Feeling Cranky Today?

A pint-sized version of a boxing ring will delight and engage the child in each of us.

Combining disparate elements in an odd setting has produced an unusual crank toy. When the crank is turned, myriad activities are set into motion. The pinwheels and propellers on the towers turn and the creatures between them move up and down; in the ring, the boxers and the referee go into action. The moving parts are enhanced by the colorful scraps of fabric wrapped around them.

Source: Lynda Roscoe Hartigan. Made with Passion: The Hemphill Folk Art Collection in the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C. and London: For the National Museum of American Art by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990).

Pictured: Unidentified, Boxing Ring Crank Toy,twentieth century, mixed media, 27 1/4 x 25 1/2 x 15 3/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson.