Sky-hy building blocks.

Title & Author:

Sky-hy building blocks.

Publication:

[192-] (Albany, N.Y. : Embossing Co.)

Description:

1 construction set (pieces) : painted, embossed wood ; in wooden box 10 x 46 x 29 cm

Notes:
Title from box cover.
"Set no. 3105."
Set includes design sheet, mounted on verso of original box cover.

Exhibitions:

Exhibited: "Les jouets et la tradition moderniste = Toys and the modernist tradition", Centre canadien d'architecture, Dec. 15, 1993-May 1, 1994.
Exhibited: "Los juguetes de las vanguardias = Toys of the Avant-Garde", Museo Picasso Malaga, Oct. 4, 2010-Jan. 30, 2011.

Summary:

While the purpose of the embossing on many of The Embossing Company's toys was to bring forward certain features or design elements, such was not the case with Sky-hy Building Blocks. Here the embossing serves as the interlocking device for the blocks, and is less striking than the many black windows printed on their surfaces, or the dramatic buildings which can be erected with essentially four sizes of blocks and their cap pieces.
Founded in 1870, The Embossing Company of Albany, New York, manufactured various wooden items including blocks and dominoes, acting at the same time as an agent for British toy manufacturers. The process of embossing blocks was developed in the late 1860s, and during the 1870s the Company began producing spelling blocks with embossed letters, numbers and pictures. The Company's response to developments in architecture are evident in the design of its blocks over the years: its Architectural Blocks of 1907 are embossed with traditional elements; Sky-hy Building Blocks (1920s) are designed to reproduce the remarkable skyscrapers of the period; Johnnyville Blocks (1930s) permit construction of both traditional and contemporary structures, an example of the latter illustrated on the box cover and labelled simply "modern". In 1957 the Company was taken over by the Halsam Company, distributor of American Skyline, a toy produced in that same year by Elgo Plastics of Chicago

Resources:
Image
Image

Subject:

Wooden toys United States Specimens.
Blocks (Toys) United States Specimens.
Toys United States Specimens.
Jouets en bois États-Unis Spécimens.
Cubes (Pièces de jeu) États-Unis Spécimens.
Jouets États-Unis Spécimens.
Blocks (Toys)
Toys.
Wooden toys.
United States.

Form/genre:

Ridge-and-groove assembly system toys.
Specimens.

Added entries:

Embossing Company.

Holdings:

Location: Library main objects 271459
Call No.: TS2301.T7.W6 E534 1920
Copy: design sheet
Status: Available

Location: Library main objects 94069
Call No.: TS2301.T7.W6 E534 1920
Status: Available

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