Diaries and drawings of Charles Sidney Toy FSA
Reference code
TOY
Title
Diaries and drawings of Charles Sidney Toy FSA
Date
1875-1967
Level of description
Fonds
Extent and format
12 diaries; 33 plans.
Scope and content
Charles Sidney Toy FSA was an architect, architectural historian and authority on the world’s castles and fortresses. He was best known for various books on castles in Britain, Europe and fortresses in India including Castles of Great Brit ain (1953), A History of Fortification from 3000BC to 1700AD (1955) and The Strongholds of India (1958).
The diaries are a remarkable and lucid record of Toy’s work, life and travels across Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, and the Levant/India in the 1950s. As well as containing details of each of his visits describing the buildings and circumstances of his visits they are packed full of detailed plans, drawings, sketches and photographs. He had a sharp eye and nothing escaped his notice.
In addition there are 33 plans (originals) which he used to illustrate A History of Fortification, which are mainly Europe and Middle East. The Society already has a number of drawings by Toy within the Sands Collection (SAN). Harold Sands FSA (d. 1935), also an authority on castles with an ambition to have every castle and earthwork in Britain drawn in detail, commissioned Toy to measure and draw many castle plans in the UK and Europe. These plans complement in the main, the Toy plans in the Sands archive. Many have cancelled drawings on the reverse.
The diaries are a remarkable and lucid record of Toy’s work, life and travels across Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, and the Levant/India in the 1950s. As well as containing details of each of his visits describing the buildings and circumstances of his visits they are packed full of detailed plans, drawings, sketches and photographs. He had a sharp eye and nothing escaped his notice.
In addition there are 33 plans (originals) which he used to illustrate A History of Fortification, which are mainly Europe and Middle East. The Society already has a number of drawings by Toy within the Sands Collection (SAN). Harold Sands FSA (d. 1935), also an authority on castles with an ambition to have every castle and earthwork in Britain drawn in detail, commissioned Toy to measure and draw many castle plans in the UK and Europe. These plans complement in the main, the Toy plans in the Sands archive. Many have cancelled drawings on the reverse.
Creator
Toy, Charles Sidney
Previous reference number(s)
MS/1023
Archival history
Gift of Ms Maggie Toy and family, 21 November 2011
Contents