Swedish Wooden Toys

Co-First Place Catalog/Publication Winner of the 2014 Award For Excellence, given by the Association of Art Museum Curators

The Swedish toy industry has long produced vast quantities of colorful, quality wooden items that reflect Scandinavian design and craft traditions. This superbly illustrated book, including specially commissioned photography, looks at over 200 years of Swedish toys, from historic dollhouses to the latest designs for children. Featuring rattles, full-size rocking horses, dollhouses, and building blocks to skis, sleds, and tabletop games with intricate moving parts, Swedish Wooden Toys also addresses images of Swedish childhood, the role of the beloved red Dala horse in the creation of national identity, the vibrant tradition of educational toys, and the challenges of maintaining craft manufacturing in an era of global mass-production.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Amy F. Ogata and Susan Weber

Swedish Childhoods from the Era of Great Power to the Welfare State
Bengt Sandin

Depicting Swedish Children and Toys
Helena Lundin

Wooden Toy Manufacturing in Sweden
Peter Pluntky

BRIO: The Brothers Ivarsson in Osby
Solveig Nordh

The Wooden Horse that Became a National Symbol
Rune Bondjers

Dollhouses and Miniatures in Sweden
Birgitta Lindencrona

Playing and Learning: Wooden Educational Toys in Sweden
Amy F. Ogata

Sleds, Skis, and Ice Skates: Winter Sports Equipment for Children in Sweden, 1850-1960
Susan Weber

Selling Toys, Selling Ideas: Retailers, Producers, and Politics
Hedvig Hedqvist

Designing Wooden Toys in the Age of the Technological Imagination
Nina Stritzler-Levine

Children and Toys in Swedish Photographs
Maria Cristina Biagi and Emma Marconcini

Checklist of the Exhibition

Bibliography

About the Authors

Contributors

Maria Cristina Biagi
Co-curator of the Collezione di giocattoli antichi, Roma Capitale - Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali

Rune Bondjers
Curator at the Dalarnas museum, Falun

Hedvig Hedqvist
Historian, journalistm and author specializing in design and architecture

Birgitta Lindencrona
Former Deputy Director, Research Division, Department of Education

Helena Lundin
Photo archivist at the Nordiska museet, Stockholm

Emma Marconcini
Co-curator of the Collezione di giocattoli antichi, Roma Capitale - Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali

Solveig Nordh
Manager of BRIO’s toy museum, BRIO Lekoseum

Amy F. Ogata
Professor of Art History at the University of Southern California and former professor at the Bard Graduate Center

Peter Pluntky
Creator of the Leksaksmuseum, Stockholm

Bengt Sandin
Professor in the Department of Child Studies at Linköpings Universitet, Sweden

Nina Stritzler-Levine
Director, Bard Graduate Center Gallery and Gallery Publications

Susan Weber
Founder and director of the Bard Graduate Center, Iris Horowitz Professor in the History of Decorative Arts

Bard Graduate Center publishes award-winning exhibition catalogues, books, and journals focusing on scholarship in the decorative arts, design history, and material culture.

Co-First Place Catalog/Publication Winner of the 2014 Award For Excellence, given by the Association of Art Museum Curators