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[WARTIME] Iolochnaia igrushka [i.e. Christmas Tree Decoration]

Lapkovskii, V. Oveshkova, F., Danilevskii, V.

Moscow: Vsesoiuznoe kooperativnoe ob’edinennoe izdatel’stvo, 1944. Item #1863

64 pp.: ill., 3 ills. 21,5x14,5 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Spine repaired, tiny tears along it, corners of covers and some pages repaired, foxing, otherwise very good.

First and only edition. One of 5000 copies.
This manual on various-material Christmas tree decorations was published for producers who created decorations in the mass scale. It is based on experiments held at laboratories of the All-Union Research and Experimental Toy Institute of the People’s Commissariat for Education.
The book is divided into three sections which compilers wrote separately: decorations of glass (by Lapkovskii), of cotton wool (by Oveshnikova) and of cardboard and paper (by Danilevskii).
First of all, any materials require certain work conditions. The author starts with how to organize and equip a glass blowing studio and an auxiliary premises. This text is supplemented with small drawings of the equipment needed. Then, he elaborates on raw materials and production stages, and these instructions are also illustrated. Technical standards are printed with photographs of completed decorations. According to this text, the production rate for one glass-blowing worker was 250 ornamentations per day.
Before WWII, cotton wool toys and decorations were very popular, they were produced by both small cooperatives and large state manufacturers. Shortly before the war, the All-Union Research and Experimental Toy Institute invented a machine method of production instead of handmade one. By 1944, decoration producers applied the advanced method to animal models, but not to human figures. Three colorful inserts show a Ded Moroz figure (a black-and-white picture with stages of its production is printed before), instructions on how to manually create cotton wool mushrooms, vegetables, fruits and berries. Principles of the machine method are explained as well.
“Production of cardboard and paper decorations is rational to organize on the base of waste products from printing and binding shops in cities and large industrial centers” – the third section starts. Apart from waste paper, straw, rags, ropes were in use. Drawn and photographic instruction for setting-up papercraft decorations are printed along with images of equipment needed.
Worldcat doesn’t track this edition.

Price: $950.00