Summary

Alternative Name(s): Threading Game

Made by Mandy Blake, and donated by the British delegate to the World Play Summit, Melbourne, 1993. Delegates were asked to bring a traditional toy from their own country.

The Australian Children's Folklore Collection is unique in Australia, documenting contemporary children's folklore across Australia and in other countries reaching back to the 1870s. The Collection has a strong component of research material relating to Victoria.
Threading toys are part of a range of developmental toys designed to stimulate motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination in very young children. Apart from manufactured toys, household items like cotton reels or large beads can also be used in the same way. Home-made threading cards can also be made from a picture glued to a piece of thick card, with holes punched out and a length of wool or string attached.

This object is a replica of a traditional English 'Mouse and Cheese' threading toy. The traditional toy is a puzzle, in which the mouse is tied to the cheese by a length of cord, and must be set free to solve the puzzle.

Physical Description

Large triangular piece of wood, painted yellow with four holes drilled through it. Attached to the wood by a length of thin white nylon cord is a short piece of dowel, lacquered and with one end shaped to represent the mouse's face. Eyes and nose are drawn on the face with ink, and there are strands of pink felt which could once have been ears glued to the mouse's head. The cord is attached to the mouse by a nail. Acknowledgement: Australian Children's Folklore Collection, Museum Victoria.

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