The Curio Shop for Rag Dolls, Paddington Station Clocks, Wall Clocks and Olde Worlde Maps

UK Gift Ideas from The Curio Shop

Antique Style Wall Clocks & Paddington Station Clocks

A new range of antique style wall clocks that will enhance any room especially our giant timepieces from times gone by. Don't miss the massive new range of nautical antique clocks and instruments from our maritime range and the most unusual reproduction clock range including a large rustic antique wall clocks made to look very much like a battered old Victorian original. They are actually made from cast poly resin, but you wouldn't know until you tapped them - each one is distressed by hand and they look superb mounted high up on a country kitchen wall, or in a converted warehouse/barn but equally at home in more modern surroundings. They actually keep wonderful time too. We bought one for a family member as a gift some years back and it's never needed any adjustment or even a replacement battery!

My Toy Shop & The Rag Dolls

The younger members of your family are well catered for too within our sister sites. Don't miss our exclusive rag doll collections. The Groovy Girl range continues to grow from strength to strength and we also have the last few remaing Lilydoll lines remaining.

We have added no less than 150 new lines to Baby Toys UK now on a new site My Toy Shop. We are well excited about the new Baby Stella gift range for girls of 18 months and over, whilst the boys are taken care of with exciting new trucks (12 months +) and incredibly scary spiders and other creepy crawling things in our curious capers range at www.baby-toys.co.uk.

The Groovy Girls

Friends For Ever - Lots of New Groovy Girls for 2009 and lots of groovy new ideas - including Valena a limited edition groovy girl for valentine’s day, new clothes and lifestyle products. Don't miss items include a new collector's dress-up rag doll. These smart Christmas play friends encourage individuality, new play ideas, and making new friends. Their clothes are all
interchangeable - guaranteed to delight any girl from 3 Years plus!

CHECK OUT THE GROOVY GIRLS FOR GIRLS GIFT IDEAS *

Groovy Girls UK is our sister site featuring the Manhattan Toy Company range from the USA
The quality of these toys is second to none and we are proud to offer the largest choice from this superb range in the UK. As usual we offer a full money back guarantee if you are less than delighted with any of these products. Demand is huge for these items as Girls Gifts so do please order as just as soon as you can.

Superbly Made - Outstanding Attention to Detail - Long Lasting Play Possibilities These toys have won numerous awards throughout the toy industry world-wide. We can not recommend them too highly as a perfect Gift for a Girl.

Plus great gift ideas for men

Never an easy task but we think we may have the answer with our new range of quality antique wall, desk and maritime clocks. These wonderful time pieces are all made by hand and represent excellent value for money.
Prices to suit all tastes and pockets from £34.95 to £3,750.00

ELVISH LOVE RINGS

Each individual elvish love ring is hand created by St. Justin jewellery and giftware and is crafted by hand and eye here in Cornwall, the South West extremity of Britain.

OLD WORLDE MAPS

Reproduced from an atlas by one *** John Speed the most famous of all English map-makers. Author of the most important, and prestigious atlas of his day, and his maps still find favour today, with collectors from all over the world. Speed is best known today for two atlases, the Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine, published in 1612, and the Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World, published in 1627. The latter is attributed to Speed in the title, although it is not certain how large a contribution he actually made. Thus, it is really on the Theatre that his contribution to English cartography must be judged. The Old Map Company produce a unique range of over 70 titles of these fine maps - at a price of just £5.95 each, they represent an excellent gift idea of interest to all ages and tastes.
We have also started work with our good friends Antica-Editions in France this year.

A Note from Manhattan Toys on The Groovy Girls Club Site

* The Groovy Girls web site, like the Groovy Girls brand, is all about individualism, diversity, friendship and learning. However, we also understand that the Internet is unique and requires a special code of responsibility and vigilance, especially when it comes to protecting your children. We take this responsibility seriously. Beyond following the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) to the letter, we take special care in guarding any personal information we request. Furthermore, we will never require any more prefrontal information than is reasonably necessary for the activities found on the Groovy Girls web site. In addition, we will not give any information to third parties. We also encourage parents to discuss Internet safety with their children. But know this, we will always strive to make every visit to the Groovy Girls web site a safe and enriching experience.

About Manhattan Toys from Baby Toys UK

** Play is discovery and exploration, and joy, and growth, and learning, and so much more. And for us play is serious work. So when we bring play to life, we do it with a commitment to the finest in craftsmanship and creativity. All of our products, from the newest concepts to our time-tested classics, are designed to delight our consumers large and small.
Originality Founded in 1979 by Francis Goldwyn (grandson of motion picture studio owner Sam Goldwyn), Manhattan Toy pioneered the use of non-traditional fabrics in toy design and introduced delightful new body styles in soft toys. Although Goldwyn is no longer involved in the ownership of Manhattan Toy, we remain true to his vision of marching to the beat of a different (toy) drum. Developmental Value Play is not only fun, it’s essential to a child’s cognitive, emotional, and social development. Our design process blends science and whimsy to produce toys that offer children a rich array of visual and tactile stimulation and unlimited opportunities for imaginative exploration.

Quality & Safety
Our unsurpassed quality standards ensure that our toys are both durable and safe. Prior to manufacture, each Manhattan Toy design is thoroughly tested to comply with the most rigorous international standards for children’s products. Our quality assurance team continually reviews designs and procedures to ensure that products exceed both existing and new safety regulations.

Our Brands
The Manhattan Toy family of brands — Manhattan Baby®, Whoozit®, Groovy Girls®, Dr. Seuss™, Puppettos™, and Manhattan Toy — include more than 500 exclusive, original product designs distributed worldwide through more than 10,000 fine department and specialty retailers. Each year we introduce dozens of new toys, yet many of our original designs have remained consistently popular for two decades.
We invite you to explore the world of Manhattan Toy, where you’re certain to find great toys and gift ideas that are not only exquisite, but exclusive as well. Ready for some serious play?
Just check out our Christmas Gift products.

*** More on John Speed
"John Speed, who was bred a Tailor, was by the generosity of Sir Fulk Grevil, his patron, set free from a manual employment and enabled to pursue his studies, to which he was strongly inclined by the bent of his genius. The fruits of them were his Theatre of Great Britain, containing an entire set of maps of the counties drawn by himself, his History of Great Britain, richly adorned with seals, coins & medals, from the Cotton collection; and his Genealogies of Scripture, first bound up with the Bible, in 1611 which was the first edition of the present English translation. His maps were very justly esteemed & his History of Great Britain, was, in its kind incomparably more complete, than all the histories of his predecessors put together ..."

Who then would have believed that these fine maps would be still popular as a Christmas Gift in the 1st Century? Speed was born at Farndon, Cheshire, in 1552, and settled in London, in about 1582. He died on July 28th, 1629, and was buried in the Church of St. Giles, in Cripplegate. A monument was erected to him in the church, comprising a bust, flanked by two stone doors, with inscriptions. The doors were destroyed by bombing in the Second World War, but the bust, although damaged, survived. Fortunately, an engraving, from John Thomas Smith's Antiquities of London (London, 1791), depicts the monument and inscriptions. While earning a living as a tailor, Speed developed a strong interest in history, particularly antiquities and genealogies. His first cartographical work, a four sheet wall map of Canaan in Biblical Times, was published in 1595. Shortly after, in 1598, Speed came to the attention of Sir Fulke Greville. Through Greville's patronage, Speed received a sinecure appointment with the Customs Service, which guaranteed him a living, while giving him the freedom to pursue his interests. In the text accompanying his map of Warwickshire, Speed acknowledged this debt: "Whose merits to me-ward I do acknowledge in setting this hand free from the daily imployments of a manuall Trade, and giving it his liberty thus to express the inclination of my mind, himself being the procurer of my present Estate."

Speed was also introduced into Greville's circle of friends, and sponsored for membership of the Society of Antiquaries. There he met many of the greatest scholars of the day, including William Camden, Robert Cotton and William Smith, all of whom later contributed to Speed's work. One can only guess that it was at this time that Speed received the encouragement to undertake his great project - the History of Great Britain, with an accompanying atlas volume, The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine. In 1600, John Speed donated a number of maps to the Merchant Taylors Company, who noted his "very rare and ingenious capacitie in drawing and setting forth of mappes and genealogies and other very excellent inventions"

Rock 'n Roll at The Curio Shop
Our washing machine started shaking the the house to pieces a few months back. We were surprised to discover there were no solutions readily available in the UK market. Ever eager for a challenge we learnt that this is a relatively new problem in the UK due to the higher spin speeds now available. However, in the USA it's apparently a common problem due partly to the heavier weight of their machines. We have managed to import a selection of products that neatly solve the problem. For more on this see Washing Machine Vibration you can purchase the pads and mounts here and enjoy the quiet life again!

An finally new in at My Toy Shop - Baby Wallpaper - a great new range for babies nursery and boys and girls bedrooms.