Long Description:This museum, located in Sintra, Portugal is dedicated to Toys.
The toys exhibited in the Museum are part of a collection
gathered during more than 50 years by João Arbués Moreira.
This collection started when he was 14 years old with the toys
offered to him and other toys witch belonged to his parents and
grand parents. With age, his taste refined and his buying power
increased along with an acute curiosity, to learn more about the
pieces collected, their origin, their manufacturer, their
history.
Thus, it was initiated a lifetime of permanent researching and
purchasing of older samples and the interest towards the History of
Mankind so well portrayed through toys.
Along the years the collection increased up to more than 20.000
different toys. There was a need to preserve and exhibit such
collection, making it possible to the public to have contact with
the biggest collection of this kind in Portugal.
In 1987 the Arbués Moreira Foundation was created and all the
collection was donated to the Foundation. Two years later, an
agreement with the Sintra Town Hall provided a space which allowed
the opening of the Museu do Brinquedo (Toy Museum) in Sintra.
The collection continued to grow and the space which housed the
museum became too small for all the toys purchased and donated in
the meanwhile. Therefore, it was more than necessary to find a new
location that could house all the collection and simultaneously
provide a richer communication between the museum and its
visitors.
This new location, in the old Sintra Firemen Head Quarters,
includes appropriate facilities to watch thematic videos, a playful
multimedia room, a room designed to set up a temporary exhibitions
and a restoration workshop.
It is in the restoration workshop that toys, acquired or donated
to the Museum, are repaired. Whenever possible the museum tryes to
give them back their original appearance by welding, sandpapering,
painting, gluing, etc. When this is not feasible they maintain the
toy exactly as it was received, treating it to prevent further
deterioration.
At this moment the workshop only repairs the toys which are the
property of the Museum although they intend to open it to the
public as the services are often asked for.
The museum makes live-restoration so as to instill, mainly in
children, the pleasure of maintaining the things they love playing
with.
You can also find a shop where a careful selection of the
material sold is made. The museum tryes to have toys not to easy to
find in other shops. you can find handcrafted toys like tops and
rag dolls, replicas of antique toys like lead soldiers and tin
cars, coloring books and dolls to cut out; besides they still have
a variety of wooden toys both Portuguese and foreign which always
attract children and grown-ups.
In the Museum Shop you can still find some "antiques" - soldiers,
wooden or plastic furniture, celluloid toys, tin buckets and
moulds, cars, some special collector items, and others.
Source: ("http://www.museu-do-brinquedo.pt/"
target="_blank">visit link)