When Nazzareno Bonaretti, at age 26, set foot upon the Sydney shore in October 1951, he brought with him a trunkful of woodworking tools and years of expertise in making adults’ and children’s furniture as well as toys. His designs in Italy were as modern as those offered by contemporary Sydney manufacturers—perhaps even more stylish. And his fertile imagination had plenty of new ideas.

He was an enthusiastic sketcher and would take the pencil he always kept behind his ear while working to scribble his ideas on any surface at hand: the back of discarded sandpaper, an offcut of timber or the back of a delivery docket. Ideas formed quickly and, if doable, a hand-made prototype would be readied, whether it be a new style doll’s cot or a different façade for a doll’s house or even something he’d never tried before: walking stilts or a child’s cubby house; his mind was always in R and D mode. It is regrettable that no drawings exist of his design processes--thousands of drawings made, and thousands lost to time.

Over the ensuing 34 years, Nazzareno, who soon became known as Jim, developed his range of wooden toys and nursery furniture to an incomparable standard so much so that Bestoys adopted the motto, “Often imitated, never equalled”. He was always the first in adapting new materials and finishes, purchasing the newest woodworking machinery and keeping up with current trends in colour schemes and decorations. All other wooden toy manufacturers bobbed about in his wake.

These trends can be seen by skimming through the existing Bestoys catalogues from c1958 to c1983. The powdery pastels of the 1950s morphed into the browns and yellows of the ’60s, then to the vibrant psychedelic colours of the ’70s. Plywood was replaced by hardboard and particleboard, decorative designs progressed from spray-painted to silk-screened printed.

The most significant of these modernisations was the extensive adaption of the new material “Corinite”, a high-pressure plastic laminate, which had been developed over a number of years and introduced in the early 1960s. Using this versatile material Jim developed and introduced one of Bestoys’ best-selling items, the “Contessa” Wardrobe, made specifically for the newest trend in dolls, the 12” fashion leader, Barbie and her British counterpart, Sindy. Tens of thousands of the “Contessa” and the smaller “Vanity” were made and distributed throughout Australia. 
 
In the mid-1950s, Jim would deliver his products himself, carefully loading and unloading the mostly fully assembled products. As his business grew, this responsibility passed to others, and he soon realised that to avoid damage in transit meant better packaging. It didn’t take him long to develop items that could be supplied unassembled and put together by the retailer or the consumer at home. By reducing the volume of a product between 40% and 80% not only avoided damage in transit but also saved on transport costs. Bestoys was the first wooden toy and nursery furniture manufacturer to offer almost all of its extensive range unassembled in flat packs.

Jim was also very aware of raw material wastage.  When developing any product, the dimensions of the material to be used was carefully considered so that there would be as few offcuts and as little wastage as possible—without compromising style, of course. 
​
Sometimes, a product would be completely redesigned if savings were to be made. Rockaways are a perfect example of this. Originally, hardboard was used to make the side panels. One side of the rectangular panel was inherently rougher than the other meaning that the machinist had to be very careful to cut left and right sides on the jig, so that the smoother side, the side that was to be decorated, was outside. When “Corinite” and plain dense particleboard was adopted, both sides were smooth so there was no need to cut left and right sides. This also meant that a right trapezoid shape could be used instead of a rectangle, allowing more panels to be cut from the same 8’ x 4’ sheet of raw material, and reducing wastage and offcuts.

Above is a mock-up of how the designs were fitted into the uncut panels of the rockaways. The right illustrates the Lamb Rockaway cut from a rectangular hardboard panel. All the rockaways at that time used the same size panel, the various designs made to fit. The left shows Ukky Duckling from the N.E.S.Toy range. It was cut from a right trapezoid panel, which was smaller and, therefore saved on material and wastage without compromising design or functionality.

Below are some sketches by Susanne. These, too, are only a very few of the hundreds that would have been produced for Jim's consideration. 

​Jim not only used his design skills to work out how to make his products, but he also employed his drawing skills to decorate them. Using one of the few stencil cutters listed in the Sydney telephone directory (only seven in 1954), galvanized tin templates were cut to his specifications. These ranged from simple geometric patterns to decorate the façade of doll’s houses, dressers and tabletops, to intricate designs for the sides of rockaways and hobby horses. Hearts and darts were the order of the day in 1958…

​Additional multi-colour decoration was also used: wet-application transfers for fine details on the service stations, or the Bestoys rocket-and-moon logo, or used to fill the sprayed-on hearts on table- and desk-tops and cot ends.

​Designs changed but the methods remained the same—spray-painted stencils and wet-application transfers—until 1964-5, when screen printing was introduced.  Until then, the only items that were silk-screened were the blackboards which was carried out by an outside provider.
​
It didn’t take Jim long to appreciate the benefits of silk-screening. To control the quality and speed of production, Jim set up the factory’s own screen-printing section as an annex to the spray room.

In 1965 his daughter, Susanne, left school and joined the company. Her leaning toward drawing and painting was akin to her father’s. It had even been suggested by the careers councillor at her high school that she take up commercial art (now known as graphic design) as a profession. It was to be, but not in the professional world outside, but as a silk-screen design decorator for the Bestoys and later N.E.S.Toy ranges.

In the beginning, Jim produced the artwork for screen printing. The first of these—horse, lamb and elephant (the swan continued to use stencils)—were inspired by children’s greeting cards and adapted to fit the board. He carefully drew the full-size designs on paper and took them to a silk-screen manufacturer to be cut and finished.

​For these two products, Jim had learned the process of making the actual silk screens. Now the entire silk-screening process from design to making the screen to finishing the product was done inhouse.

Jim had the skill, machinery and materials to make the frame. Using 2” x 2” timber (radiata pine, of course) to make the frame, silk (or synthetic ‘silk’) fabric was stretched across it and stapled in place. The negative image of the pattern was carefully cut using scalpels onto a specially prepared paper-backed film. The positive parts were removed, and the remaining negative film was applied to the back of the silk using a hot iron. The edges of the pattern were masked, and the staples covered with gummed paper tape. This screen was the negative of the final image. Hundreds of different screens were made this way in the ensuing twenty years.

​1968 saw the introduction of the “Fairy” Drop Side Cot and the “Caprice” Cot and Cradle both utilising the same pattern on the cot ends designed by Jim. Susanne’s contribution that year was the blackboard inside the “Toddler” Deskette.

1969 also saw the introduction of an economy range of wooden toys and nursery furniture: N.E.S.Toy. Using the same basic manufacturing processes as Bestoys, this range was made using cheaper materials and fewer processes to produce a well-made range but without the glossy finishes.
It was a major undertaking but one that had to be made to counter the increasing number of imported and local products that were undercutting Bestoys but were not as well made and cheaper to buy.
Jim designed the new N.E.S.Toy range to offer a more economical alternative to each of the most popular models in the Bestoys range and undercut the undercutters. Where screen-printed decoration was required, Susanne provided the designs. These included the Horse and Swan rockaways, blackboards and garage.

Susanne was 20 years of age in 1970 by which time Jim had taught his daughter the art in cutting the film and making silk-screens. More and more of her drawings were being used.

​For the Bestoys range, several designs for a small wall blackboard were submitted with the squirrel wearing a mortarboard being chosen. A clown motif was used for the large standing blackboard made of hardboard. Unfortunately, unknown to Susanne, the name “Bozo” was registered for use in Queensland but following legal discussions, the “Bozo” Blackboard was produced without further impediment. The introduction of a large 6-room doll’s house, the “Bambolina”, meant a façade needed to be decorated. This was done in a late-19th Century style to imitate the mansions along Macquarie Street, Sydney which, at that time, was the Park Lane of London and Park Avenue of New York.

​Also revamped were the rockaways. The Elephant and Lamb were discontinued, and the Horse and Swan redesigned, both of which were Susanne’s.

Jim continued to restyle and revamp the Bestoys and N.E.S.Toy ranges, adding more choices to the range of desks and blackboards and other nuances to improve already excellent ranges.

​Many new items were introduced and, by the time the 1978 catalogue was printed, the Bestoys and N.E.S.Toy ranges of wooden toys and nursery furniture were the most extensive offered by any such Australian manufacturer. Of the range offered, it is easier to mention the item whose silk-screened motif was not designed by Susanne: the N.E.S.Toy Horse Rockaway – that was Jim's.

Below are a few surviving sketches made by Susanne.

​All the silk-screened decorations on the items listed in the final full-colour catalogue produced by Bestoys c1983 were Susanne’s.