A Rustic Cabin in cardboard from 1860

Like paper toys, cardboard is a material by which almost any thing can be imitated; but as it is more expensive than paper, it will require a little more care, so that what is cut out should be done with a purpose, that it may not be cut to waste. Outside objects are most conveniently cut out with a pair of scissors, holding the card as already described for paper cuttings; the smaller pieces inside, such as windows of a house, &c., are better accomplished with a sharp-pointed pen-knife, and a flat ruler; a parallel ruler with a brass edge is the best, but any other straight line that you can hold firm on the card with the left hand will answer the purpose. When any portion is cut out with a pen-knife, it ought to be done upon a piece of flat board, to prevent cutting the table. Cardboard has many advantages over paper; solid objects can be formed and put together, specimens of which, with others, we propose giving; but as the Publishers of this book have already issued a useful and instructive work* on the subject, we refer our young friends to it for further information, should it be required.

*Home Pastime; or, The Child’s Own Toy-maker.

So begins the chapter on making toys from cardboard in the 1860 book The Boy’s Own Toy-Maker: A Practical Illustrated Guide to the Useful Employment of Leisure Hours written by E. Landells and published by D. Appleton & Company of New York. That guidance, with a little updating for today’s tools and grammar, wouldn’t appear out of place in a modern book on making miniature buildings from cardboard. I’m going to speculate that the fundamentals appear to be well established by 1860, at least for children’s crafts, and maybe for professionals too given what we saw in Richardson’s 1859 book.

What the finished Rustic Cabin should look like.

The toy that caught my attention was the Rustic Cottage project beginning on page 48, in the cardboard toys chapter. In this project cardboard is used as the substrate for the walls and roof, to which twigs are glued for surface detail. No dimensions are given other than the reader will require pieces of 12” x 6” cardboard for the front and back walls, and 6” x 6” pieces for the ends. Numerous diagrams are given that show what the pieces should look like, but they too are undimensioned. And there’s no mention of Bristol board, but with this fanciful cabin, it would be wasted given how the walls are covered by twigs.

Although this is a Bristol board free project, that intriguing note in the introduction mentioning that the Publishers of this book have already issued a useful and instructive work* on the subject means I need to look for Home Pastime; or, The Child’s Own Toy-maker.