Wednesday 18 January 2012

Norah Wellings Novelty Night Dress Cases, Part 1

I did have all the Norah Wellings Novelty Night Dress Cases on the side panel of my blog but I have decided to put them into a few Articles and explain more about them. You can also press on each picture to enlarge them which you couldn't do before.
Norah Wellings first introduced her Novelty Night Dress Cases in the early 1930's and I have an early catalogue not dated possibly 1933 and it shows nine Lady Novelty Night Dress Cases. I have put the three pages of the catalogue here for you to see.
The catalogue pages show different models, they were also made in smaller Handkerchief sizes but I will write about those in another article.The following are the model numbers, names and sizes to correspond with the catalogue pages.

Model 987 'Old English' 21 inches
Model 989 'Dutch' 21 1/2 inches
Model 985 'Spanish' 21 inches

Model 980 'Negress' 20 inches
Model 981 'Dutch' 20 inches
Model 982 'Eastern Lady' 20 inches

Model 986 'Italian' 21 inches
Model 988 'Jap' 22 inches
Model 984 'Mexican' 23 inches

This photo shows the Norah Wellings Stand at the 1934 British Industry Fair in England, here you can see the models from the catalogue. Although you can see some of the Dolls wearing their outfits the same as those in the catalogue it is not unusual to see other materials substituted. This makes collecting more interesting to find a Doll looking very different than those pictured although they still carry the same model number.

Image taken from the 1936 Catalogue a fabulous Lady called 'Russian' Model K103

This is a catalogue page from 1938. There are three models 'Dutch', Model K101 who can also been seen in the 1936 catalogue and two new models, 'Old English', Model 6017 and 'Old English',Model 6016.

A Catalogue Page from 1950. These Night Dress Cases where probably introduced in the late 1940's but where discontinued before 1958.There are no names in this catalogue only the numbers but I feel Models 6049 and 6050 would be 'Old English' and Model 6048 possibly 'Italian'. This catalogue featured six Night Dress Cases including the three in the photograph below.

This is a page from the last catalogue in 1958 and these are the only Norah Wellings Night Dress Cases to be listed.The first is 'Dutch' model 6027, 'Italian' Model 6045 and 'Old English', Model 6047.

In the next article I will add photographs that I have taken of some of the Norah Wellings Novelty Night Dress Cases that are still in or have passed through my own collection.

2 comments:

  1. HI A FREIND AS GOT A Model 985 'Spanish' 21 inches ITS VERY OLD AND ABIT WORN IT WAS HER GREAT GREAT GREAT ANT HOW MUSH WOULD ONE GO FOR SOLD

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  2. Hello,
    Thank you for your comment. Condition plays a very important part in the value of any cloth doll and also the rarity.If you send a photo to me at norahwellingsjournal@gmail I can give you an estimation but without seeing the condition it is impossible to say.Thank You
    Kind Regards
    Gill

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