Set of 12 picture blocks of Old King Cole, trains, a bear, a cow and calf and rabbits with picture guide sheets for each. The box is not original.

Alphabet blocks date from the 18th century. Children used them for learning letters, making simple words and also for building. Simple stacks could be built and, perhaps more enjoyably, knocked down. A later enhancement of the block came with the development of cheap colour printing: picture blocks. The blocks were overlaid with six different pictures which could be put together jigsaw fashion, but with the additional advantage of another five pictures. Guide sheets assisted. Multiple themes could be used to broaden the appeal, or the six pictures might be 'chapters' in the same story. Picture blocks too could be assembled into towers or piles, and knocked down.