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[ta0]

This is a lovely painting is from 1745 by Flemish painter Joseph Francis Nollekens (1702–1748).



The title is Children at Play. They are probably the artist's son Jacobus and daughter Maria Joanna Sophia. Unfortunately, if the dates are correct, their dad died just three years afterwards.

Perhaps the child with the whip (a boy?) hit card castle of his sister, instead of the top.

[ta0]

Another but considerably earlier painting of a brother and sister, where he has a whip top. It is dated January 7^th 1622:



On the painting it has the dates the children were born: May 22^nd 1617 the boy and January 7^th 1615 the girl. 

This is from the Anglo Dutch school. It is 111.8 x 104.8cm. High resolution image here.
It sold at an auction on December 2009 for £132,000!

[ta0]

Another with two children (girl and boy?), the younger with a whip top, but from the early 1800s:



"Two children wearing pale yellow dresses with white underslips, the elder holds a rolling hoop and stick, the younger holds a whip top and whip". It is attributed to either James Sharples or to his third wife, Ellen Wallace Sharples.

It's remarkable how the pose remained unchanged from at least the early 1600s to the 1800s: older sister and brother, girl with some plaything, boy with a whip top, both wearing a dress 

[ta0]

Did boys use whips by themselves as toys?  Did they whip random stuff, like little sisters? 
I'm not sure if there is a whip top missing in this painting by German painter Christian Leberecht Vogel (circa 1794, probably his son and daughter):

[ortwin]

Did boys use whips by themselves as toys?  Did they whip random stuff, like little sisters? 
...

Yes they did!
At least I did even though I did not have a little sister.
Almost anything could be used to serve as a horse. Another thing was to try to make those cracking noises with the whip. Also I remember movies where the hero used a whip as his main weapon, so we imitated him.

[Jeremy McCreary]

As we all know, what can be whipped, will be whipped. Whip it good!

Safety tip: Little boys are the LAST people who should have whips.

[the Earl of Whirl]

I think there will be some whips coming out on the 27th!!!

[Texture]

I still don’t have a whip big enough for this monstrosity: