Hilary Page

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Bri-Plax Interlocking Building Cubes developed by Hilary Page in 1939

Hilary "Harry" Fisher Page (born August 20, 1904 in Sanderstead , Surrey , † June 24, 1957 ) was a British toy maker , author and entrepreneur . He founded the toy companies Kiddicraft and British Plastic Toys Ltd. By him in 1939 only in the UK patented Interlocking Building Cubes are considered a precursor of Lego - terminal blocks .

Life

Hilary Page was born in 1904 as the first of two children of Samuel Fisher and Lillian Maude Page in Sanderstead in the south of England. Even as a child he showed talent in making his own toys and inventing new game ideas. His father, who works in the wood trade, gave him two tons of scrap wood for his birthday , which Page could use to build new wooden toys for years.

Page attended Shrewsbury Public School from 1918 to 1923, where he became passionate about rowing and photography. After school, like his father, he initially worked in the wood industry. From his 1929 marriage with Norah Harris, the daughter Jill was born in May 1932.

In 1932, Page used his savings of £ 100 and founded the small toy store Kiddicraft with a few partners in Purley . Initially, Page and its partners imported wooden toys from Russia, before Page also began creating their own toys.

Page promoted as one of the first children's toys made of plastic instead of wood, whose paintwork or coating always runs the risk of being gnawed off by suckling children. He also argued that plastic is easier to wash off and can be produced in many colors that are attractive to children. During the 1930s, Page experimented with making toys out of various plastics.

Kiddicraft finally had to file for bankruptcy in 1937, which hit Page hard. Nevertheless, he was working on new ideas for toys and used the newfound time to the play of young children in various pre-school to study facilities and thereby find out which toys found the children on interessantesten. As a result, he developed various toys for the different stages of early childhood development. He published his findings in 1938 in his first non-fiction book Playtime in the First Five Years .

Since his Kiddicraft partners had always rejected a switch to plastic production as too risky, Page had founded a new company in 1936 with British Plastic Toys Ltd. From 1937 he sold his newly developed "Sensible Toys" under the brand name Bri-Plax . Many of his toys were based on the wooden toys previously imported from Russia, but Page also developed completely new products. Underneath were the Interlocking Building Cubes , colored plastic blocks that could be plugged together. In 1939, Page had the concept patented in the UK .

The "Sensible Toys" sold very well and the company soon expanded. However, shortly before the Second World War , his first marriage failed. At the beginning of the war, the production of all non-war-essential plastics and thus the kiddicraft toys had to be stopped. Page traveled to the United States, where he lectured and broadcasted on the subject of children in wartime from 1940 to 1942 . In Chicago he met his second wife Oreline, whom he married in July 1941. In 1942 the couple returned to England, where Page continued to give lectures and published his book Toys in Wartime with the publishing house Allen & Unwin , which contained recommendations for building toys under the adverse war conditions. In 1946 the couple adopted the twin girls Geraldine and Vivienne, who were born in late 1945.

After the war, he turned back to his “sensitive toys”, which, following the approval of his partners, were now also sold under the Kiddicraft brand. The company grew steadily. From 1947, the company began selling the improved self-locking building bricks . Page also had the details of the system patented over the next few years.

When the Danish toy makers Ole Kirk Christiansen and Godtfred Kirk Christiansen ordered an injection molding machine for their Lego company in London in 1947 , they also received sample molds and possibly further information on Pages' terminal blocks. The design of the first Lego bricks was based on Pages Self-Locking Bricks . Hilary and Oreline Page visited Denmark in June 1949; it is not certain whether they met Ole and Godtfred Kirk Christiansen. Page's widow and daughters later stated that Page was not aware of the Lego bricks.

In the 1950s, Kiddicraft expanded to France, Germany and Spain. In 1953, Page published a revised edition of his book Playtime in the First Five Years . He then turned to his next project, Kiddicraft Miniatures - scaled-down toy versions of various household items and foods. Page concluded numerous license agreements for this. A total of over 300 different miniatures were planned. However, he was unable to complete the project, not all of the miniatures planned could be realized, and the licensing agreements threatened to fail. Hilary Page feared a renewed bankruptcy and finally committed on 24 June 1957 suicide .

His partner and Page's widow Oreline continued to run the company after his death. Oreline Page sold the company in 1977 to the Hestair group of companies, which in 1989 sold it to Fisher-Price . The Kiddicraft brand was used there until the mid-1990s. Lego had already acquired all rights to the Kiddicraft designs from Hestair in 1981 for 45,000 pounds sterling, but this should not help them in the legal dispute with Tyco Toys over their Super Blocks that followed a few years later .

In May 2007, Hilary Page posthumously for his outstanding and significant contributions in the toy industry with the Lifetime Achievement Award of the British Toy & Hobby Association awarded; the award was accepted by his three daughters Jill, Geraldine and Vivienne.

Fonts

  • Playtime in the First Five Years . (First Edition) Watson & Crossland Limited, Croydon, Surrey, 1938, 168 pages.
  • Toys in waiting time . Allen & Unwin, London, 1942.
  • Toys You Can Make Yourself . Odhams Press Ltd, Long Acre, London, 1949, 255 pages, illustrated.
  • Personality and Success . The Caxton Publishing Co. Ltd, London, 1950; 2 volumes, Volume 1 with 325 pages, Volume 2 with 275 pages.
  • Playtime in the First Five Years . (Second Edition) Allen & Unwin, London, 1953, 178 pages.

Web links

Commons : Hilary Page  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Jim Hughes, Chas Saunter: Hilary Fisher Page & Kiddicraft (2008). In: hilarypagetoys.com, accessed July 14, 2020.
  2. ^ Hilary Fisher Page: Plastics as a Medium for Toys. In: Daily Graphic Plastics Exhibition Catalog 1946, pages 112-114.
  3. ↑ a b Jose Bellido (Ed.): Landmark Cases in Intellectual Property Law . Hart Publishing, 2020, ISBN 978-1-5099-3510-9 , page 360.
  4. ^ Hilary Page: Playtime in the First Five Years . (Second Edition) Allen & Unwin, London, 1953.
  5. ↑ GB529580A Improvements in toy building blocks . In: worldwide.espacenet.com, accessed on July 14, 2020.
  6. ↑ GB587206 (A) Improvements in toy building blocks . In: worldwide.espacenet.com, accessed on July 14, 2020.
  7. ↑ GB633055 (A) Improvements in toy building blocks . In: worldwide.espacenet.com, accessed on July 14, 2020.
  8. ↑ GB673857 (A) Improvements relating to constructional toys . In: worldwide.espacenet.com, accessed on July 14, 2020.
  9. ↑ Maaike Lauwaert (2008): Playing outside the box - on LEGO toys and the changing world of construction play, History and Technology 24: 3, 221-237, DOI: 10.1080 / 07341510801900300.
  10. ↑ Inter Lego AG v Tyco Industries Inc & Ors . The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council Decisions, May 5, 1988.
  11. ^ Sarah Herman: Building a History: The Lego Group . Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2012, ISBN 978-1-84468-125-9 , p. 38 ff.
  12. ↑ a b Alexandra Lange: The Design of Childhood: How the Material World Shapes Independent Kids . Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018, ISBB 978-1632866356, 40.
  13. ↑ Maaike Lauwaert: The Place of Play: Toys and Digital Cultures Amsterdam University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-9089640802 , page 51.
  14. ↑ BTHA Lifetime Achievement Award . In: btha.co.uk, accessed July 14, 2020.
  15. ^ Lifetime Achievement Award . In: hilarypagetoys.com, accessed July 14, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Page, Hilary
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fisher Page, Hilary; Page, Hilary F .; Page, Harry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British toy designer and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH 20th August 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Sanderstead , Surrey , United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH June 24, 1957