Toy-making in France

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 25, 21 December 1910, Page 36

Toy-making in France

An Industry Employing 25,000 People. — And Producing a Million Sterling Annually.

IF there is no doubt that France is the original home of toys, there is also no denying the fact that of late years Germany has had a foremost part in furnishing amusement to the young people of the world. Within the last two or three years, however, there han been a marked revival in this ancient French industry, and it is interesting to look into both tin* cause and the extent of the new movement. The very name of Paris biTags with it thoughts of the Boulevard, and of all the innumerable attractions of so attractive a place the street toy stands out in memory. Probably nowheir e:<«e in the world does the merchant of the pavement deal in such seductive wares. They are, for the most part, small and modest artisans, who work in the’.r own homes and represent not great industrial interests with their necessarily standardised products, but the cachet, amusing, graceful, spirituel, mocking, malicious—the embodiment, in short, o.’ the Parisian spirit. It is easy to ascribe the revival which this industry has enjoyed, particularly where it touches the small worker, to the paternal but very successful efforts of the well-known Chief of Paris Police, M. Lepine. Early in the autumn of 1901, Parisians were astonished to nee large posters covering the Hoardings, inviting designs for holiday toys and offering prizes for the most inventive and ingenious competitors. For some time it had been noticed that there was a sorry lack of novelty in the street toy, so eagerly bought when new and amusing. Both Parisians and visitors were tired of the mechanical policeman, the soldier.

the street-sweeper and the jumping rabbit. Even the Boer and Tommy Atkina were stale. This industry, like others the world over, seemed suffering from an attack of tint well-known epidemic called "Made in Germany.” It was therefore a happy idea of the Prefect of Police to organise this toy competition. I'he competition was open to French toys only, the cost of which wa>s limited from a half-penny to half-a-crown. Prizes consisting of money, diplomas, and medals in gold, silver and bronze, were offered. The samples exhibited were afterwards distributed among the poor . ehools ami children’s hospitals of Paris. Representatives of tl'“ chief toy-dealers, and the proprietors of large bazaars and manufacturers, all lent friendly aid to the scheme. The largest toy manufacturer in Paris, as a proof of his sympathy, offered the use of his workshops to any toy-maker who might wish to avail himself of their facilities. Leading French artists were also asked to furnish models, and they readily complied. This was an exceedingly hupp.’ thought on M. Lepine’s part, for at the first Exhibition. M. Detaille, M. Fremiet, M. Denys Puch, and M. J. L. Gerome, all sent in contributions. M. Gerome, for instance, sent a female toy-seller holding in her left hand a basket of toys, while in her right she offered for sale a Paris policeman, holding aloft the familiar white baton with which he regulates the traffic. Two of these Exhibitions have now been held, and with the greatest success. Two hundred and eight toy-makers entered the first competition and from six hundred to seven hundred toys were on

view. They were chiefly made by the small traders, the class the Exhibition was intended to benefit. The publie was as prompt in appreciation as the makers; in fact, on the first day of the Exhibition the crush was so great that the doors had to be closed several times in order to prevent accidents. It would be almost impossible to enumerate all the novelties which caught the eye. For instance, at the first Exhibition the Santos-Dumont

air ships were prominent. Each inventor illustrated his idea in iiis own way. Some of the flying machines were supported by inflated cigar-shaped balloons and followed the original very closely in their trial trips—even to accidents. Another air-ship suspended on a cord between two masts whirled through the air with a swiftly revolving propeller, and a r ushing noise reminding one of the flight of the young Brazilian across the Seine on his way to Longehamps. Two of the best models showed M. Santos-Dumont winning the Deutsch prize. He was in the act of turning the Eiffel Tower, and presumably, in order to avoid a dispute among the committee, he went round the great column half-a-dozen times. At the second Exhibition the mind of the toy-maker was devoted to the wonderful career of .Mme. Humbert. This remarkable woman and her remarkable family were depicted in all the stages of their career. There were vanishing ( rawford Brothers, and weeping moneylenders, and above all strong safe puzzles, which defied opening almost as long as that of the greatest woman-swindler, and which, when opened, always disclosed a similar tragic void. the toy-maker's are divided into two classes, the great manufacturers and the little makers. There ere two hundred and sixty-three members of the Societe des Petits Fabricants et Inventeurs Francois, and two hundred members of the t hambre Syndicate des Fabricants de Jouets et Jeux Franeais. The former are the small workers, who do most of their wor k at home; the latter are the capitalists, the big guns of the trade. The important factories are nearly all in Paris, judges at the last two Universal Exhibitions in Paris adopted classifications as follows: Arms and military equipments, dolls, horses and carriages, metal toys, house furnishings, watches’ musical instruments, cardboard toys’ games, boxes of paints, masks, moulded’ pasteboard, cotillion favours, mechanical games, singing birds, electric and scientific toys, toys in rubber and leather, toy houses and general games and articles of sport, impossible to speak of the manufacture •Did conditions of each of these categories. I will therefore only treat of those which present something typical from an economic point of view. The poorest class of all is that of the moulded paper workers (carton moule). \ ery little capital is needed to make these cheapest of all toys; in fact, the labour needs only a modest outfit and much imagination. The hand of the worker is everything; the investment is

insignificant. There are scraps from the tannery at sixteen francs per one hundred kilos., glue at two francs per forty kilo-.. and a matrix in stone or iron in which the article is moulded bit by bit. No special apprenticeship is necessary. Perhaps the most expensive thing in the trade is the gold-dust which is scattered »n dragon flics and on small paper suns-; it costs ten francs the kilo. As it is from France that the modern woman, so far as adornment and clothes go. gets her chief inspiration, it is not surprising that that diminutive woman, the doll, should be likewise a leading article of French industry. The making of French dolls has of late years been largely increased by the consolidation of the most important factories into the Societe Generale et Anomyme du Hebe, with a capital of 3,800,000 francs. This organisation is practically a monopoly. It employs 2,000 men ami women workers, ami makes yearly 80,000 dressed dolls, costing from eighty centimes to nine hundred francs each, exporting every day one hundred cases weighing one hundred kilos each. There is a turn-over of four million francs annually. It makes 15,000 undressed dolls a day. or 4,500,000 per year. The largest of all toy-making industries is that of the metal-workers. This necessarily demands capital and plant. Tiie personnel also is here much more numerous and more special, calling for cutters, founders, trimmers, polishers, stampers, mounters, solderers, colourists, decorators, embellishers, and packers. In the making of little toys worth five sous each a formidable machine is needed, for it is necessary to produce them quickly and in great quantity. Every article calls for special material, and costs from 5,000 to 0,000 francs for new utensils necessary for its production. Go to any of the great factories, and you will be astonished at the disproportion which separates the effort from the result, the importance of the blazing workshops, of the thundering machines, and of the very cheap and ofiten tiny toy which comes ; out of them. These factories and shops em-

ploy on an average four hundred and thirty people each, of whom one-third are women. The price of the objects manufactured varies from one frane twenty-five centimes a gross—that is to say, .0086 each—up to one hundred and twenty-five francs, and even more. Another branch which has recently taken on a wide development is the making of india-rubber toys. Before 1736 india-rubber was unknown in

Europe. Even after it was received by our forefathers, its use would have been very restricted if Goodyear, hancock, and their contemporaries had not found the secret of making it resist by vulcanisation the influence of changing temperatures. Certain examples will show how this industry has prospered, and how great a future it has. One house, founded in 1865, made 4.800 dozens of tovs in 1889, and 7.000 dozens

in 1896—that is to say, 25J»00 articles more per year in a space of seven years. This factory produced in weight 111.000 kilogrammes in 1890. and six years afterwards the product amounted to

230.000 kilogrammes. It used to be necessary to buy in England the thin rubber sheets; now they are made in

France. It used to be necessary to buy in Germany the hardened rubber: now Fra net* furnishes it herself. But this industry also presents characteristics which shut out small makers and ne-

cessitate a costly installation. Rubber toys can only be made in large quantities. Machines are necessary which cost five, ten, and fifteen thousand francs. It is interesting to follow the operations by which the caoutchouc, sent to Europe in the form of congealed balls, is treated. First there is the pulverisation to clear out all foreign matter, then the drying, then the vulcanisation, then the bleaching, the drawing into sheets, tiie cutting of the pattern, the moulding in special moulds into which certain chemicals are poured, which cause the thin sheet to dilate and to take on the irregularity of the design. Then there is the decoration, the painting, the little oui-oui whistle in the stomach, and the little garment of knitted red wool. It is necessary to distinguish tin* soft and flexible rubber toy from the hard, white one. One may judge the difl’erence by these two contrary declarations—the worker in white caoutchouc declared: “1 only make high-class toys, because the material is very dear, and 1 only produce four piives a day per man. This is why 1 am not able to deal in novelties.” The worker in elastic and black rubber writes: “This manufacture is considerably influenced by temporary events, and it is therefore most often the work of an inspired designer. Pub lie circumstances of the gravest character as well as comic events are pretexts for the invention of novelties.’* These two statements show the classes of this industry: the one is slow and solid, and the other is subtle and fugitive, ami incessantly demands new ideas. Made more quickly, this latter article lasts a much shorter time than the doll or the animal in hard caoutchouc, for, as the proverb says: ‘•dime does not spare w hait one has made without him.” It is also worth noting that scientific toys, phonographs, and steam and elec trie toys have taken on a ilevelopment corresponding to the importance acquired bv the applications of science to everyday life. To combat the invasion of German products all toys mad<* at home carry marks of French origin, but the public has not so far paid much attention, and toys of all sources of manufacture are •sold equally together. In the face of all its difliciilties. however. our toy-making industry is strong and promises much better for the future. It is very interesting to the investigator to look into the progressive tables of product ion ami of emplox ment in indus try. In 1878. as far as figures could be obtained, the total value of the to\s made in France was 18.155.500 francs. In 1900 this value had already reached 24.612.000 francs, an advance of 6.450 000 francs, without even counting the large sum for which no figures are available. This is the best proof of the great pros perity of this indib-tix. Without giv ing tin l necessarily incomplete * aides available*, one max draw this cerl tin con elusion. French toy-making, superior in taste, in finish, and in cachet, is one of tin* first of the world. Il enjoys at this moment a development full of good augury for the future, for its growth has l>een unceasing during the last twenty years, and furnishes a good

foundation for the test of hopes. The little factory will disappear and make way for the larger organisation, based upon large capital, employing numbers of labourers, and aided by a complete, ingenious and wholly modern plant. Where, as in such a case, more than 25,000 work-people may be employed, we have a force which is no small factor in general progress. And it is very agreeable to send this good news to England, our best customer, and the most faithful admirer of our beautiful toys.