Games and toys are an important part of children’s education and leisure, and at the same time, they are elements that allow us to narrate a part of our history that is not always present in books or museums. Through toys we can learn how values, social customs and gender roles have evolved.
In the specific case of Catalonia, the industrial production of toys was very important from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. Since the 1980s, toy collecting has proliferated, which has made it possible to preserve and recover objects that allow us to delve deeper into the history and evolution of children in our home.
This is precisely what the Museum of History of Catalonia proposes. The museum has received an important collection of Perafita toys, donated by Ramona Vila Vall. This collection, which includes toys dating from the late 19th century to the 1970s, is important for its intimate nature and diversity.
The Museum of History of Catalonia has accepted this donation due to the shortage of funds of this type. “There is a lot of lack of objects related to children and women,” explains the curator of the Museum of History of Catalonia, Raquel Castellà. According to Castellà, toys are more than simple play objects; They are also witnesses of their own time, reflecting the values ??and concerns of the society of that time.
Currently, the Registration and Museography area is working on inventorying and cataloging Ramona Vila’s toy collection, with the aim of presenting it to the public and making it available to researchers.
The collection includes a wide variety of toys from both Catalan and Alicante production, and covers a key period in Catalan history, the decades from the 1940s to the 1970s. This period was marked by significant changes in society, which are clearly reflected in the games and toys of the time.
One of the things this toy collection allows us to do is trace what gender stereotypes have been throughout history. As Castellà explains, differences in gender roles and expectations are clearly evident, especially after the Civil War and the post-war period.
The Franco regime imposed an ideological transformation that transformed the conception of toys and their influence on the education of boys and girls. The curator of the History Museum gives the popular Miss Pepis kits as an example. Under this brand, small nursing, makeup or sewing suitcases were marketed, which were specifically aimed at girls. Kitchenettes or construction games also had an associated genre for a long time.
The History Museum highlights the influence of toys on the education of children, especially in the construction of gender roles, as evidenced by the toy collection donated by Ramona Vila.
The collection donated to the Museum of Catalonia also highlights the importance of the Catalan toy industry.
Catalonia saw the development of this sector, which went from artisan workshops to industrial production. Factories such as Juguetes Mundial and Hispania stood out, which contributed significantly to this industry.
While the popular classes worked and had little time to play, the middle and upper classes with more free time demanded toys. Isidre Palouzié and Agapito Borràs stood out as leaders in the Catalan toy industry. These factories introduced industrial techniques to reduce costs and make toys more accessible to everyone.
The golden age was lived between 1870 and 1914, when industries in the sector proliferated. Barcelona, ??Valencia and Madrid became the main producing centers during the golden age of Spanish toys until the Civil War. Between 1918-1939, games such as the toy theater “The Children’s Theater” appeared and Meccano was introduced in Spain. Cine NIC (1931) and Agapit Borràs’ Magic Game (1933) are also representative of this period.
During the Civil War production was interrupted, with many factories converted into auxiliary war industries. In the post-war period it recovered, and from the 1960s onwards the use of plastic became the dominant material, replacing other materials such as wood. At this time, companies such as Comansi (founded in 1959) stand out, which stand out for the production of plastic figures.
The collection not only offers a look at the history of toys, but also highlights their importance as cultural heritage. Toys are an integral part of a society’s history, and to preserve them is to ensure that future generations can understand and appreciate the rich cultural heritage they have inherited.
In this sense, the donation to the History Museum highlights, for example, the wooden toys. In the area of ??Vic and Torelló there was an important industry dedicated to the manufacture of these more artisanal toys, a heritage that will now also be preserved in the museum.
