Toys
From Straw Dolls to Corn Dollies, from Brigid’s Cross to Willow Rattles: woven toys have a long history, intertwined with religious associations, festivals, fertility, and the seasons of the year. But let’s look at the earliest toy we know about - the baby’s rattle. Aristotle says in his ’Politics’ that young children should be given a rattle to keep them quiet and "stop them from breaking things in the house". Rattles provide a source of stimulation. Babies like the sounds they produce and follow the path of the rattle with their eyes, as well as giving them a sense of discovery as they investigate the rattle.
Baby rattles go back at least to the pottery makers of the stone age. One found from that period was a hollow clay rattle, filled with clay balls. Other examples of baby rattles have been recovered from Greco-Roman archaeological sites.
'Rygarug' is the name of a welsh rattle, woven using hands and teeth, using reed or rush, into a cigar shaped case. Pebbles would be added as the toy progressed to produce the rattling sound. In Somerset the indigenous willow rattle is still made for local babies.
At Coates Basket Museum, in Stoke St Gregory, Somerset, apart from the standard baby’s rattle above, we have an outsize version pictured here. With a width of 18 cm and a length of 70 cm, the rattle head is made of 7 lengths of white, woven to the pattern of a traditional corn dolly. The handle is bound in split kubu died in red, white & blue.
Other woven toys became especially popular in Europe and America during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Wicker toys that were common in that period include baskets, dolls, furniture, and trains. As with nursery furniture, wicker toys, made from rattan, willow or cane, were considered more sanitary than upholstered or wooden toys. They also reflected the artistic and cultural trends of the Victorian Era and the Arts and Crafts movement.
One of the finest examples of woven willow toys in the Coates Basket Museum is this horse and carriage. Considering its good condition and the fact that the horse’s feet are fixed to a base it was probably not moved about too often. But it was obviously played with, looking at the condition of the velvet covered bench in the carriage.
