Britannia was made for the Coronation in 1937 and my first picture shows her on the cover of the Norah Wellings Catalogue in that same year. She only appeared in two catalogues 1937 and 1938.
Norah Wellings Cover for the 1937 Catalogue
Wonderful Norah Wellings display stand at The British Industry Fair in 1937. Also in the photo are other large Norene Models in Uniform. I must also note here that some of the Norah Wellings Dolls do have painted moustaches or beards, two models here have moustaches the Guard and the Scotsman. The smaller dolls shown are from her Novelty Range and include Guards, Admirals, Canadian Mounties and Girl Guides. I wouldn't be surprised if the Boy Scouts were on the side not photographed. A very impressive display.
'Brittania' and an 'Admiral', they were both auctioned in Christies Auctioneers, London on the 28th September 2000. They sold for £646 without commission. I bid on this wonderful pair but at the time I was living in Australia and couldn't go as high as I wanted due to the cost of posting them to me. Christies very kindly said I could use the photo but I could only use so many for my book and its great to be able to show them now.
Britannia stands 33 inches tall and she is model 3143, although her dress is not original everything else is. She has a wonderful padded gold cloth helmet with ostrich plume, gold chain mail vest and holds a trident in one hand and a shield in the other. Interesting to note the shield was a painted enamel plate. This model has blonde hair but as you can see the one on display and in the catalogue has dark hair The Admiral is a Norene model also 33 inches and all original, he does not appear in the 1937 or 1938 catalogues.
I hope you enjoy seeing these wonderful dolls, just click on the pictures to enlarge them.
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