Category:Dometo

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Toy Brands and Manufacturers

Dometo

1910s -     


Dometo was a wooden block construction toy originally made in Belfast, Ireland by "The Irish Toy Industry Ltd".

Dometo used "tongue and groove" joints to connect blocks together, and seemed to be quite a good system. It seems to have been created some time in the 1910s, and was exhibited at a 1916 toy fair in Dublin.

There is a notice in the Belfast Gazette in January 1927 for the ITI being wound up. The architoys.net site mentions a version of Dometo after the original ITI version being made by The Improved Sodalite Co. Ltd, England.

Versions we've seen online have used long tongues and grooves, and red-stained wood. Other sites mention later versions with interrupted, more "peglike" tongues, and wood being replaced by some sort of composite material.

A box lid mentions patent number 24[8?]13/14?, but we haven't yet managed to track this down.

Cuttings

The Irish Toy Industry Ltd, based in Belfast, exhibited a selection of Dometo interlocking blocks that are used in puzzles and in model-building. This pastime is enjoyable and educational for kids, and the products sold heavily in London before Christmas.

http://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.php/articles/exhibition-of-irish-toys-in-dublin

That the company be wound up voluntarily under the provisions of the Companies (Consolidation) Act, 1908, and that Edgar McKee, of 16 Donegall Square South, Belfast, be, and he is hereby appointed Liquidator for the purposes of such winding-up" – Geo Rankin, Chairman

— , -, , Belfast Gazette, , 7th January 1927

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/290/page/54/data.pdf

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