An ad from The Queen magazine, November 28th, 1896, showing what lucky children in London and elsewhere might expect to receive for Christmas. (Close-ups follow below.) Those children would have needed wealthy parents since many of these toys cost half a week’s pay or more for the average worker. Scanned from Victorian Advertisements (1968) by Leonard de Vries.
A note about the prices: 10/6 means “ten and six” or 10 shillings (10s) and sixpence (6d). Before decimalisation in 1971 there were 12 pence to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound. 1 shilling is the equivalent of 5 pence in today’s currency.
