Antique Toy Museum: Showcasing Your Grandma's Playthings
Located within an antique shop in Baltimore, the Antique Toy Museum tells a tale of history. From miniaturized versions of items with surprisingly accurate detail to the clothing and architectural style used to make dollhouses, any historian can deduce a way of past lives based from the antique toys presented at the Antique Toy Museum. The museum displays are fascinating, and children either squeal with delight or with fear at the old toys.
Started by Anne Smith, owner of Anne Smith Antiques and Fine Art, the museum's pieces date back to 1800 through 1950, with the majority from 1880 to 1910. The items are kept neatly in displays and shelves with a dizzying array of variety. Smith has more than 40 dollhouses in the collection, many of which represent the architecture of the time used to build shops, kitchens, theaters and castles.
The collection also showcases Victorian dolls, doll accessories, paper dolls, toy stoves, puppets, games, puzzles, books and other toys. Homes come accurately with wash basins, wood ironing boards, chandeliers, grandfather clocks, looking-glass mirrors and parlor rooms. There are carriages, ships and toy warehouses to show manufacturing in miniature as well. Board games, puppet theaters, sleds and hat boxes are also on display.
As each dollhouse was acquired in various conditions, Smith has carefully prepared, re-furnished and re- decorated each house using wallpaper and rugs representative of the toy's time period. The houses are laid open behind glass displays for visitors to peek inside each one, watching dolls frozen in time with activity. There is, admittedly, a ghostly quality to the toys preserved in a fashion of yesterday that makes them almost come to life.
But it's children who bring these erstwhile playthings to life – and it's hard to walk through the museum without thinking about what ghosts of children past played with them. The museum displays bring visitors back in time and compares both the differences and vast similarities in the ways children entertain themselves today. Admission is $5 for adults and $4 for children.
Posted by Rin-rin Yu
