Creative Playthings, Inc. - Specimen Stock Certificate

Specimen Stock printed by Franklin Lee Division-American Bank Note Co.

Creative Playthings was an educational toy store and catalogue that was established by Frank and Theresa Caplan in 1945. The goal of Creative Playthings was to provide simple and beautifully designed toys to promote a child’s creativity and imagination.

The original Creative Playthings store was located at 102 West 95th Street in New York City (which they eventually moved to Madison Avenue and 72nd Street). Initially, Frank Caplan made hardwood building blocks himself to sell in their store, often cutting and sanding the sets while parents waited in the shop. He then added animals, people, vehicles and other toys. Caplan believed that providing unpainted abstract forms that emphasized shape, color and texture, as opposed to lifelike details, would stimulate a child’s imagination. In collaboration with Martha New, Caplan also designed sets of large plain maple cubes that young children could rearrange into various forms and furniture. Known as "Hollow Blocks," these and other designs exemplified notions of “unstructured play,� in which creative usage could be shaped by the individual child instead of determined by the manufacturer. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Playthings