Norah Wellings wonderful 'Bones' is a commical dog. He is model 234. This great character made his appearance in 1927 at the first British Industry Fair Norah Wellings attended with her new business from Victoria Toy Works. It is interesting to note that Dismal Desmond looking a very similar comical dog also made his first appearance at this Fair although he was launched by Dean's in 1926. 'Bones' did not appear again in any Norah Wellings catalogues until after 1930, one wonders if there was any problem due to his simerality. 'Bones' was made until around 1938 then discontinued. The Games and Toys magazine in April 1927 quotes what they thought about his first appearance 'Other lines shown at this stand include 'Bones', a grotesque looking dog', I do not think this would help much for marketing him to the Toy Shop buyers. I think he is very cute. There is no mention of 'Bones' being made to present any particular comic strip or book character.
I have shown a picture of the Norah Wellings Stand at the British Industry Fair in 1927 and as you can see a large 'Bones'is standing at the entrance. He appears to be fully jointed, however only his head is jointed on the models sold from the catalogues that I have seen and they were only available in sizes 7 and 12 inches. They were made of velvet with either glass or painted eyes. Available in lovely bright colours. Colours I have seen so far are blue, red and yellow.
The picture above shows three 'Bones' dogs, the two larger ones are 12 inches tall with lovely glass eyes and the smaller one is 7 inches tall with painted eyes. They are all made of velvet with their limbs sewn on and they all have a little tail.
I have also added a very rare 'Bones' nightdress case pictured on the right hand side. Thank you so much to Julie Wyles a friend of mine who has kindly allowed me to use this photo. He is not featured in any of my catalogues.
I hope you have enjoyed reading about this wonderful character who would be a rare addition to any collection.
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