I have fantasies of a glass fronted book case case filled top to bottom with all the oldest most beautiful block sets and learning materials. At some point (perhaps in my retirement!) I would delve into constructing very elaborate tabletop architectures and exploring the full range of creative possibilities of each set--and all together! (And maybe I could find some children who would like to come join me and do the same! :)) In the meantime I would just love looking at them and knowing they were there waiting, boxes of possibilities. Nothing feels to me more luxurious (and happily, virtuous, too) to me than that.

This is a complete, fairly scarce set of Crandall's "Improved Building Blocks for Children No. 3" c. 1867. Charles Martin Crandall of Montrose, PA was an early American toy maker and produced some quite singular, and quite fabulous toys (including a set of acrobats with wild faces and costumes, and a wonderful school room set with school master and students), notable for their use of a tongue and groove system for joining pieces, which this set exemplifies in the most elemental way. Invariably, one finds some broken notches on these sets--Victorian ideas of gentle children playing with toys were dispelled time and again! And indeed, it takes a little force to join one piece to the next here--ultimately the use of tongue and groove system maybe better as an idea than a reality. But with some patience one could build the tower pictured on the printed insert here--which would be pretty wonky, but really cool!

10" x 6 1/4" x 1 7/8".  Complete set, including original insert. A few (partial) losses to grooves on a few of the finial type pieces--all pictured. Pretty much no damage at all to the flat pieces as far as I can tell, and they appear really quite pristine. There is a bit of loss to one top edge along the slide top, but (with the removal of a couple of blocks; it is a tight fit!) it can be closed, or otherwise (with all blocks in) will sit on top flat and flush.