rocker By Ib Kofod-Larsen!
Add the awesomely named Ib Kofod-Larsen to my list of Danish Designers I Should Have But Never Have Heard Of. [I know who Ub Iwerks is, though; do I get half credit?] Alls I know is, design guru Grace...
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[read the full post...]
Jazzy Kids Book By Jim Flora: The Day The Cow Sneezed
Jim Flora was a prolific artist and illustrator whose trippy post-war modernist album covers for RCA/Victor and Columbia jazz recordings have gained renewed appreciation in the eBay era. His style bridges early American modernists like Stuart Davis and Marie-Therese-era...
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[read the full post...]
January 30, 2007
Midcentury Family Modernism By Eliot Noyes
The Philip Johnson Glass House mention reminded me of this August 2006 article from Metropolis about Eliot Noyes, who, in his work at MoMA and later at IBM, helped launch the careers of the Eameses and Eero Saarinen. [And...
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[read the full post...]
January 29, 2007
I Oughta Give You A Peg Sandwich
This Creative Playthings Peg Sandwich is about 3-in high, meaning those pegs would probably pass through a paper towel tube, no problem. [That's the rule of thumb that stuck with me about choking hazards during the child safety prenatal...
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[read the full post...]
You Could Put All The King's Men Back Together Again
Good morning, sweet, vintage, wooden, toy soldiers from Creative Playthings circa 1969. CREATIVE PLAYTHINGS THE KINGS GUARD WOOD SOLDIERS 1969, ends Feb. 4 [ebay]...
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[read the full post...]
January 25, 2007
A Fine Addition To Any Modern Toys Collection
An eBay seller named mix-mod has listed a collection of colorful, vintage modern toys—four lots of work vehicles, including a fuel tanker, dump truck, cement mixer and a matched pair of [oil-barrel hauling?] tractors. In the spirit of Ladislav...
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[read the full post...]
August 4, 2006
You Mean THIS Sweet Weimar Bauhaus Bassinet??
"Any photos of sweet Bauhaus children's furniture?" I ask with dopey innocence at the end of the previous post. To which modernist design shark Andy replies, "Crafts of the Weimar Bauhaus, 1919-1924. An Early Experiment in Industrial Design has...
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[read the full post...]
November 2, 2005
Ausgezeichnet! "Where Babies Come From"
If you're reading this site at work, maybe you should save this link until you get home. Unless you work in a German pre-school, where this book seems to have originated. Where babies come from? In German. [planetdan via tmn]...
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[read the full post...]
