SOME COSTLY TOTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2104, 21 June 1894, Page 41

SOME COSTLY TOTS.

Eleven hundred pounds for a model locomotive noc a foot high 1 Such was the price that an enthusiastic amateur engineer paid for a model of a Midland goods engine only recently. The miniature iron horse was complete to the minntest detail, and comprised 3417 parts, everything being made from reduced drawings and patterns of a full-sized engine. This, of course, is a very large price, yet £65 for a little model of a vertical marine engine which one could easily hold in one's hand, many people would think a big sum to pay.

The disastrous collision between the Victoria and the Camperdown, which resulted so fatally to the former, has been perpetuated by one individual in a curious manner. He has had a model of the ill-fated warship, which he keeps almost constantly before him, made at a cost of £220.

An old sea captain, who in his yonnger days commanded a vessel which voyaged to the China Seas, bringing home choice teas, had built, for his pleasure and to remind him of bygone days, at a cost of £75, as smart a liliputian clipper as could delight the heart of an old salt.

Another nautical gentleman, who lost a relation by the foundering the Wasp, had a model of that ship specially constructed at an expense of £J. 50, as well as a model of H.M S. Nelson, a twin-screw boat, with guns, turrets, and everything complete.

Turning oar attention to to,) a of a simpler, less instructive nature, though cot less

costly in comparison, we find, on inquiring of one of the largest West End dealers in these goods, that if we be so minded we can expend the small sum of £50 in an exqni-sitely-finished mechanical toy, representing " The Dancing Lesson," in which three small figures move and act with almost human motion.

The various Indian princes who visit this oountry are enamoured of the French-made mechanical toys, and when over here invariably make a round of the toy shops, buying what-ever they fancy. The Maharajah of Koosh Bahar purchased a figure representing two clownß fishing at a well : one has a bite and brings up a half-moon at the end of his line, whereupon the other knocks It down again and a frog leaps oat as a protest against his violence ; for this toy the modest sum of lOgs is asked. As an addition to the amusement provided by the clowns, a musical box inside plays some pretty musio all the while. -

In the window of a Regent street toy shop may be seen c not her of these playthings, representing some rustics dancing a cotillon around two maypoles. For this the not altogether insignificant sum of 30gs is asked. A less expensive toy of this nature, costing only 7gs, represents two lovers who indulge in the names of Pierrette and Pierrot. The young damsel makes love to the youth, kisses her hand to him, with an occasional wink, and then both, in the exuberance of their joy, play upon mandolins.

For the same sum may also be obtained a clown, who fingers the banjo in quite a professional way, and in the middle of his tune falls asleep. So natural are hta movements that, whilst watching him, one half-expec-tantly listens for the protests from his audience, but instead we have the hasty ring of the call boy, who wakes him to a sense of his impropriety.

The rich members of the middle class are the greatest buyers of luxurious toys, and a lady the other day came into a large toy emporium and expended something like £50 on half a dozen articles, which included a doll's house lighted by electric light, a doll's bedstead costing over £5, a small kitchen range, and a set of doll's ohina worth £3 3s. These costly trifles were provided for a 10-guinea miss supplied by the same firm, complete with an outfit of dresses and linen packed in a natty little trunk. Such an aristocratic little lady could not, of course, be expected to travel on foot when paying visits, and so a complete stable with carriages was added at a further outlay of 7gS. A somewhat pathetic incident in connection with the late Fred Leslie is related, which illustrates the fondness he had for his children. The comedian, just prior to -his somewhat sudden death, bought for his little girl a magnificent doll's house at a cost of 20gs. The King of Siam had a doll's house recently constructed by a London toymaker, for which he paid £50. Another method in which much money may be spent for the amusement of the little ones of the wealthy is in artificial animals. A small elephant, like to nature, may be bad for 18gs ; a full-sized specimen of a retriever, with a natural skin, costs nearly £9 ; a sheep which " baas " if its head be moved can be obtained for lOgs ; and a cow which moves its head and " lows " costs nearly six sovereigns. A child may play with these inanimate creatures to its heart's content, knocking them about most unmercifully, and stand in no fear of retaliation — even the donkey, priced at £7 15s, does not venture upon anything more protestful than a bray. Mechanical railways, with stations, signal boxes, and all the minutias attaching to an actual railroad, can be had for £12, although a far larger sum raay be spent on such a toy if the purchaser wish.