Thanks to his dedicated efforts as the founding editorial director of the Chilton automotive publishing concern, and as the instigator for and vice president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers, Eugene S. Foljambe had already...
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Category archive: vintage
February 5, 2012
Like-A-Car: The Foljambe Hobby Auto
January 28, 2012
Throwback Bugaboo Cameleon At Giggle
In the words of the bard, This was a triumph. I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction. Bugaboo has released what amounts to its first throwback edition, a 2012 Cameleon outfitted in one...
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[read the full post...]
January 27, 2012
'The Quarry Whence Modern Names Are Hewn'
The past and the future once again meet in the present, with generally awesome effect. Because while it seems normal that you can now instantly find and buy a copy of Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley's suddenly indispensable 1888 book, Curiosities...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 25, 2012
That's a Nässjö Molded Ply Rocking Horse
Wow, among the interesting items Andrew scouted out at Cologne specialty auction house W.G. Herr's most recent sale: this sweet, Swedish, molded ply rocking horse. The label said it was a special edition made in 1970 to celebrate the...
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[read the full post...]
January 19, 2012
Toot Toot Chugga Chugga, Antonio Vitali Car
Maybe someone with their Antonio Vitali retrospective catalogues handy can tell us for sure, but I think this sweet, signed toy car is from the US toy collection the Swiss designer launched after he did his work for Creative...
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[read the full post...]
January 17, 2012
MetaFilter Roundup Of Unlikely Kids Book Authors
MetaFilter has a nice thread about kids books by people you might not have expected to write kids books. Many of them have been mentioned on DT before: Gertrude Stein [twice, kind of]; bell hooks; Graham Greene; and Sylvia Plath,...
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[read the full post...]
January 16, 2012
Specific Kids' Objects
Last Summer, David Zwirner Gallery screened a couple of documentaries about Donald Judd, including The Artist's Studio, a 2010 remix of vintage 1970s footage by Michael Blackwood. Blackwood had filmed Judd and his family both in Marfa [in 1975]...
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[read the full post...]
January 15, 2012
Pussy On A Plate: Queen Victoria's Etchings
In the early 1840s, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert studied etching under the tutelage of the Royal Portrait Painter Sir George Hayter. Among the subjects of the 87 plates the pair created were a few sketches of their children,...
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[read the full post...]
January 12, 2012
50s Mickey Mouse Rug At Rago
At first I was trying to puzzle out a date for this decent-looking, 4x5 ft. Disney rug that's coming up this weekend--yow, the 13th? Friday morning!--at Rago Auctions in New Jersey. But then I realized that Lady and the...
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[read the full post...]
January 4, 2012
OG Toy Braun Blender From Creative Playthings
Well here's something you never see. Or at least I've never seen. It's apparently a toy-sized Braun Multimix blender, imported back in the day by Creative Playthings. Which, does this make sense? It clearly dates from the Dieter Rams...
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[read the full post...]
Northern Calloway Is Roller Discoing In Heaven Right Now
Metafilter has announced their top posts of 2011, and one of the nominees was filthy light thief's amazing, sad, and memorable recounting last month of the life and death of Northern Calloway, who played David on Sesame Street. Calloway had...
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[read the full post...]
January 3, 2012
Here's The Thing About That Kusama Yayoi Polka-Dot Sticker Room For Kids
Look, it's awesome, I know. You know. On this we all agree. Fine. But from the moment DT reader Sara sent it along--and to her credit, it was ridiculously early--something felt off to me about the Yayoi Kusama's Polka-Dot Stickers...
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[read the full post...]
December 30, 2011
The Children's Books Of Tom Seidmann-Freud
Tom Seidmann-Freud was Sigmund Freud's niece. She was born Martha-Gertrud Freud, and at 15 she changed her name to Tom and started wearing men's clothes. Which, sure, George Sand did it, too, and big deal. It was more inexplicable...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 24, 2011
Star Trek Coloring Book
The crazy thing about this Star Trek color and activity book--besides the fact that I once bought it as blog fodder. And then didn't use it. And then lost it. And just found it while clearing out some books...
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[read the full post...]
December 23, 2011
Antonio Vitali Rocking Snail Too Slow For Christmas
Assuming you didn't already blow your Christmas wad on the ersatz nativity set last fall, you should now be ready to pounce on this: an early hand-carved rocking snail from Antonio Vitali's Swiss toys days. The shaped details are...
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[read the full post...]
December 19, 2011
It's My Isamu Noguchi Zenith Radio Nurse In A Box!
Congratulations to Mondo Blogo, scored this fine example of the first electronic baby monitor, the Radio Nurse, designed for Zenith by Isamu Noguchi. I've seen several with the boring-looking transmitter end, but never one with the original box. I...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 14, 2011
Golden Child: Kid Design Round-up From Skinner Auctions
There sure are some fascinating kid-related things coming up this weekend in the 20th century design sale at Boston-based auction house Skinner. But first, the stuff you might actually want to bid on: RESULTS UPDATE: Hah, or not. None of...
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Have The Crawligator Market Found A Floor?
You'd think that if the Crawligator that showed up on eBay last week had 17 bids and sold for $202, the one on eBay right now might at least have a single $49 bid. But then, the previous Crawligator...
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[read the full post...]
December 12, 2011
Acht Lustige Eichhörnchen By Kolo Moser
50 Watts has a post about a great-looking, handmade children's book by the Viennese Secession artist Kolo Moser. You should definitely check out the whole thing. Me, I can't get past the eight, funny--and awesome--squirrels. Obviously, these two are...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 9, 2011
Things I'm Not Trying To Win On eBay: Mint-In-Box Creative Playthings Blocks
I've been thinking I'm going to bid on these beautiful-looking, new-in-box, c.1975 Creative Playthings blocks for the kids' Christmas present. And though we're mostly out of the choke hazard phase, I decided they're a little small for us. [The...
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Oh My Heckflosse! 1968 Mercedes 200D Wagon
Oh, no, this is it, I can feel it! It's the Big One! It was just yesterday, when I was taking our 1985 Mercedes coupe to the shop again for some minor-but-expensive repair, that I was contemplating its fate: should...
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[read the full post...]
December 7, 2011
Philippe Starck's Face: Mustache Ride-On Toy
Holy Moses, until I was poking around the archive of an Amsterdam design auction, I had forgotten how utterly freaky, bizarre, and wrong Philippe Starck's ride-on/walking toy The Face is. And to think that five years ago, we gave...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 5, 2011
OG Walter Papst Kids Table At Mid Mod
I don't know where he finds this stuff, but he sure does. And over and over again, too. Mid Mod Design has a kids table by fiberglass kids' furniture pioneer-turned alien hunter Walter Papst, for just EUR900. A price...
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[read the full post...]
December 3, 2011
Whoa, Crawligator In A Box, Baby!
Someone's Christmas just got 100% crawlier. The Crawligator belly scooter is one of the icons of the Creative Playthings era--an era where keeping the kid from inadvertently scooting down the stairs and cracking his melon open was the parents'...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 1, 2011
Awesomely Annoying: Creative Playthings Steel Drum On eBay
This is simultaneously the awesomest thing I've seen on eBay all week and the single worst idea for a kid's gift all year. Unless, of course, your kid lives in a padded, soundproof room, or you totally hate your...
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[read the full post...]
November 30, 2011
Klinki Modular Furniture/Toy Construction System
Once again, the incomparably awesome, mildly impenetrable archive of Form Magazine yields a small treasure. This time, it's the Klinki building and play system, from Form 88, published in 1979. Klinki was made of wood, and came in three...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 28, 2011
DTQ: ID This Awesome Viennese Pop-Up Playground Spielkugel?
Yoichi R. Okamoto had been LBJ's official White House photographer, but in the summer of 1973, it looks like he was shooting for DOCUMERICA, a massive EPA photo study project designed to assess the state of the environment, to...
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[read the full post...]
Scrapwood Playground At Tule Lake Internment Camp
In WWII, Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from the west coast, stripped of basically everything they couldn't carry, and imprisoned in inland internment camps, rows of tarpaper barracks in the desert surrounded by barbed wire fences and guard towers....
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[read the full post...]
November 26, 2011
Dorm Find: Gio Ponti Hotel Parco Dei Principi Headboards
Poor Gio Ponti's Hotel Parco dei Principi furniture! It gets no respect! I mean, in 2007 Martino Gamper hacked it apart and used it for lumber for a performance at Art Basel. And now, somewhere outside Firenze, a couple...
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[read the full post...]
November 25, 2011
Auchan, Les Enfants! Mini Vintage Parisian Pop-Up Mall
For whatever reason, Paris seems to have some pretty solid sources for vintage kids' design. So it's tres interessant that a group of antique dealers and design shops in Paris have banded together for Mini Vintage, "le premier salon dédié...
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[read the full post...]
November 18, 2011
The Peregrine White Cradle
While searching for historical photos of feather beds [long story, another time], I stumbled across this, the Peregrine White Cradle, a woven willow cradle brought from Holland by Susanna and William White, who were expecting their first child when...
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[read the full post...]
Play The Empty, Pointless Game Of Life! Shopping Center By Creative Playthings
The company limped along for a few more uninspired years, trying to keep up in the cheap, plasctic future of color TV & Rock'em Sock'em Robots. But if there was a single product that marked, by the laws of...
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[read the full post...]
November 16, 2011
Handmade Kid-Size BMW 507
This is so awesome. A kid-sized BMW 507, custom-made in 1956 for use by the sons of a new 507 owner "on the one mile private drive leading to their estate in Suffolk," it currently runs on petrol, but...
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[read the full post...]
November 10, 2011
Has The Creative Playthings Housing Bubble Popped?
As the grown-up housing market goes, so goes the dollhouse market. And so a Creative Playthings slot-together ply dollhouse with the original box sold on eBay for half of what it was a couple of years ago--just like a...
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[read the full post...]
November 9, 2011
Crazy Abstract Puzzle
While we apparently don't know anything else about it, the eBay seller who's finally clearing out the old stock from the toy store he closed 20 years ago says this crazy abstract puzzle "was definitely imported from Europe." Sure,...
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[read the full post...]
November 2, 2011
We May Now Rebuild Enzo Mari's Big Stone Game Playground.
Thanks to a DT operative who presumably had the good sense not to overpay for his copy of the small, 1969 book, I Giochi per Bambini di Enzo Mari, I think we have enough information to proceed with the...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 26, 2011
Please Send Your Baby Bentwood To Wary Meyers
If you have some of these kid-sized bentwood chairs from c.1968 Design Research, please send them to Wary Meyers. It'll save him he trouble of inventing a time machine. Bentwood Baby Chair at Design Research, 1968 [warymeyers]...
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[read the full post...]
October 23, 2011
Jean Prouvé Swingset Mayhem
Whoa, check out the man going crazy on his rocket sled swingset! This image if from Ivorypress's new mook, Jean Prouvé 1901-1984, which is apparently/obviously pretty sweet. You can buy it from Walther Koenig, and/or see some more vintage...
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[read the full post...]
October 19, 2011
The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Coloring Book Is Quite Advanced
Of COURSE Greg Irons' illustrations for Gary Gygax's D&D coloring book are a bit too advanced for little kids; it's got Advanced right in the title! What are you, -5 Intelligence? Giant, colorable scans of The Official Advanced Dungeons...
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[read the full post...]
Kurt Schwitters' Merz Fairy Tales
There was a fantastic exhibition of Kurt Schwitters' art work this past spring and summer at Princeton, which woke me up to the Dadaist collagist's wacked out fairy tales and illustrated children's books. Schwitters began publishing fairy tales illustrated...
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[read the full post...]
October 17, 2011
OG Sesame Street Signing Alphabet By Joan La Barbara
Once again, mid-70s Sesame Street quietly blows my mind. This time it's an animated sign language alphabet sequence with beep bop boop vocal and electronic music soundtrack by avant-garde icon Joan La Barbara. K2 is picking up a lot...
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[read the full post...]
October 12, 2011
Nura, Nura Woodson Ulreich
Another incredible vintage children's book find at 50 Watts. This time, it's illustrations by New York artist Norah Woodson Ulreich, who worked under the name Nura. Above is The Buttermilk Tree from 1934, which, I hear the photogravures are...
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[read the full post...]
October 8, 2011
DTQ: Supergraphic Play Cubes In A Modernist Maine Cabin?
Alright, let's figure this one out. Here's a LIFE magazine picture of an otherwise unidentified "Modern Home" in Maine, circa 1969, shot by longtime staff photographer Mark Kauffman. There are a few other images in the set, but no...
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Eames Planking
It's the little metadata differences. Somehow, Andrew from an ambitious project collapsing found this sweet 1948 photo from Google's LIFE Magazine photo archive and sent it along. Maybe if, instead of Rocky Stensrud, Jr., using children's chairs in a...
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[read the full post...]
October 6, 2011
Rockin' Boats
Oh man, check out the beautiful set of little handmade toy boats scored at the Pasadena City College flea market. They came in this even sweeter case, with little canvas pads on the lid to hold them in. Which...
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[read the full post...]
September 29, 2011
Antonio Vitali Bus Just Begging To Be Reissued
So beautiful. Antonio Vitali designed this bus for Playforms, a division of Creative Playthings. It is so trippy, I half expect it to come with a Verner Panton action figure. Vitali's carved out design was originally constructed from two...
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[read the full post...]
September 26, 2011
Think Of The Children: Ku Klux Kiddies On Parade
If I were to make a list of the most unexpected things to discover while searching through a tumblr of letterhead designs, the existence of a junior auxiliary for the Ku Klux Klan would be at the top. But...
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[read the full post...]
September 22, 2011
The Ford Treasury Of Taylor Tot Living
DT reader John was flipping through his German-language copy of Emil Schulthess's 1955 photobook, USA, when he spotted this picture of a dad pushing a Taylor Tot stroller through the Ford Rotunda, which had just reopened with its new...
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[read the full post...]
September 20, 2011
Antonio Vitali New In Box, Now 25% Off!
The more you don't buy, the more you save! That set of mint-in-box Antonio Vitali animals that was $4,000 [plus shipping] has now been relisted on eBay for just $3,000. Plus shipping. And that $20 in the picture is...
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[read the full post...]
Czech Made: Awesome Motorcyclists By Libuse Niklova
Mondo Blogo's got another round-up of crazy old avant-garde toys. This time the theme is Czech Designers Who Got More Toys Produced Than Ludislav Sutnar, Maybe Because They Stayed In Czechoslovakia. In other words, the Libuse Niklova retrospective at...
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[read the full post...]
September 19, 2011
Is It Any Wonda I've Got Too Much Gear On My Hands?
Wow, a whole stroller/kid furniture world of the past just opened up to me, like seeing color photos of World War II after a lifetime of black & white. Seriously, the Wonda Chair? Who's been keeping this a secret...
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[read the full post...]
September 17, 2011
Santa Maria, Vitali Bambina!
And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is how to sell some Antonio Vitali carved wood toys. Amazing. Previously: Holy Family! Antonio Vitali Creative Playthings wooden dolls, and family, and animals, and a freaking house/manger deal...
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[read the full post...]
September 13, 2011
Holy Family! That's Practically An Antonio Vitali Creative Playthings Nativity Set!
It's amazing what a couple of four-figure eBay auctions for Antonio Vitali toys will flush out of the basement, isn't it? A sculpted wood family, a set of animals, and a barn? That is a blessed occurrence indeed. In...
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[read the full post...]
September 8, 2011
The Big Stone Game: OG Enzo Mari Playground
I'm not finding a lot of details about this, but holy smokes: Enzo Mari playground! Created in 1968 in Carrara for an exhibition of stone design. A newly constructed maquette circulates for years beginning in 2000, part of Aires...
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[read the full post...]
September 5, 2011
MIB Museum Quality In Box: Antonio Vitali Animals For Creative Playthings
Well, if I hadn't just watch a slightly random assortment of Antonio Vitali toys go for certifiably insane prices on eBay a couple of weeks ago, this eBay auction would have made me straight-up roll on the floor and...
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[read the full post...]
August 27, 2011
Like-A-Bike Delivery Truck
This beautiful survivor 1972 Ford F-100 has never left Southern California. After three decades delivering motorcycles around OC for Irv Seaver, it retired with Seaver's shop manager to a life of well-cared-for leisure. Whether you buy it or not,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Bring A Trailer, Leave A Stroller
Take a moment to honor the Los Angeles-based seller of this beautiful 1964 Jaguar XKE, who has provided it with a decade of care and marque- and period-appropriate performance enhancements. The seller whose father, we are told, "raced 250F's...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
The Surf Guide Baby And Her Velzy Stick
This perfect image has just made land via my friend Christine's awesome tumblr of zen. The October 1964 cover of Surf Guide magazine featured a photo of Karen Gallagher taken at San Onofre. According to big sister Karolyn Gallagher's...
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[read the full post...]
August 26, 2011
Ostalgie's Rainbow: Dresden Rocket Slide
Beth from the awesome indie label Lemon Cadet was traveling in Germany when this vintage postcard jumped off the rack and screamed "Achtung, Daddy Types!" at her. So she had to get it and send it to me. [The...
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[read the full post...]
August 24, 2011
1966 Ford Fairlane: Made From Cobra Jets
Just to show I'm not down on all utterly insane station wagon modding projects, here is a 1966 Ford Fairlane Wagon in which the original Windsor 289 has been replaced by a 428 Cobra Jet. Also a 6-speed, a/c,...
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[read the full post...]
August 22, 2011
Depressing Caption, Meet Awesome Chairs
The photo blog on The Atlantic has been running extended looks back at images from World War II. Today's theme: Japanese-Americans forcibly removed from their homes and businesses and shipped to internment camps in the middle of the freakin'...
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[read the full post...]
August 20, 2011
Eames Adjacent! Can You ID This Kid-Size, Mid-Century Mystery Chair?
From awaiting the future to decoding the past: Soon after super-collector Jim Linderman moved to the Zeeland metropolitan area, he snapped up this rather sweet, sculptural, handmade, kid-size mystery chair at a local vintage store. And then he sent pictures...
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[read the full post...]
August 19, 2011
Speak, Pedal Car
A couple of years ago, car writer Roger Boylan published an article in Autosavant about Dmitri Nabokov's passion for cars. A few months later, Nabokov forwarded a rather incredible selection of family photographs, accompanied by his captions. Most are...
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[read the full post...]
August 17, 2011
Madeline Dollhouse Wallpaper
I was waiting for J. Courtney Sullivan's NY Times article about her deep commitment to her childhood dollhouse to turn out not to be one of those adults-way-too-into-dollhouses stories. I guess the fact that she started going to dollhouse furniture...
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[read the full post...]
August 6, 2011
Awesome Creative Playthings Wooden Alphabet Letters
Full disclosure: I wrote this post within minutes of these things turning up on eBay. But these Creative Playthings wooden alphabet letters from the mid-1970s are so quietly awesome, I decided not to mention them on DT until I...
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[read the full post...]
August 2, 2011
Here's One Vote I Lost Already
You know why I'm not gonna finish in even the top half of the Parents Best Daddy Blog Award competition? Because I'm not setting up a community outreach table at the Santa Cruz Farmer's Market, so I can campaign...
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[read the full post...]
July 28, 2011
Filmore The Ur-Pillow Pet, From Creative Playthings
You know what's awesome? Vintage Creative Playthings toys from the 1970s, mint-in-box. You know what's apparently less awesome? vintage plush Creative Playthings beanbag chair animals from the 1970s. So far, no action at all from the eBay bidding sharks....
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[read the full post...]
July 26, 2011
Keep Calm And Carry A Stuffed Animal
Among the great photos In Focus published of London during WWII is this one: a small boy hugging a giant, kind of awesome stuffed animal. The simple form of the animal reminds me a bit of Renate Mueller, so...
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[read the full post...]
July 14, 2011
ID This Steampunked Vintage Stroller/Rider Thing
While prowling the playground, Mike spotted a rather insane, vintage stroller/rider/whatsis that looks like it had been given a suitably steampunky spray job:I saw this old timey child's perambulation device at the park the other day and just about screamed...
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[read the full post...]
July 11, 2011
The Ornament As Crime Nursery
Austro-hungarian modernist architect Adolf Loos is probably most famous for his manifesto, "Ornament as Crime." Unfortunately, Loos had trouble finding a publisher for his sequel, "Non-ornament is Loony Bin." As we can see in the two children's rooms--a nursery...
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[read the full post...]
July 7, 2011
Big Cat Sleeping Bags For The Road
Last night we had some station wagon-loving, old-book-loving friends over for dinner, and so of course, I had to pull out the Ford Treasury of Station Wagon Living. Volume 2. And I guess I hadn't noticed before, but the...
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[read the full post...]
July 5, 2011
Alaskan Snow Baby Collection
Amazing collection spotted at the flea market in Pasadena, and documented, at least a little bit, by Ready4TheHouse, before it disappeared:This collection was incredible, the vendor was intent on keeping it together and not parting it out....it was on...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
June 30, 2011
Holy Moley, Evel Knievel Shortster MINT IN BOX
Anyone remember back in 2008, when I asked everyone and no one in particular, "How many Evel Knievel tricycles do you think are still out there?" Well, it's taken almost three years, but we finally have an answer: AT LEAST...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Hyperchouette Bambou Bassinet de Mort
There really are never enough bamboo cribs and bassinets out there. Maybe because until lamination technology progressed it was so hard to make bamboo crib that didn't look like it escaped from a tiki bar, or was left over...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
June 29, 2011
Whoa, Dare Wright Lonely Doll Photos At Bonhams
How'd I miss these? Did I not scroll all the way down? I was just updating the price results on last week's kids book illustrations roundup [short answer: pretty rough if your name's not Pooh], and there at the bottom,...
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[read the full post...]
June 27, 2011
Sweet Ado Play Table & Chairs
It's one of the perks of being just a few kilometers up the road from the old sanatorium at Apeldoorn: you get probably the highest concentration of vintage Ado toys and furniture in the world. There may be some...
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[read the full post...]
June 25, 2011
This Vintage Prop Crib Of Death Is Fantastic
What better way to advertise a beautifully crafted, obsolete, and probably unsafe product like quilted crib bumpers, than with an awesome, vintage crib with exactly the kind of deadly-wide gaps that crib bumpers were invented to protect from? It's...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
June 20, 2011
The Playtown Real Estate Market Is Bouncing Back!
Green shoots! Here is a bright spot in the real estate-obsessed economy of Southern California: this week LA Modern is auctioning a vintage Playtown Garage from Creative Playthings, which comes with car, gas pumps, roof hoist, and a bed...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
June 14, 2011
Wary Meyers Has An Awesome Father's Day Pop-Up Shop
I am really sick of Father's Day pitches, and I plan to not really do anything in the way of Father's Day posts, since, really, every day is Father's Day around here. But I will say that the antidote to...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
June 9, 2011
The Smurfpocalypse Is Nigh
Anyone who's seen the trailer for the new CGI-live action movie knows The Smurfs are about to be ruined beyond all recognition, smurfed up worse than any Unicef firebombing PSA animator could ever imagine. So why not kick'em in their...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Four Interesting Things In Bonham's Illustrations Auction
The big ticket in Bonham's upcoming 20th century illustration auction in New York is undoubtedly the big [16x20] watercolor Maurice Sendak created for a 1990 conference poster for the International Board of Books for Young People, which is IBBY, not...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 31, 2011
An Incomplete History Of Jean-Paul Gaultier
1988 Gaultier launches a women's bridge line called Junior Gaultier. 1993 My guy at Bergdorf Goodman Men tells me that this spiky, latex Gaultier vest hanging here on the rack has so far been purchased on three Thursdays and returned...
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[read the full post...]
May 26, 2011
The Kodak Colorama Babies
For forty years, the Kodak Colorama hung on the east end of the Great Hall at Grand Central Station. The 18x60-foot backlit transparency was called the biggest photograph in the world, and Kodak photographers changed it about once a...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 22, 2011
Holy Family Circus! Antonio Vitali Is Tearing Up eBay Right Now
YOW. When I first didn't bid on a pristine, complete set of Antonio Vitali's Wooden Family dolls made for Creative Playthings, in 2006, $51 was enough to scare me off. When they sold for $229, I thought it was...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
A Family Vehicle Of Obvious Utility
Though I'd posted a couple of items already, I decided to hold off on this one until after the Bonham's Aston Martin auction was over. Didn't want to tip my hand, lose my chance to scoop this baby up...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 17, 2011
Mrs. Aalto's Crib
Do not adjust your monitors, this is not a rendering. It is an honest-to-goodness crib, designed in the 1940s by Aino Aalto, the Finnish architect and designer, who you may know from such roles as the first Mrs. Alvar...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 16, 2011
Youpla-do 2000 Lit Parapluie, How You Say Umbrella Crib?
Tres interessant, look what DT reader Gilles found at French vintage design shop the Hiving Room: it's a folding crib from the 60s/early 70s called the Youpla-do 2000 Lit Valise Parapluie, or Suitcase Umbrella Bed. I guess it's the...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 12, 2011
The Decline Of Aston Pedal Car-ization
The Queen can take care of herself, it's the Aston Martin pedal car that needs saving. Just look at these two cars, both for sale in Bonhams' upcoming Aston Martin Automobilia sale on May 21st: Lot No: 201 is an...
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[read the full post...]
April 28, 2011
Anthroposophical Kids Furniture, Also Coniferous
It really is the little differences. The Vienna auction house Dorotheum is selling this c.1930 Erwin Behr kids furniture made from "oiled coniferous wood" as an "anthroposophical child's chair and table," because similar styles were knocked together in the...
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[read the full post...]
April 13, 2011
Grace Jones' Constructivist Maternity Dress By Antonio Lopez
Holy guacamole, I didn't even know Grace Jones was pregnant. But sure enough, she and her over-the-top stylist boyfriend Jean-Paul Goude had a baby boy in December 1979. The couple told Jet Magazine [damn, but I love the Internet],...
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April 12, 2011
Brought To You By The Letters O And G: Roosevelt Franklin
Funky Frolic's excellent Sesame Beat playlist contains some groovy classics from the 'Street itself, with a few covers and remixes thrown in for flava. And once again, it's probably only news to me, but hey-ho, Roosevelt Franklin had an...
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April 3, 2011
And Then There Was One! Piet Zwart Montessori Chair
Rarity is not something you think of when it comes to Piet Zwart's designs. His modular kitchens have been in production for like 75 years. He designed both the post office AND the telephone company in the Netherlands. And...
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April 1, 2011
Porko Von Popbutton Is A Real Book.
So apparently in 1968 Sports Illustrated actually commissioned William Pene du Bois to write and illustrate a children's story called Beat The Queen, which was later published as a standalone book as Porko von Popbutton. Porko's the nickname of...
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March 30, 2011
Road To Kindergarten
DT reader Micah was freaky right when he said I wouldn't care about the content of the wired.com story, but the second he saw the completely unrelated photo, he knew it was a DT kind of thing. No idea...
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March 29, 2011
No Times For Playtimes
I want to think it's dedication, or even just a fantasy, but I know it's a delusion. Even when K2's pre-school's seemingly endless Spring Break ends tomorrow, I have too much going on to ever surf through the British Library's...
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March 28, 2011
Yoko Ono Birth Announcement
While in Tokyo in 1963, pioneering performance and Fluxus artist Yoko Ono sent out this little, 3-card set of poems, art works and photographs to let friends back in the US know of the birth of her daughter Kyoko....
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March 22, 2011
Suffering Sappho, It's Amazon Babysitter!
Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman's on the way to help the baby T-Rex and save the day She's written like crap, And she's not too buff, But throw some mythological references in the mix, and I guess you've got the...
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March 14, 2011
Whoa, Pierre Berge!
You may remember Pierre Berge & Associes from such insane auctions as his partner Yves Saint Laurent's, and that out-of-nowhere Designs for Kids sale last winter. Next up, toward the end of the month, is the deceptively titled Shabby...
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March 8, 2011
Who? Where? What? Pedal Car Museum?
East Sussex's most famous pedal car enthusiast and child at heart Phil Collins has thrown open the doors on his Mill Toy & Pedal Car Museum, which boasts Europe's largest collection of vintage pedal cars. Or does it? We...
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March 6, 2011
Josef Hoffmann Kids Furniture
I think Vienna textile manufacturer Max Biach's daughter Katharina was a teenager in 1902 when Josef Hoffmann designed this bedroom for her, but it's still sweet enough to stare at. The Neue Galerie included Biach's reassembled bedroom in their...
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March 3, 2011
Dune Coloring Books
Looks like I picked the wrong week to try to out-crazy the Coloring Book Industrial Complex. Here are some of Coilhouse's scans from the four [!] six [!!] Dune Coloring and Activity Books tied, obviously, to the movie. Whether...
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February 22, 2011
Mister Rogers' New Neighborhood
Like many people who grew up watching the show, I was pissed when PBS dropped Mister Rogers' Neighborhood from their daily lineup in 2008. Pissed but unsurprised. Fred Rogers is so un-commercial, un-merchandised, so resolutely calm, he's the diametric...
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February 17, 2011
Hanging Out
It is admittedly an odd thing to find one's photographs of one's childhood turn up on the far corners of the Internet. When I tracked him down to find out what was going on here, the owner of this...
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February 14, 2011
Robert Mango Designed The Cherub Crib.
It's always good to tie up loose ends, close loops, tick off the open items, bring closure to--well, maybe when it comes to the Cherub Crib, closure is not to be too hastily wished for. The Cherub was imported...
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February 7, 2011
Beary Meyers
I haven't been keeping up with the Wary Meyerses nearly as much as I should, and for that I am sorry. Because, for one thing, they posted about these awesome Louis Vuitton polar bears almost a month ago. Apparently,...
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February 4, 2011
Fancy Old ABC Books?
In their monthly Rare Book Room selection, AbeBooks is featuring 25 vintage ABC books from their booksellers' inventories. Francoise's beautiful, simple illustrations are always nice to see, and the woodcuts of W.B. Falls' 1923 ABC Book are kind of...
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January 31, 2011
C'est La Guerre, Mon Enfant
I just discovered the awesome photography of Léon Gimpel, a turn-of-the-last-century Parisian amateur-turned-pioneering-photojournalist. He was one of the first photographers in France to experiment with shooting color; he engineered his own chemical tweaks to the Lumiere brothers' Autochrome technology as...
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January 19, 2011
F#$*( Yeah Denim Diaper Covers!
Denim-printed diapers are ghetto-busted, but vintage denim diaper covers from the Rose Bowl Flea Market? That is OG, my friend. I Bring To You The Rose Bowl [mistermort.com]...
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[read the full post...]
January 18, 2011
Renate Müller Schnecke
To be filed under "eBay items I didn't win because holy crap, this old Renate Müller snail-on-casters sold for 817 euros!" Far be it from me to tell Germans how to run their language, but doesn't it make more...
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It's Adorable Till Someone Loses A Higher Brain Function
Price includes a full time attendant to stand next to the recalled slide and pull your kid's head out of the strangulation gap at the top. Also, it was introduced in 1962. If the ladder isn't deadly, it must...
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Born At CBGB
Wow, DT reader DT is right: there sure are a lot of kids in the photos Brooke Smith took on the 1980s New York hardcore scene. If you were born on the Bowery while your parents were waiting to...
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January 10, 2011
Strong, Finnish: Sweet Molded Ply Ride-on Toy Via MidMod
So i've got a tag for molded ply, and a tag for ride-on toys, and a tag for vintage, of course. But at some point, it looks like vintage molded ply ride-on toys are gonna need a tag of...
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[read the full post...]
January 4, 2011
Imagine All The People...You Could Fit In John Lennon's Station Wagon
Thanks to Micah, who was the first of what he rightly guessed would be a small surge of DT readers who sent along a link to Gothamist's report that John Lennon & Yoko Ono's 1972 Chrysler Station Wagon had...
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January 3, 2011
Kay's Anatomy
Lot 207 in Rago's upcoming Discovery Auction deserves a post of its own, if only to keep its mysterious awesomeness from overwhelming the rest of the merch. You'd think that the four-pack of Kay Bojesen bunnies would be enough,...
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The Auction Of Misfit Toys
There are a few interesting kid-related things in Rago's schedule-filling, warehouse-clearing auction next weekend: Lot 130 is a kid-sized Thonet rocking chair with a couple of reeds sticking up from the woven seat and a random side table thrown...
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December 20, 2010
Enzo Mari Children's Table & Chairs?
Dear Internet, please tell me more about these plastic chairs, which our correspondent in Paris saw at the Musee d'Art Decoratif, and which are apparently by Enzo Mari? Because when I try to dig up info on them, I...
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[read the full post...]
December 16, 2010
I Want To See 'Toys Of The Avant Garde'
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Wooden Toy painted by Pablo Picasso c. 1920s Painted wood and metal 23.5 x 36 x 23 cm Private collection. Courtesy Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte ©Sucesión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Málaga 2010 I've...
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December 14, 2010
Dust Me! La Quadra Cradle By Mario Ceroli
I feel like I could blog off of this Pierre Bergé Design for Kids auction for weeks. [Actually, I feel like I've already blogged about 3/4 of it over the last six years.] But this jumped out at me:...
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Everything Must Go! Massive Kids Design Auction In Brussels This Weekend
Holy crap, is there going to be anything left? Non. Every single piece of vintage kid-related design in Europe is being sold at auction this Thursday. Just look at just one photo of just one corner of the Pierre...
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[read the full post...]
December 11, 2010
Awesome 1800s Doll House
I'm sure it's painted with lead and arsenic, but this 1800s dollhouse in original condition is pretty awesome. Too bad [one of] the previous owner Nancy Allen isn't related; I totally would've fought my cousins for this. Massive Early...
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December 8, 2010
Small Child Once Lived In Large Loft
The other day I came across this book, Converted into Houses, from an era, 1976, where the idea of converting a loft or industrial building into a house was still novel enough to hang a book proposal on. Nothing...
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November 21, 2010
OGMB: 1956 Mercedes Benz 300C Wagon
This 1956 Mercedes 300C was created by Binz for a Manhattan/Palm Beach client. In the Spring, it was the subject of all the glamour shots and genteel prose Amelia Island's classic car collectors require before parting with their $242,000....
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November 17, 2010
Audi, VW: There Are Some Substitutes.
Just in time for me not to bid on it while the wife was out of town, DT reader DT sent along a link to this nice-looking, low-miles, 2002 Audi A6 3.0 Avant, which sold at auction Saturday for...
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[read the full post...]
November 15, 2010
Steampunk-Lite: Ironwork High Chair
Still trying to identify the manufacturer or designer of this awesome-if-deadly, vintage bent steel high chair. Take a look and take a guess! But while researching online, I did find this rather cool-looking early 20th century, twisted steel rod &...
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[read the full post...]
November 13, 2010
Strange Pedal Car Fruit
I know if I were in the Forbes 400 like David Whitemire Hearst Jr., and I had a foundation set up to hold my collection of pristine and/or restored pedal cars, I'd certainly lend them to a museum. But...
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Where Do Jokey, Old Training Diapers For Expectant Fathers Come From?
I posted about this joke "Training Diaper for Expectant Fathers" when I first scored it on eBay, and it wasn't really funny then. Recently, I saw a new product or whatever that reminded me of it, and so I...
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[read the full post...]
November 4, 2010
Vasarely Planetary Folklore Participations No. 1 [through 3,000]
You know what, maybe things weren't all awesomer and more exciting back in the olden days, when people lined up on Lexington Avenue to get the newest "chic Christmas gift of 1969" at Bloomingdale's. And when they used to...
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[read the full post...]
November 1, 2010
Oh Kay! Bojesen Menagerie At Wright20
So you want a whole nurseryful of vintage Kay Bojesen wooden animals, but you've only got a couple of months before the kid arrives? No problem, Wright20's got your cost-no-object request covered. Though be sure to request the condition...
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[read the full post...]
October 28, 2010
Baby, Remember My Name? Unknown Bent Metal High Chair
Just today, Michael from Stopping Off Place confirmed that the unidentified lithograph I'd helped a friend move out of his childhood home this summer was, in fact, by Ezra Jack Keats. [Vintage Children's Books My Kid Loves just posted...
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[read the full post...]
October 26, 2010
¡Atención, Los Publicistas Del Museo!
I don't ask for much, really. I'm not one of those swaghound bloggers mucking around for free samples. Or blackmailing companies with the threats of negative posts because baby needs a new pair of Crocs. And though I mock the...
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[read the full post...]
October 25, 2010
Build The Town Posters By Ladislav Sutnar
Wow, has it really been four years and two weeks since I first posted about Czech emigre designer [and area code parentheses inventor!] Ladislav Sutnar's beautiful-but-unproduced Build The Town block set? Well then, I'm only two weeks late in...
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[read the full post...]
October 22, 2010
Poster For Bono's German Democracy Album
It has been Bono's plan all along to be the elected king-for-life of a unified Europe. And for a brief moment there in 1991, when the Berlin Wall fell, it looked like he'd have his chance. U2 brought in Brian...
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[read the full post...]
October 21, 2010
Training Wheels & Hand Grenades
"Lob in a play hand grenade, and finish off the rest with the submachine gun." Look, I didn't have one of those violin lessons & mufflers childhoods; I played my war in the ditches and woods like the rest...
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[read the full post...]
October 20, 2010
Ozoo, Par Le Maître De Plastic Kids Furniture, Marc Berthier
Ozoo 0600 desk, 1971, image via form.de We've seen some of designer Marc Berthier's kids furniture before, and we'd probably see more of it if the mid-70s oil crisis didn't wreak havoc on the economics of plastic. Or if...
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October 18, 2010
Expressionist Slot-Together Kids Chair
Sweet, unattributed, vintage, slot-together ply kids chair goodness this weekend at Mondo Blogo's favorite dealer, Jere Barnard. There are a couple of other kid design oddities in MB's post, so check it out. My Favorite Dealer, Jere Barnard [mondo-blogo]...
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October 14, 2010
Luigi Colani, The Designer Of The MONOBLOC Would Like To See You Outside.
And if you make it back alive, will you please tell me his name? This desk/closet/loft bed combination called the MONOBLOC was exhibited at the 7th International Furniture Expo in Paris in 1973. It is credited in Form Magazine...
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Nanna Ditzel Designed A Crib In 1962.
We all know about Nanna Ditzel's Toadstool tables and chairs. And her high chair. And her cradle. [Right? We do?] But how is it possible that I can't find any reference besides an 1963 issue of Form Magazine to...
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[read the full post...]
October 12, 2010
Chaises Anonymes Des Puces
An anonymous tipster traveling undercover in Paris shares wisdom from les puces:The flea markets are insanely expensive. In many cases, the vendors have no idea what they have/value, but they are just pulling insane numbers from the air. I...
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Oh, Hell Yes. Not Just A Crawligator. Crawligator DOT COM.
In practice, they may only ever pop up once or twice a year, but that still means that anyone can post a plain, old Creative Playthings Crawligator on eBay. But only one man, the visionary who registered it two...
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From Womb To Cradle, By Jack Rogers Hopkins
If all you knew about Calfornia craftsmaster Jack Rogers Hopkins was his Vulcantastic rocking chair ["Live Long and Rocker"], sit down, because Hippie Woodworking Christmas has come early. Mondo Blogo has posted more incredible images from his seemingly endless...
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October 6, 2010
And To Think That I Saw It For A Million Freaking Dollars On eBay
Add three small, beat-to-hell, "Unorthodox Taxidermy" animal head sculptures made in the mid-1930s by a young, ambitious, and slightly broke Ted Geisel on his Upper East Side dining table as mail-order bar decorations, but which ended up on some...
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October 4, 2010
Pamela Weir Rocking Horse
Southern California woodworker Pamela Weir-Quiton has been making what she calls functional wood sculpture since the 1960s. LA Modern has this rocking horse of hers from 1972 in their upcoming auction October 17th. It looks a little side-tipsy to...
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Aawesome: Alvar Aalto Kids Chair
A nice-looking vintage example of Alvar Aalto's Child's Chair No. 103 is coming up for auction at Chicago's Wright20 next week. They list the date as 1930, but that's when Aalto made his first, related, bent ply and metal...
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[read the full post...]
September 29, 2010
Incredible Creative Playthings Collection Trickling Onto eBay
Over the last few years, a few of us have helped bring long-overdue attention to the amazing, innovative, vintage toys of Creative Playthings. Why? Partly to give credit and appreciation to the makers of the toys we might have...
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September 28, 2010
Trick Contour Rocking Chair By Vladimir Kagan
It's been a while since we've had a good, old-fashioned rockerlusting around here. So thanks Wright20 for putting this sweet, c1955 Contour rocking chair by Vladimir Kagan up for sale next month. Kagan's very welcome 'round these parts, and...
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Bel Air To Crescent City, With Mister Mort
Mister Mort and some of his fellow style sharks went on a road trip up the California coast, and all we got is--actually, I think we made out pretty well: a giant pile of awesome photos, including a set...
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[read the full post...]
September 27, 2010
OG Creative Playthings Alarm Clock
My brother the expert kidgiftgiver. When he came to visit, he rightly figured that any annoyance we might feel towards the Disney Princess Silly Bandz he brought K2 would be forgotten as soon as we were all woken up...
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[read the full post...]
September 24, 2010
M-I-C See You In The Bomb Shelter!
If you've been waiting until you could find a cherry example with the box, your WWII-era UK Mickey Mouse children's gas mask waiting days are almost over. Sept 30, 2010, Item 2254: ENGLISH VERSION MICKEY MOUSE CHILD'S GAS MASK...
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September 20, 2010
Excuse Me, Doc, I've Got A Creative Playthings Scooter To Land
The last thing he said to me, "Doc," he said, "some time when the crew is up against it, and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to get out there and give it all they got and win...
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[read the full post...]
September 19, 2010
Gerrit Rietveld The Impaler? What's Up With This de Stijlin' Playpen?
Alright, every time I think I've exhausted the Gerrit Rietveld kids' furniture, something else pops up. We already knew that Rietveld basically had his furnituremaking breakthrough by designing stuff for his own kid and his friends' kids. But somehow...
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September 18, 2010
OG Slot-Together Ply Shelves By Harry Davis, Editor
Andy found this this summer, and then after talking to the folks at Modern Times to learn more about it, I promptly lost the link. In any case, there's really not much more to say at this point besides...
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[read the full post...]
September 17, 2010
But What's The Car Seat Setup?
Here's a sweet crop from an even sweeter ride, a nicely restored VW Beetle that Todd Lappin spotted recently and dubbed the Surfinstrollerwagen. Check out Telstar Logistics for the full pic and a report that does not, alas, include...
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[read the full post...]
September 16, 2010
Alright, Southern California, Show Me Your H.U.D.D.L.E. Toobs
Four years ago, Daddy Types was the only Internet mention of Toobs, the awesome modular/homebrew/adaptive reuse children's furniture collection by Los Angeles designers Penny and Jim Hull. The Hulls and their new company, Hull Urban Design, Development, Etc., or...
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[read the full post...]
September 14, 2010
Ruth Bernard's Creepy Carousel Horse
Ruth Bernard, pioneering [female] photographer of the lithe female nude, also created one fo the world's creepiest nursery photos. Now a little vintage-sounding print can be yours to haunt your child's dreams. Forever. Sept. 19-20, Lot No: 4111 -...
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[read the full post...]
September 13, 2010
Swing Of Fire
You know, to look at the extraordinarily detailed patent diagrams for George and Charlotte Blonsky's centrifugal birthing table [patent no. 3,216,423, granted Nov. 1963 that's a fence surrounding it by the way. It's a birthing cage.], you'd just have...
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[read the full post...]
September 10, 2010
De Stijl-Style Slot-Together Ply Chair At Mid Mod
How does he find these things? Etienne at Mid Mod Design in the Netherlands has this awesome-looking, de Stijl-inspired beech ply high chair c.1950 on hold right now. I hope he keeps the pictures online after it sells, though;...
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[read the full post...]
September 7, 2010
They Don't Make Alphabets Like They Used To
Science book guy John Ptak wondered what jobs were common enough in 1850 they could illustrate a kid's alphabet book: I thought Wharfinger won the prize, until he did a followup post of a 1844 alphabet primer from Newark: "O...
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[read the full post...]
September 2, 2010
Alright People, Start Mosaicking! Charley Harper Murals
I know Charley Harper was so 2008 or whenever, but isn't now, after the Old Navy herd has moved on, the best possible time to make a Charley Harper-inspired mosaic mural? [Hint: YES.] In 1964, Cincinnati native Harper did...
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August 31, 2010
Vintage Euro Pedal Car?
The list of things I missed in Antwerp this summer is growing, one vintage Euro, iPhone-shaped pedal car at a time. This sweet little ride was at Atelier Solarshop on the day Dubieus Design, the vintage design and furniture...
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[read the full post...]
August 27, 2010
I'll Take Crazy Vintage Dollhouses For $500, Alek!
There's gotta be a story or two here behind this incredible, handmade 3-ft wide, hexagonal dollhouse, which dt reader Christine just spotted on eBay. First off, obviously, What the hey? Those steeply raked rooms look like theatrical set tricks,...
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August 18, 2010
Braggin' Wagon
The only photos in his flickr stream are from May, so I am assuming that Scooter Trash did not, in fact, end up sacrificing his wife's new kitchen for this rather fine-looking 1964 Chevrolet Bel Air Wagon. 1964 Bel...
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[read the full post...]
August 11, 2010
OG Tupperware Japan Toy
Check that out: The vintage/flea market shark who runs Swimsuit Department found a mint-in-box, vintage Tupperware Shape-O puzzle ball. From and in Japan. Apparently, they were called Tuppertoys there. Who knew? All I know is, my little brother and...
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[read the full post...]
August 10, 2010
Lost 90s Kids Furniture By Anthologie Quartett
Look, I'm not happy either about posting a vintage kids furniture story from 1991, a year I happen to remember myself quite well, thankyouverymuch, and it was not that long ago. Though I guess technically, it's just long enough...
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[read the full post...]
August 9, 2010
Once You Have Black,
You maybe should lower your opening bid. Especially considering a mint-in-box Creative Playthings steamroller without the beat, aftermarket paint job went for just $45 shipped. Creative Playthings U.S.A. Vintage Wood STEAMROLLER, opening bid, $19.95 + 9.55 s/h, auction ends...
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[read the full post...]
August 8, 2010
Actually, This Van IS A-Rockin'
All y'all who ever laughed and said it was a waste of time to set up an eBay saved search for "shaggin' wagon" can now eat dirt:ALL ORIGINAL 1977 Dodge Ram Van tradesman B200 3/4 TON 318 8-CYLINDER CUSTOM...
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[read the full post...]
August 4, 2010
Really? Angelo Mangiarotti Plywood Bunk Beds?
They're long gone from Swedish designshop Jacksons, but last year, kiddesignblog Handmade Charlotte posted this awesome, if somewhat treacherous-looking, slot-together plywood bunkbed, and said it was from the 1960s by Angelo Mangiarotti. [Actually they said it's be Angelo Manglarotti,...
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[read the full post...]
July 31, 2010
Erich Dieckmann Ur-Bauhaus Kinderstuhl
You may know furniture designer Erich Dieckmann from such carpentry workshops as the Bauhaus and the Staatliche Bauhochschule in Weimar. Which covers the 1920s, the time frame attributed to this little painted pine kid's chair. It has that Dieckmann...
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[read the full post...]
July 30, 2010
Pedal Beach Concours d'Awesomeness
It's been a while since we've had a good, old-fashioned pedal car auction insanity post around here. Fortunately, DT reader and carthority DT found MidAmerica Auction's upcoming Pebble Beach sale, which has enough rarities to fill a mini 8-car garage....
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[read the full post...]
July 29, 2010
Little Red Riding Hood, The Operetta
In 1930, the Delta District school in Delta, Utah presented "Little Red Riding Hood" in operetta form. That's my grandmother Lora, the bee on the top left right, ith the 'X'. These stories and more are coming up this...
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[read the full post...]
July 23, 2010
German Kinderauktionen Round-Up
Seriously, if you're anything like me, you'd think Munich's OG delights began with McRibs and ended with fried, bubbly apple pies at the McDonald's in front of the airport. Turns out there's an awesome design auction house at every...
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Breitschwerdt Pferd: Some '70s German Non-Rocking Horse
Maybe this Breitschwerdt rocking horse from the 70s is in such good condition because no one ever played with it. I'll go ahead and assume that it rock-steps forward, otherwise I can't account for it. Breitschwerdt was supposedly a...
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[read the full post...]
July 22, 2010
BRIO Rocking Ox On The Block
It was listed at Wright 20 as "American c.1965," with a no-reserve estimate of just $100. But I guess at least two people recognized it as the Rocking Ox, introduced in 1967 by BRIO, the largest wooden toymaker in...
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[read the full post...]
BldgBlog On BldgBlocks
Everyone's favorite architopian blogger Geoff Manaugh just geeked out over the massive collection of vintage blocks and building toys in the archives of Montreal's Canadian Centre for Architecture. The primary target of his fascination is Dr. Richter's Anchor Blocks,...
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[read the full post...]
July 20, 2010
MoMA Mystery Solved: Les Levine's 'Star Garden'
It occurred to me today that someone with a sharp eye, who has lived through New York City's art history as it's been made, might recognize this incredible molded acrylic structure pictured in the Museum of Modern Art's garden,...
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[read the full post...]
July 16, 2010
Ghosts In Vogue
An awesome Dan River sheets ad from Vogue magazine, circa 1964. Check out another one at artist Angelo Plessas' blog. Ghost or Host? [angeloplessas.com via dt reader alex]...
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[read the full post...]
July 1, 2010
'What An Appalling Quantity Of Peter!' That's What Bea Said!
Did you know Peter Rabbit began in 1893 as a series of illustrated letters to Beatrix Potter's former governess's five-year-old son? And that after seven years, the governess, Annie Moore, encouraged Potter to publish them, but no one would...
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[read the full post...]
June 26, 2010
Woodworkers' Kids Always Have The Nicest Hand-Carved Rocking Toys
Holy smokes. Master California studio furnituremaker Rick Pohlers created this rocking toy for his own kids in the 1970s. It's carved cherry with a leather seat, and features Northwest Coast Indian-style detailing on both sides. It's not huge, either,...
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[read the full post...]
June 25, 2010
Dean Jones Made My Baby Cry
A week with the cousins forced me to realize the kid is severely under-movied. So I decided that summer school would be home school film school, and in exchange for getting to watch more than 22-minutes of TV, plus or...
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[read the full post...]
June 24, 2010
Buffalo Holder
In 1965, Buffalo had a Festival of the Arts the likes of which Buffalo had never seen. It was wall-to-wall avant-garde art, theatre, music, dance, and film--and it was packed. Among the 150,000+ people who attended the John Cage...
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[read the full post...]
June 22, 2010
Cutting Through The Static On Isamu Noguchi's Radio Nurse Baby Monitor
What was the real story of the 1937 Zenith Radio Nurse & Guardian Ear? I've been looking at this thing, the first baby monitor, for close to 20 years now, and it's about time I found out. How did...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
June 17, 2010
Mime Reading: Marcel Marceau's Children's Books
K2 and I enter a used book store. I scan the children's book shelves. What's this? I spy a curious book, I pick it up, open it. Flip the pages. A look of surprise, then bewilderment, then incredulous amusement,...
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[read the full post...]
June 14, 2010
Awesome OG Playgrounds In Reston, VA
The kid recently had a birthday party nearby, so I took K2 with me to visit Lake Anne Plaza, the original center of Reston, Virginia, a novelty of mid-century modernist urban planning. Reston was founded in 1963, a white...
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[read the full post...]
June 11, 2010
High, Higher, Highest Chairs
While looking at something else in their inventory, I realized Modern One may just have the high-designiest high chairs in all of Los Angeles, with vintage high chairs for every budget [that includes at least $1,100 for a high chair]:...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
June 9, 2010
Awesome Vintage Movie Posters
DT reader Jordi spotted some great vintage Disney movie posters coming up for sale this month at Christie's South Kensington location in London. In the proper UV plexi frame, they'd make great additions to a nursery--and you could re-auction...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
June 7, 2010
OG Shepard Pooh Poster
Sweet. The Wary Meyerses just garage saled this poster from the V&A for a 1969 exhibit of E.H. Shepard's original illustrations for Winnie the Pooh. EH Shepard at V&A [warymeyers] Previously and completely unrelated: Deep in the Hundred Acre...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
June 2, 2010
FOUND: Richard Dattner Made This Mystery, Slot-Together Playground Equipment
It might take some time, but we here at Daddy Types aim to leave no loops unclosed. At least when it comes to awesome-but-obscure playground equipment. Three and a half years ago now, the NY Times ran the photo...
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[read the full post...]
May 30, 2010
1930s Ur-Bobux
I was about to call these 1930s kids shoes ur-Robeez, but then I remembered that Robeez knocked off Bobux. Either way, they have a little ur-LL Bean boots thing going on there, too. And wooden buttons. Too bad we...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
A New Yorker In New Bern
Getting ready to go to the beach as soon as the kid wraps up her kindergarten finals; I can't believe it's ending so soon! But considering we already missed the AACA Grand National show in New Bern a couple...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 27, 2010
Seekin' Hide: American Indian Doll & Cradle
Speaking of antique craft and materials, check out this Nez Perce toy cradleboard, c.1880, which is coming up for sale at Heritage Auctions on June 11. It's only 9.5 inches high, perfect for Indian kids' little beaded hide dolls....
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 22, 2010
Enzo Mari Pities Your Coloring In The Lines
You know I'll go to the mat for Enzo Mari anytime, anyplace. And I would love to find some vintage copies of his awesome Drawing Cards sets, too, like the one Michael recently posted at his blog, Stopping Off...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 20, 2010
Antonio Vitali Doll Chalet On eBay
Looks like the high end real estate market for dolls is beginning to rebound. I haven't seen an early 1950's Antonio Vital doll chalet like this on the market for a while, much less one that already has a...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 17, 2010
Disfarmer: The Richard Avedon Of Cleburne County
Mike Meyer, small-town, Depression-era, proto-modernist photographer, changes his name to Disfarmer? Is this story real? Why am I only hearing about this now? These photos are absolutely fantastic.In the 1930s a tornado swept through the Heber Springs [Arkansas] valley...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 12, 2010
Return Of The Return Of The Jedi Playground Equipment
Boingboing ganked the scan without credit--plus he called it an AT-AT, when it's clearly an AT-ST/Chicken Walker, duh--but the ad for the incredible Gym Dandy Scout Walker Command Center With Speeder Bike Ride backyard playset was originally from the October...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
April 19, 2010
OG Jean Prouvé Kids Desk
After you get over the excitement of finding a vintage Prouvé children's desk--in this case, at the Swiss modern design shop Quintessentia--you can start thinking about who the ungrateful little rugrats were who beat this table down were. Or...
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[read the full post...]
Today's German Lesson: Ein Schaukelwagen 'Sehr Bespieltes'
'Sehr bespieltes': I wish I could tell you it's German for "great project!" It is actually, "very played-with." And that's just what this Schaukelwagen that popped up on German eBay is: sehr bespieltes, also sehr berepaired. But at the...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
April 15, 2010
The Anti-Slavery Alphabet, c.1846
With lines like "I is the Infant/ from its fond mother torn," and "W is the whipping post," but as far as abolitionist alphabet primers go, this is probably the best I've ever seen. So goodbye Teabaggers, and hello Emancipation...
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[read the full post...]
April 14, 2010
We Stand On The Shoulders Of Goatcart-Riding Giants
And to think I wondered for a moment how relevant it might be to us as dads today, in 2010, to delve into the history of the crazy old toys our great-grandparents used to ride on. Longtime DT hero [and...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
April 13, 2010
Crazy Old Playthings: An Internet Treasury Of Animals Pulling Kids Around
Wow, DT reader Sara either turned her kids loose in the street for the afternoon, or the whole clan has mad Googlin' skillz, because after Benjamin Harris's grandchildren's goat wagon, she sent a veritable parade of crazy animals pulling kids...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Crazy Old Playthings: Benjamin Harrison's Goat Cart
Crazy grandparental antics didn't start in the 20th century. President Benjamin Harrison, for example, gave his grandkids a bunch of goats, including one named His Whiskers, pictured here on the South Lawn of the White House pulling Goat Cart...
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[read the full post...]
Crazy Old Playthings
They're starting to bubble up, photos of some of the crazy old playthings our great-grandparents made. That our grandparents managed to survive playing with. So they could eventually bring our own parents forth, and so on, and so on, until...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
April 10, 2010
Holy Smoked Mackerel! Kay Bojesen Wallpaper
I swear, I've been to kaybojesendesign.dk, the site of one of the biggest Bojesen collectors around, a dozen times, and I've never noticed this. What an incredible story:...When the factory was closed in 2008 I was allowed to cut...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
April 2, 2010
Kiss Me Deadly: Awesome, Handmade Mid-Century LA Modernist Dollhouse
Check out this sweet & simple doll house Chris spotted on eBay; it's coming from Long Beach, CA:Created by a Los Angeles shop teacher clearly inspired by the case study and mid century modern homes that were being built...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
April 1, 2010
Karin Mobring Ikea Playtable & Chairs On German eBay
Now, nothing against Mid-Mod Design, which is awesome, but this is how I like to buy my vintage 1960s Ikea kids furniture: just sitzin' in a gruppe on the side of the Straße for one shiny euro. Of course,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
March 29, 2010
250 Creative Playthings Maple Blocks On eBay
Usually, a big set of Creative Playthings blocks like this comes out of a church basement preschool, and they're kind of gnawed on and gnarly. But these maple blocks look surprisingly clean and ready--to get gnawed on by your...
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[read the full post...]
March 15, 2010
Ahh, Spring: Birds, Flowers, Marilyn Neuhart Dolls At Auction
I'll admit it, when it comes to writing about some seemingly basic new parent topics, I feel a bit burned out sometimes. It gives me a new-found appreciation for the folks who write parenting magazines and have to come...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
March 10, 2010
An Apple A Day Keeps The Gulag Away
Something something something eat an apple, kid something something healthy, something something strong something something crush American babies' heads something something. If you can come up with a better translation for this piece of c. 1967 Commie Red Fruit...
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[read the full post...]
March 9, 2010
Electron, Stroller-Pushing Robot Of Glorious Soviet Union
I'm not really sure what to do with this 1967 photo of a 7-ft tall robot from Kaliningrad named Electron (электрон), except to put it next to the other photos of wacked out, homemade, backwoods, Communist robots with strollers....
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
March 7, 2010
Vintage Ikea Kids Table & Chairs By Karin Mobring
I've been low-grade fixated on the idea of vintage Ikea kids furniture ever since I found the "Kid Size" exhibition organized by the Vitra Design Museum. I've been keeping an eye out for any pieces to turn up for...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
March 1, 2010
Ado Blocks By Ko Verzuu
Alright, now that I bought them, I can post about these incredible blocks designed by Ko Verzuu in the 1940s and made by ADO, the Dutch toy and furniture company run by and for the mentally disabled community patients...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 26, 2010
Pepsi-Cola Playscape By Jerry Lieberman
Does any headline capture the 1960's ideal playground better than "A Child's Garden of Plastic Delights"? Beginning in 1965, Manhattan designer/dad Jerry Lieberman, under the sponsorship of Pepsi-Cola and the National Recreation and Park Association, worked to develop a...
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[read the full post...]
February 23, 2010
Kid-Sized Lambing Chair
This boxy kind of chair is apparently called a lambing chair, on account of all the lambs they have up there in Lancashire and Yorkshire from whence the design came. This particular boxy chair is kid-sized, and it rocks,...
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[read the full post...]
Five Teething Sticks & A Couple Of Nuts
What's that, five carved ivory teething sticks not enough for you? Fine, they'll throw in a couple of carved oriental nuts. And one nut stand, but not two. And that's Bonham's best offer. Whoops, that's today: Feb. 23, 2010:...
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[read the full post...]
February 21, 2010
Betty Thomson's Multiplications Cubes Now Have Five Google Results
The moral of this story is, if you see a garage sale at one of those Ice Storm-lookin' houses in Connecticut, pull. over. Do you want to play a game? [mondo-blogo via andy] Previously: but they're clawing their way...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 19, 2010
'The Earliest Known American Rocking Horse'?
At some point, when there's just so much great stuff, one right after the other, it's neither accidental nor mysterious. Nevertheless, John Foster's blog accidental mysteries is a non-stop stream of awesome finds. Let's look at this one, shall...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 18, 2010
Good Price, Bad Karma: Richard Neutra Bunk Beds
How many ways can a bunk bed kick you in the nuts? These incredible, pared down, cantilevered beds were designed by Richard Neutra--excuse me, Richard FREAKIN' Neutra, in 1959. For the Singleton House, a masterpiece of modernist simplicity set...
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[read the full post...]
February 9, 2010
Round And Round And Square By Fredun Shapur
Fredun Shapur's illustration and design work is as awesome as his name, and it baffles me how little information about it exists on the web. Shapur did toys and graphics for Creative Playthings, including an iconic series of posters...
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[read the full post...]
February 6, 2010
Playgrounds At An Exhibition: Palle Nielsen's 1968 Adventure Playground-In-A-Museum
After building guerilla adventure playgrounds for kids on abandoned lots around Copenhagen as a form of social activism, the Danish artist Palle Nielsen convinced the Moderna Museet in Stockholm to let him turn the gallery into a playground, too....
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[read the full post...]
February 3, 2010
Jerry, Erik, Nanna & Bear
That kid there is Erik Ross, I met him once with his mother Lillian, at a party I helped organize for Sofia Coppola. Nice folks. And of course, that's a Nanna Ditzel high chair, which looks pretty fantastic. Never...
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[read the full post...]
MoMA/Creative Playthings Collage Kit Definitely Worth Preserving In The Box
Wow, Airform Archives posted a mint-in-box Collage and Construction Set, "A Project by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Creative Playthings, Princeton, NJ" It looks like the perfect companion for Art for the Family the 1960 book...
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[read the full post...]
January 25, 2010
M-I-C D-D-T
Sure, I know DDT-soaked Disney wallpaper sounds like a hilariously bad idea now. But back in 1947, the massive spraying of DDT had just wiped out malaria and typhus and saved millions of people, including Our Boys Fighting In...
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[read the full post...]
January 21, 2010
Andy Warhol's 'A Is An Alphabet'
When he was trying to drum up work as an illustrator in the 1950s, Andy Warhol made little gifts for his clients and friends--mostly painted Ukrainian Easter eggs and little portfolios of drawings and poems wrapped in tissue. A...
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[read the full post...]
January 18, 2010
Das Gutenkinderauktionblogposten
The German auction house Quittenbaum has a design sale coming up in a couple of weeks, February 9th, which includes some classic pieces of vintage kids design and a couple of oddities: Lot 90: First up, the classic Schaukelwagen convertible...
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[read the full post...]
January 14, 2010
Bauhausgezeichnet! Alma Siedhoff-Buscher Blocks On eBay
An original Bauhaus children's toy by the Bauhaus designer, Alma Siedhoff-Buscher. It is a Bauhaus Building Block Set, circa 1923. The set consists of 48 rectangular blocks in different colors in their original presentation box. The box size is...
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[read the full post...]
January 12, 2010
Who Killed Cock Robin? Who Put It In My First Nursery Book?
The first thing to know is that My First Nursery Book, with illustrations by the Polish/British avant-garde artist and publisher Franciszka Themerson, has just been reissued in its original 1947 form, and you and I and everyone should buy...
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[read the full post...]
January 5, 2010
Heinz Coloring Book
Photo and ephemera collector Jim Linderman suggests--or jokes, I can't tell--that the 1927 promotiocational classic, Heinz Kindergarten Book: Pictures To Trace might have provided early source material for Andy Warhol. Who knows? Warhol was certainly a voracious a collector...
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[read the full post...]
December 30, 2009
About That London Baby Cage
The caption on this Hulton Archive photo reads:27th January 1934: An example of the wire cage which East Poplar borough council in London propose to fix to the outside of their tenement windows, so that babies can benefit from...
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[read the full post...]
December 16, 2009
All You Want For Christmas Is A Crawligator?
Let me suggest that if you really had a Crawligator on your kid's Christmas list and you haven't picked one up already, you'd do well not to quibble over the high opening bid on this one. Instead, just count...
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[read the full post...]
December 14, 2009
Big Old Wheel
This is the 2nd coolest Big Wheel in the world--after the one you had as a kid, of course. 1940s steel & aluminum circus tricycle/big wheel, $435 [modern50.com]...
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[read the full post...]
December 9, 2009
Through The Enchanted Gate: MoMA's Kid Art TV Show
I've worked with MoMA in various ways for almost twenty years now, but I only really became aware of the incredible legacy of Victor d'Amico since having a kid. He oversaw the education programs at the Modern for decades,...
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[read the full post...]
December 4, 2009
Pas Disponible! Citroen CX Wagon Diesel In The US
So this Malaise-era Citroen CX Wagon Diesel is either from 1980 or 1983. There are plenty of stories about where it's been [Middle East, Western Canada, &c. &c.], but next to no paperwork. What matters, of course, is where...
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[read the full post...]
December 3, 2009
Tres Awesome French Children's Books
At A Journey Round My Skull, Will has an incredible collection of scans from French children's books of the 1930s and '40s. There are some great-looking titles like Je Fais mes Jouets avec des Plantes [I Make My Toys...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 1, 2009
Behold, Then Bid! The Edcom Systems E001 Hexagonal Cognition Crib
It's always the same: you think you're gonna have Crazy Stroller Week, and then suddenly an Absolutely Insane Crib crosses your path. Hold your horses and clear your loading dock, because an Edcom E001 Hexagonal Cognition Crib is for...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 24, 2009
More Eames Molded Ply Animals
In 2007, the Eames Office and Vitra produced a limited edition molded plywood elephant that was based on a 1940s prototype Ray and Charles exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art. [There were originally two elephants made--see above--but only...
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[read the full post...]
November 23, 2009
Vintage Illustration Auction Finds: Sendak, Ungerer, Stein, Hurd
So what could be better at an illustrated book auction than five children's books with drawings by Andy Warhol? Glad you asked. Lot 308: Good Shabbos, Everybody, published privately in 1951 by the United Synagogue Commission on Jewish Education, which...
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[read the full post...]
Andy Warhol's Other Children's Books
The upcoming illustration auction at Bloomsbury New York includes some very interesting stuff. Least interesting among them: a collection of some of the children's anthologies from the late 1950s which include stories illustrated by Andy Warhol. Warhol was still...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 20, 2009
Bojesen Auction Awesomeness
See that, learning a new vintage toy is just like learning a new word: now you notice when they start turning up. Take this beautiful for example: the rattan doll pram Kay Bojesen designed in 1949 for Wengler, which...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 17, 2009
Hey You! Go To Shrimp Shop This Saturday In Los Angeles
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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[read the full post...]
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,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
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...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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,...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
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...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
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...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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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[read the full post...]
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...
[read the full post...]
[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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[read the full post...]
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...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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,...
[read the full post...]
[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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[read the full post...]
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...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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,...
[read the full post...]
[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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[read the full post...]
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....
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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'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 Rogers 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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[read the full post...]
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 1957 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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[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
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...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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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[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
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...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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??...
[read the full post...]
[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....
[read the full post...]
[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,...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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....
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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...
[read the full post...]
[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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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...
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[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?...
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[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...
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[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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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'...
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[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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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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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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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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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...
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[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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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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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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[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
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
H