The Tornese stables are still home to horses. The old Al Portichetto horse farm have been transformed into the stables of dreams and champion trotters have made way to toy horses. When a toy horse joins the Museum collection, it becomes a precious item cherished with care for the joy and wonder of both the young and old.
The Museum collection has more than 650 toy horses made from the eighteenth century to present in the most diverse forms: rockers, tricycles, chairs, walkers, and even gigs and merry-go-round horses.
The Museum also features forty-one silkscreened tin spring toys manufactured by the historical Lehmann factory in Nuremberg between the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. Toys that tell children about the world of grown-ups.
Visitors are accompanied during this journey into the magic of childhood by the music of Goffredo Colombani's musical boxes and the paintings of an imaginary fantasy stable created by Wanda Broggi in 2003.
TOY HORSElooking for horses >
Since ancient times, children have played imagining that they are riding a horse and over the centuries the toy horse has taken on a wide variety of forms. A favourite toy for children who could already walk was a pull-along horse on wheels. Riding a stick was a way to copy adults riding a horse. The first rocking horses date to the seventeenth century. They were genuine masterpieces of workmanship for children belonging to well-to-do families.
THE LEHMANN COLLECTIONlooking for LEHMANN >
In 2006 Pietro Catelli added a precious series of pieces to the Museum collection: 41 silkscreened tin toys made at the turn of the century by the LEHMANN Company. These are small masterpieces born from the genius and imagination of Ernst Paul Lehmann, the founder of Europe's most successful tin toy factories. Colourful, witty, easy to handle and light, they are still in perfect working conditions thanks to their springs .
Lehmann's toys were very successful because they revealed the world of grown-ups to children. Ernest Paul Lehmann transformed whatever he saw in everyday life into a toy, testifying to the marvels of his times: new means of transportation, the unusual figures of Buffalo Bill's show, wild animals and the Far East.
MUSICAL BOXESlooking for musical boxes >
The Museum's halls resound with the music of seven musical boxes. Musical boxes have always fascinated both the young and old with their sweet and enthralling tunes that accompany the dancing miniature figures that live in them. Obviously, the protagonists of the Museum's collection of musical boxes are horses as they spin around with mermaids, seahorses and a host of other animals.
PAINTINGSlooking for paintings >
The Museum's walls display a series of paintings that guide visitors along the entire itinerary. These works are by Wanda Broggi who has painted the stables of dreams. They tell of the world of toy horses establishing a sort of dialogue with the pieces on display at the Museum. The artist imagines them in a dusty attic where they had been forgotten before being taken to the Museum. Wanda Broggi has conveyed the variety and distinctive features of the many different types of toy horses onto her canvas, creating a sort of encyclopaedia in painting.