I’ve posted recently about the Droz railway layout that has just been sold in Germany. Not all railway toys are as complex and sophisticated as that. Here is another kind of railway toy, designed by Ladislav Sutnar.
Sutnar is a key figure in the mythology of modernism. This presents modernism as a cultural phenomenon that links Moscow, Berlin, Paris and New York. During the heroic period of Modernism (after 1918 and before 1939), the only way to connect these great cities was by train and ship.
Sutnar made this journey himself; moving between Prague and New York.
In the 1930s Sutnar designed these simple painted wooden toys. These painted wooden toys were a staple of Bauhaus designers. In the 1960s, in London, Galt Toys worked the same theme.
Even nowadays, wooden toys are understood as from a different ontological entity to plastic toys. Not just playing; but learning!