PERFECTING AMERICAN TOYS

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 152, 24 December 1918, Page 2

PERFECTING AMERICAN TOYS

A movement has been started in the toy industry of the United States to improve the quality and standard of American-made toys from the. standpoint of their artistic as well as their commercial value (states a New York paper). The Toy Manufacturers of the United States of America, Inc., the largest association of toy manufacturers in this country, and the Art Alliance of America, which recently held, an exhibition of American toys in an effort to,get manufacturers and designers to work in closer harmony, are laying plans now for a larger exhibit, to be held in this city probably during next February, at which it is expected that a very large proportion of the domestic manufacturers will be represented. A better oppor tunity will thus be afforded American de- ' signers to criticise and make suggestions. and for manufacturers to profit by these suggestions and criticisms. Harmony in colours is coming to be looked upon a.s one of the most important characteristics of any toy The work of designing toys involves practically every art and trade there is. Mechanical and electrical engineers are needed in the toy industry, no less than are designers of women's hats and gowns. Artists and portrait painters' are required, no less than naturalists and those familiar with plumbing. The designing departments maintained by most manufacturers have in the past devoted more attention to the work of simplifying manufacturing processes, it t is said, than to the matter of getting out an article or a combination of colours which has a real artistic value. Now, the importance of work of this 'latter sort seems to be more generally resognised, and is being given more attention everywhere. The early results of these efforts are already showing themselves in the toys that are now being turned out. "If American toy manufacturers are to hold the trade they have been able to get since the war started in 1914," pointed out one authority in this city, " they have got to add beauty, harmony of colours, and other artistic qualities to the other characteristics of Amei'ican-made toys. American ingenuity has developed; toy making to a. higher degree of perfection than lias been done in any other country, and it now remains for American designers to do their share from the artistic standpoint."