Design-a-house : scale model design & construction set.

Title & Author:

Design-a-house : scale model design & construction set.

Publication:

[approximately 1958] (Union, N.J. : Pyro Plastics Corp.)

Description:

1 model house set : plastic, color ; various sizes in cardboard box 7 x 66 x 41 cm + 1 instruction booklet ([15] pages : color illustrations, plans ; 22 x 28 cm)

Notes:
Title from box.
On side of box: Number 362-1495.
Set allows for a variety of models to be constructed. The "Home builders book" includes plans for 6 different models including split level and ranch houses.

Exhibitions:

Exhibited: "Maisons de rêve, maisons jouets = Dream houses, toy homes", Centre canadien d'architecture, Nov. 8, 1995-Mar. 31, 1996.
Exhibited: "Toying with architecture: the building toy in the arena of play, 1800 to the present", Katonah Museum of Art., Sept. 28, 1997-Jan. 4, 1998.

Summary:

Advertised as a creative hobby kit which would make "any boy an architect, any girl a home designer", Design-a-House was created during the 1950s when there was a heavy advance in the use of plastic and in the production of do-it-yourself models of this kind. Plastic had been employed in the late 1930s in the manufacture of toy weapons and toy vehicles. Its use increased during World War II when metal and rubber were banned from toy manufacture, replaced by such materials as plastic and paper. Plastic ultimately changed the nature of toy packaging as well as that of the toys themselves
The manufacturer of Design-a-House, Pyro Plastics Corporation, was a prominent name in the industry. Founded by William Lester in 1939, the company manufactured other plastic toys as well, including toy vehicles.

Resources:
Image
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Subject:

Toys United States Specimens.
Toys Specimens.
Jouets États-Unis Spécimens.
Jouets Spécimens.
Toys.
United States.

Form/genre:

Specimens.

Added entries:

Pyro Plastics Corporation.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 60899
Call No.: TS2301.T7.P6 P97 1958
Status: Available

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