Mother Goose's Attic
Welcome to the world of Childhood Treasures.....
Peter Pan
We hope to use this website to help promote
our love and interest for collecting Games & toys and
other collectible childhood treasures, around the world. We intend to build and make it available as a
reference site for other researchers, dealers and collectors
seeking accurate information on their collection.
The fictional character of Peter Pan, first came into existence in a book written by J. M. Barrie in 1902 which he called, “The Little White Bird”. In it he devoted six chapters to “the boy who wouldn't grow up”. It was this character that two years later was to make his debut on the London stage.
From the time of the first production of J. M. Barrie's “Peter Pan” on 27th December in the Christmas 1904, the story became a firm family favourite. Indeed it was such a success that its first Broadway production was only a few months later. It has gone on to captivate children's hearts all over the world, as the magical tale has been retold in its various forms to the present day.
Indeed the play became so popular when it first appeared, that J.M. Barrie took the entire section about Peter out of “The Little White Bird” and published it separately as “Peter Pan in Kensington Garden” in 1906 which was illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
Buchel's original theatre poster for the 1904 production of Peter Pan
But this still did not satisfy the publics love of Peter Pan, so he then went on to adapt his successful play into book form, which was published in 1911, as “Peter and Wendy”. Peter's character struck such a strong chord with its young readers that poor Wendy's name dropped from the title of the magical tale.
Many versions of the book were to follow, with lots of famous artists producing beautiful illustrations.
As mentioned, one of the most sort after editions was designed by Arthur Rackham, for which you can expect to pay a price in the low hundreds, for even a worn edition, although there are some beautiful reprints around.
A Game of cards appeared around the same time that the play and the book were at the height of their popularity. The illustrations in this game were taken from the original pen and water colour drawings by Charles A. Buchel. He was a famous theatrical illustrator and artist of the day who had designed the original posters for the first performance of Peter Pan in 1904. He loved the theatre and claimed that he “probably had as sitters, more actors and actresses than any other living artist”. It seems very likely that his designs of the costumes and characters in the illustrations are based on the those of the original performances.
The game that carried his designs was to be played, with similar rules to the game of Happy Families and proudly proclaimed that it was 'Published by Authority of Mr J M Barrie', on its box. It became a very popular game and was still in production even after the International Card Company was bought out by De la Rue in 1919. Collectors should note that the design on the backs of the cards are the only noticeable differences between the packs published by both The International Card Co. and De la Rue.
Back of a De la Rue card
Next > > > |