Wire toys are a southern African development, initially produced by children for their own amusement. Their origins were probably in Zimbabwe but examples also come from Botswana and South Africa.This toy was sent to us by Nelson Mandela.

Gifts from Queen Mary. Queen Mary was a collector herself and had an interest in childhood things. She visited the Museum on a number of occasions and over the years made several donations. In 1922 she donated a collection of Indian figures. These figures could have been gifts from her family from visits to Indian or bought as presents from India on Royal visits. There are about 30 pieces that are all carved from wood and hand painted, they represent, animals, men and gods.

Although there is no dedicated curator for the Japanese collection at the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood there is an interesting and varied collection of Japanese children's toys and games that range from the Meiji-period wooden toys to Bandai transformers! A basic search on the Museum's database brings up over 1,500 Japanese objects. These include boys' festival materials, dolls and other figures, mechanical toys (mostly 1950s to 1970s), dolls' houses and furniture (including miniature tea services), military toys (1960s to 1970s), costume (1850 to 1999), some early 20th century Bunraku puppets as well as miscellaneous toys, made for the Western market.

This information is courtesy of Gregory Irvine's 'Guide to Japanese Art Collections in the UK' available from the Japan Society or booksellers.

The World in the East End gallery contains over 100 objects from around the world. There is the cloth that a 12 year old child carried her brother in across Rwanda during the Civil War in 1994, a Spitalfields silk child’s dress, Vietnamese water puppets, Turkish circumcision costumes, Diwali lamps, embroidery from Bangladesh and children’s carnival costumes. Home-made toys from Somalia are juxtaposed against computer games reflecting the different experiences of play of children and adults now living in the East End. Discrimination experienced by Jewish children in the 1930s, and more recently by Bangladeshi and Traveller and Gypsy children can be listened to on audio tapes and other oral histories are incorporated into short lively films: Being an East Ender; Play; Journey Across Rwanda and Journey to Loughton and Back. There are prints and photographs documenting the arrival of Ashekenazi Jews at the end of the nineteenth century, a photograph by Bill Brandt of Sikhs sheltering in Spitalfields crypt in the 1930s. There are also contemporary photographs of children from primary schools in Tower Hamlets and Hackney and of street life in the East End. There are opportunities to play pacisi, the Indian equivalent of ludo or to test your knowledge on the world festival interactive.

The museum has a number of toys that represent Gypsy life, though the objects themselves were not produced by Travelling communities. The earliest object is from 1820, a head with interchangable head-dresses, watercolour on card. It is one of a set of four depicting a Gypsy pedlar and her child. Most of the other objects are 20th century - three models of caravans; a 1920s game with gypsy fortune-telling cards, a dressing up costume from 1920s England, and a Russian rag doll from 1930 - 39.