Click Here for the Order Form

This department includes reproductions of toys and games, including some that would have been enjoyed by younger children during colonial times.  To see a larger image of the item, click on the image on this page.  To read a more complete description of a particular item, scroll down the page or click on the name of the item.

CH-20. I'm an Alden - Teddy Bears.
 Choice of:
White Bear/Green Shirt;
Pink Bear/White Shirt
Brown Bear/Blue shirt

CH-01.  GLASS MARBLES in a leather bag tied by a rawhide lace.  Age 8 to adult.  Contains 30 glass marbles and 2 glass shooters.  Instructions included.  $6.00  

CH-02. CLAY MARBLES in a leather bag tied by a rawhide lace.  Ages 8 to adult.  Contains 10 target marbles and 1 shooter marble, all made of non-toxic clay.  Instructions included.  $6.00

CH-03. JACKS. Package contains 10 jumbo jacks made of lead-free pewter, 1 wood ball and 1 rubber ball.   $6.00

CH-04. SIGNAL WHISTLE, wood. Includes instructions and signals in music notation.  Leather thong.  $5.00

CH-05. TIN WHISTLE.  Also called a penny whistle.  A small, high-pitched whistle flute with 6 finger holes.  Not recommended for children under 8 years of age.  $5.00

CH-06. PEG TOP.   A string-driven top of hardwood.  Instructions for several variations are included.  $5.00

  POSEABLE FIGURES

CH-08 = John Alden
CH-09 = Priscilla Mullins (sold Out)
CH-10 = Miles Standish
CH-11 = Native American (sold out)

These delightful little figures on a wooden base are only $7.00 each. They are about 4 inches high and mounted on a removable wooden base. Hand-sewn clothes. Arms and legs may be moved into different positions.

GLASS MARBLES.  Marble games have been played in all parts of the world with all manner of playing pieces for more than two thousand years.   Children in colonial America played with marbles made of stone or clay, while nineteenth century children counted glass marbles amount their treasured playthings.   Enclosure games, hole games, chase games and conquering games are traditional marble games that are still very popular today.

CLAY MARBLES.  Marble games have been played in all parts of the world with all manner of playing pieces for more than two thousand years.   Children in colonial America played with marbles made of clay which have been uncovered at a wide variety of eighteenth century sites.  Children in all parts of early America probably played enclosure games, hole games, chase games and conquering games, traditional marble games that are probably familiar today.  Clay marbles remained abundantly available throughout the later part of the nineteenth century, when one factory produced as many as 30,000 marbles in one day.

JACKS   Jacks was played in early America as it had been played for over two thousand years, with small sheep astragali (knucklebones).  The game was known as "knucklebones," dibs" or "jackstones."   Small pebbles or marbles were sometimes substituted for the bones.  Metal jacks, which mimic the shape of the sheep bones, were probably not in wide use until the mid-nineteenth century, although a pewter jack found at Fortress Louisbourg in Nova Scotia is thought to be of eighteenth century origin.

SIGNAL WHISTLE.  The American army first organized companies of light infantry in 1775.  These highly mobile units were initially made up of riflemen known for their speed and marksmanship whose primary role was as skirmishers.  Small shrill whistles made of wood, antler or other common materials played an important role as signaling commands to the sharpshooters of these light infantry companies who could not rely on the traditional beating of the company drum to relay field communications.  This wooden whistle is patterned on a period example.

TIN WHISTLE.  The tin whistle, also referred to as a penny whistle is a close kin of the recorder in the fipple flute family.  It has long been associated with traditional folk music.  It was a  popular and inexpensive instrument used in Europe long before being exported to the North American colonies where whistles and metal fifes were listed on 18th century inventories.  This instrument is popular with novice and experienced musicians alike.  The novice can play a familiar tune with minutes, while a more experienced player can make the whistle sing out jigs, reels and chanteys with the slurs and turns of the professional.  This tin whistle is in the key of D.

PEG TOP.  At least five types of tops were known in England by the 16th Century including peg tops, whip tops and hand-spun tops.  Tops spun by hand were known to the ancient Mediterranean civilizations.  The whip-driven top and the string-driven top most likely originated in the Far East and traveled with voyaging traders to Europe, where the whip top appears as early as the 14th Century in a French manuscript illustration.  Top tops brought to the New World colonies by the early settlers would not have been the first tops on the North American continent where Native Americans had been playing with hand-spun tops long before the arrival of the Europeans.

FIFE.  The long tradition of the fife as a military signal instrument often overshadows its also long tradition as an entertaining musical instrument, particularly well-suited to the jigs and reels so popular in early America.  It was an essential instrument to the military, being used not only to signal commands in battle but also to call out the daily routines of camp life.  Fifers were usually young boys between the ages of 12 and 16.   One fifer and one drummer were assigned to each company in a regiment which normally consisted of ten companies.  The 10 fifers and 10 drummers of the regiment formed a corps that provided military music for reviews, parades and special ceremonies.   The fife remained popular throughout the 18th Century and into the early part of the 19th Century.  It played a reduced but still important role in military action during the Civil War.  Amherst Alden, one of the early owners of the Alden House served as a fifer in the American Revolution.