Cloth dolls, celluloid, or porcelain, static or mechanical, a 1930s football game, lead soldiers and others made of different materials, a late 19th-century papier-mâché doll, toy cars and ship models, notebooks and newspapers, rocking horses, the spectacular “dollhouses” bear witness to the pastimes of children up to the mid-20th century. A snapshot of culture, art, technology, and fashion in the life of children from a bygone era.
From the beginning, it displayed about 180 pieces (all owned by the IOCO Association, which manages the museum). Over time, the collection has been enriched by several dozen items, donated by private individuals, and the number of exhibited pieces is continuously increasing. A vast collection of antique toys that trace the historical evolution of playthings over the last 150 years, almost accompanying the history of the very unification of Italy. Thus, we find ourselves facing objects used by our grandparents, play materials perhaps now obsolete, but which still retain all the charm and poetry of play.
The toys, diverse in composition and origin and belonging to a period from the late 19th century to the first half of the 20th century, now number hundreds of specimens documenting the pastimes and games of children from those times. The most delicate are kept inside special display cases.
