Set of 30 wooden picture blocks in a hinged box with the stories of Snow White, Red Riding Hood, The wolf and the seven kids, Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty, and Hansel and Gretel. The box also includes six picture guide sheets.

Alphabet blocks date from the 18th century; children used these for learning the letters, making simple words and also for building. Simple stacks could be made and, perhaps more enjoyably, knocked down. A later enhancement of the block came with the development of cheap colour printing: picture blocks. The blocks were overlaid with six different pictures which could be put together jigsaw fashion, but with the additional advantage of another five pictures. Guide sheets assisted in assembling the pictures. Multiple themes could be used to broaden the appeal or the six pictures might be 'chapters' in the same story or, as in this case, six different fairy tales. Picture blocks too could be assembled into towers or piles and knocked down.

Hewitt, Karen Educational toys in America, 1800 to the present Burlington, Vt.: Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of Vermont, c1979

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