Royal Toys

The photographs preserved in the General Archive of the Palace portray the rooms of Alfonso XIII and Victoria Eugenia’s children full of toys. These spaces for children, fitted with white boiseries, wallpaper outlines, and furnished with miniature tables and chairs, are still preserved to this day. They are located
on the mezzanine level of the San Gil Wing, communicating directly with the
rooms of the kings, which occupied the main floor.
Among the toys found in said photographs one can observe dolls and tea sets, fostering imagination and the preparation for adult life. Meccanos—linked to the development of creativity—are also present, as are walkers and ride-on toys, which help improve motor skills, along with automatons that moved and produced sounds.
Likewise, children’s books were also available in these rooms, such as the renown Pérez Mouse (a story similar to the tooth fairy) written by Father Luis Coloma (1851 – 1915) and dedicated to a young Alfonso XIII.
Some of these objects were produced or acquired in France and the United Kingdom; others were bought in quincallerías, bazars, and Spanish department stores: Schropp, Juan Medel, and Refrescos Ingleses were establishments that provided games and toys for the royal family.

Patrimonio Nacional’s collection of games and pastimes is proof of the royal family’s—including infantes and infantas—interest in sitting around a table and spending some time playing with cards and board games during their moments of leisure. This sort of group activity was also used to entertain visitors or during Christmas and other festivities.
Several examples of popular games with extensive histories are preserved within the collection, namely, chess, checkers, and mahjong sets, a range of card decks—some crafted in a true artistic fashion, including the Nouveau jeu artistique des ches d’ouevres de peinture—and numerous games of chance, like a children’s version of the lottery.
The Royal Collections also includes table-top entertainments that can be enjoyed on one’s own, such as puzzles, occasionally referred to as “games of patience,” the Napoleon and Josephine wooden puzzle being a stand-out example.

During the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the kings of Spain acquired objects that provided unique models used in the learning process of the youngest members of the royal family in their quest for the best possible education for princes and infantes. Some of them were designed as dynamic hand-held elements that enabled learning through games. An example of this is the educational case designed for future King Alfonso XII (1857 – 1885) or the game Leer jugando (Read while Playing), dedicated to Alfonso XIII by José Roca y Ruscalleda.
It was precisely José Roca y Ruscalleda, the author of several educational resources published in the late 19th century, who noted the ability of games to reinforce education by stating the following: “Are games not the stimuli that most effectively attract our little disciples?”
Also noted within the inventory of the 19th century Royal Collections repository are “instructive” objects, such as a game of stereometry for learning geometry, a globe of the world, and an armillary sphere, some of which are on display in this exhibition.

A wide range of games relating to optics and sound played an important role in childhood entertainment from the second half of the 19th century onward. The Spanish monarchy was no exception, with some members being interested in optic instruments decades earlier.
The rise of this type of pastime coincided with the development of research on the “persistence of vision”, based on evidence that images remained on the retina for tenths of a second before disappearing. Thus, if several images move within one second, the persistence of vision allows the brain to perceive this as movement.
This is the premise that a number of objects preserved at the Royal Collections follow, such as the praxinoscope. Precursors of cinema, these objects were used in dark rooms with a single light source, creating theatrical and evocative environments accompanied by music and sound that delighted the children.
Along with the praxinoscopes and magical lanterns, other devices included in this exhibition, such as the stereoscope, would allow for the creation of three-dimensional scenes, generated by means of two images taken with a slight deviation.
Junto a praxinoscopios y linternas mágicas, otros ingenios que se muestran en esta exposición, como el estereoscopio, permitían crear la apariencia de tridimensionalidad en una imagen que en realidad son dos, tomadas con ligera desviación.

The green spaces that surround the Royal Sites were often the backdrop for outdoor entertainment aimed at the youngest members of the royal family. Likewise, from the late 19th century, the royal family organized retreats to the north of Spain; to the palaces of Miramar (Donostia-San Sebastián), from 1893, and to La Magdalena (Santander), from 1913, which also furnished the possibility of engaging in seaside activities. The photographs taken at beaches such as La Concha and El Sardinero are proof that princes and infantes enjoyed “bathing in the waves” and playing in the sand.
Queen Victoria Eugenia, who was educated in the British Court and was convinced of the benefits of sports, implemented a routine of physical exercise for her children through cycling, tennis, and ice skating. Numerous sporting equipment items are preserved within the Royal Collections, such as skates, tennis rackets, and mechanical contraptions, including toy steam boats that were used to play in ponds, like the one in Campo del Moro.
The equine world also played an important role in the development of the children of the royal family; proof of which is Isabel II’s saddle, and the horse listings of infantas Beatriz (1909 – 2002) and María Cristina (1911 – 1996), detailing the names of their mares and horses.