Kubát, cesta za správnou hračkou – Kraus Pavel (2025)

We all once pulled a wooden duck along behind us, a charming and vivid reminder that every one of us was once a child discovering the world through toys. We had horses, goats, elephants, dolls of every colour and shape, building blocks and construction sets, bought for us by our parents or grandparents. Few of us knew, or even suspected, what journey a toy had made before arriving in its box or toy basket. Who designed it, invented it and produced it? This Czech-language book presents the life story of Václav Kubát, apparently the last living expert among those who, for decades, anonymously and away from public attention, helped shape the phenomenon of the Czech post-war toy. Drawing on the celebrated tradition of folk toys from the Ore Mountains, the philosophy of the Artěl cooperative and the Bauhaus school in Weimar, they established and defined the form, function and significance that made the Czech toy a globally respected phenomenon. Václav Kubát (born 1934) devoted his entire life to the development of the modern Czech wooden toy, so his life also offers an excellent illustration of Czech wooden toys and of craftsmanship itself, with its difficulties and evolution. With almost cinematic precision, the book follows the journey of a talented country boy who trained and studied within the educational system of post-war Czechoslovakia, under the politically and ideologically distorted conditions of the time. It traces the history of the Ore Mountains, their glory and traditions, the decline of many toy workshops and factories after 1945 and again after 1990, and the effort to achieve a renaissance and return toys made from natural materials to contemporary life after 2000. It is for this reason, among others, that Václav Kubát is now known in specialist and professional circles as the “dean of the Czech toy”, while the author quietly hopes that this publication will serve as a festschrift marking his significant milestone birthday.