Ragged Soldier Sutlery and Vintage Volumes

Documentation for Our Products

Ragged Soldier Sutlery is the only vendor that specializes in historically correct toys and games for persons trying to accurately re-live the pleasures of the past, individuals who participate in living history, for museums and historical sites, and for those who just want to have fun. It is important to include children in the experience of history and this is an excellent way to do so. Play is usually a part of childhood and there is no reason why children should not be offered toys from the past that are fun to play with and are as similar to toys from the nineteenth century as is reasonably possible to obtain today.

Documentation with primary sources is a crucial tool in any study of history and toys are no exception. There are a great deal of "old timey" toys and games on the market but many are not appropriate for the nineteenth century. It is the goal of Ragged Soldier to offer documented toys so that when someone purchases a toy from us, they may be assured that the item they purchased has been fully researched and documented to the time period. If we have not been able to provide a specific citation to the years prior to 1865, we have still included citations for later years for those customers who work with historic sites that portray a later time period or those who are involved in later living history impressions.

At first we had compiled a Documentation Book which we brought to events when we set up our booth but since many of our sales are on the internet now, customers do not have access to the Documentation Book. This is an ongoing project but eventually each toy, game or item that we stock and have been able to document will have a link in the details section to the documentation. Wherever possible, we have identified the source of the information. Each source quoted will be found in the bibliography below.

Our toys may not have the same name as the ones in the primary sources but we are using the most commonly known name at this time. Otherwise, the customer may not know what a toy or game was called. The period name is noted in the documentation.

BUT... toys are not just for children. As the December 22, 1866, issue of The Round Table quoted:

"Toys, we say, have improved; improved to the degree indeed
that they often seem better suited to maturity, and when we
see a room-full of grown folks industriously engaged with
'persistent soap-bubbles' and 'fly-tops' and 'parlor fire-works,'
this then gains confirmation."

If you have questions, please feel free to contact us.

NOTE: All of these files are pdf files which will not maintain the menu to the left with links to other categories or items. Click the "back" arrow to return to this page.

Toys that are documented, so far, on the website are:
Ball & Cup
Bilbo Catcher
Blocks
Buzz Saw
Clutch Ball

Drums
Endless Landscape

Flapjack
Flipperdinger
Flying Machine

Jacob's Ladder
Jaw Harp
Jump Rope
Dolls that are documented, so far, on the website are:

Rolled Fabric Dolls

Bibliography

Albion, A Journal of News, Politics and Literature. "The German Toy Manufacture." New York: Sutton and Brown. December 11, 1859.

American Boy's Book of Sports and Games: A Practical Guide to Indoor and Outdoor Amusements. New York: Dick and Fitzgerald. 1864.

American Journal of Education. "Suggestions to Parents." Hartford: F. C. Brownell. August 1827.

Atheneum; or, Spirit of the English Magazines. "A Quiet Gentlewoman." Boston: Munroe and Francis. December 1, 1826.

Bell, R. C. Board and Table Games from Many Nations. London: Oxford University Press. 1960.

Bell, R. C. Discovering Dice and Dominoes. Aylesbury, Bucks. UK: Shire Publications. 1980.

Boy's Own Book. Boston: Munroe and Francis, 1829.

Boy's Own Book Extended. A Complete Encyclopedia of All Athletic, Scientific, Recreative, Outdoor, and Indoor Exercises and Diversions. Including The Boy's Own Book, The Book of Gymnastics, and Parlor Magic. New York and Boston: C. S. Francis and Company. 1857.

Chandlee, Will. "Uncle Sam's Toy." St. Nicholas: An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks. New York: Century. December 1901.

Child, Lydia Maria. The Girl's Own Book. New York. Clark Austin & Co. 1833.

Child, Lydia Maria. The Girl's Own Book. London William Tegg & Co. 1850.

Christian Inquirer. "Readings for the Young." New York: Unitarian Association of New York. August 25, 1860.

Crombie, J. W. "History of the Game of Hop-Scotch." The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Volume 15. 1886.

Current Literature. New York: Current Literature. "Small Inventions that Brought Fortunes," November 1895, "Message or Prayer Stick," January 1899.

Dickens, Charles. Household Words. "A Christmas Tree." London: 1850.

Every Boy's Book: A Complete Encyclopedia of Sports and Amusements Intended to Afford Recreation and Instruction to Boys in Their Leisure Hours. London: Routledge, Warne, and Routledge. 1860.

Fewell, L. W. "Aunt Quimby’s Tales." Godey's. Philadelphia: Louis Godey. July 1872.

Foster, Stephen. (Editor, John Tasker Howard). A Treasury of Stephen Foster. New York: Random House. 1946.

Fritzsch, Karl Ewald and Manfred Bachmann. An Illustrated History of German Toys. New York: Hastings House Publishers. 1978.

Froebel, Freidrich. Education of Man. New York: D. Appleton. 1887. Originally published in Germany in 1836.

Hale, Sarah Josepha (editor). Godey's. Louis Godey: Philadelphia. "The Shadows we Cast," August 1857, "Little Girls Who Read Godey," November 1859. "Children's Playthings", February 1861. "The Toy Shop," December 1860.

Hale, Lucretia P. The Riverside Magazine for Young People. An Illustrated Monthly . "Effie and Her Thoughts." New York: Hurd and Houghton. September 1870.

Harper's Bazaar. New York: Harper and Brothers. December 14, 1878.

Harper's Weekly. New York: Harper and Brothers. December 25, 1858, December 22, 1860, January 3, 1863.

Hoyle's Games Containing the Rules for Playing Fashionable Games. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. 1857.

Hubbard, George H. "The Sabbath for Children." Christian Union. New York: Outlook Publishing Company. October 4, 1888.

Janney, Asa Moore and Werner L. Janey (Editors). John Jay Janney’s Virginia. McLean, Virginia: EPM Publications. 1978.

Jacoby, Daniel S. (Compiler). Amazing Catalogue of the Esteemed Firm of George Hieronimus Bestelmeier. Selective Excerpts from Editions from 1793 and 1807. New York: Merrimack Publishing Corp. 1971.

Kelly, Jennifer A. Great Book of Domino Games. New York: Sterling Publishing Company. 1999.

Landells, E. The Boy's Own Toy-Maker: A Practical Illustrated Guide to the Useful Employment of Leisure Hours. New York: D. Appleton & Company. 1860.

Landells, E. and Alice Landells. The Girl's Own Toy-Maker, and Book of Recreations. London: Griffith and Farran. 1860.n

Leslie, Eliza. The American Girl's Book; or Occupation for Play Hours. New York: James Miller. 1863.

Littell's Living Age. Boston: Littell. "Dolls," August 6, 1853, "Children’s Playthings," December, 1856.

McClary, Andrew. Toys with Nine Lives. North Haven, CT: The Shoe String Press. 1997.

McClinton, Katherine Morrison. Antiques of American Childhood. New York: Branhall House. 1970.

Magician's Own Book, or the Whole Art of Conjuring. Being a Complete Hand-Book of Parlor Magic. New York: Dick and Fitzgerald, Publishers. 1857, 1864.

New Mirror. "A Nearer View of Some of the Shops." New York: Morris and Willis. August 17, 1844.

New York Evangelist. New York: New York Evangelist. December 6, 1883.

Our Continent. "The Bull-Roarer." Philadelphia and New York: Our Continent Publications. July 28, 1882.

Outlook. "Not Always at Work." New York: Outlook Publishing. July 6, 1895.

Oxford English Dictionary. http://dictionary.oed.com

Parley's Magazine. "Children’s Sports." New York: C. S. Francis. January 1, 1835.

Peterson's. "The String and Balls" New York: C. J. Peterson. December 1860.

Richards, Caroline Cowles. Village Life in America 1852 - 1872. Gansevoort, New York: Corner House Historical Publications. 1997.

Ringwalt, Jessie E. "The Toy Theater." Godey's. Philadelphia: Louis Godey. May and June 1880.

Round Table: A Saturday Review of Politics, Finance, Society and Art. "Children and Toys." New York: H. E. and C. H. Sweetster. December 22, 1866.

Routledge, Edmund (Editor). Every Boy's Book: A Complete Encyclopedia of Sports and Amusements. London: George Routledge and Sons. 1869.

Scientific American. New York: Munn. "For the Holidays and Winter Evenings," January 2, 1865, "The Toy Business in This Country," September 29, 1866, "The Mechanical Pigeon," July 12, 1873, "Science in Toys," February 19, 1887, "Small Inventions That Have Brought Fortunes," September 14, 1895.

Sears Roebuck Catalogue. Chicago, IL: 1897.

Shanley, Charles Dawson. "Street Games of Boys in New York." Ohio Farmer. Cleveland: April 10, 1869.

Smith, Albert. "The Boys in the Streets." Anglo-American, A Journal of Literature, News, Politics, the Drama, Fine Arts. Boston: July 11, 1846.

St. Nicholas: an Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks. "The Mechanical Pigeon." New York: Century. March 1879.

Stechow, Wolfgang. Pieter Bruegel the Elder. New York: Harry N. Abrams. 1990.

Susie Sunbeam. The Child's Book of Games. Boston: G. W. Cottrell. 1856.

"Trumps." The American Hoyle; or Gentleman's Hand-Book of Games Containing All the Games Played in the United States. New York: Dick and Fitzgerald, Publishers. 1864.

United States Patent and Trademark Office. http://patents.uspto.gov/patft/index.html Various patent numbers and dates as noted in individual references.

Webster, Noah. An American Dictionary of the English Language. Springfield, Massachusetts: George and Charles Merriam. 1861.

Youth's Companion. "A Flying Top." Boston: Perry Mason Co. May 1, 1913.