Norah Wellings Black Dolls

I thought you might like to see a copy of the page from the early 1930's Norah Wellings Catalogue showing the Black Dolls from my other article on Leanne's Photographs. In this group Julie model 125 would be the rarest to find in her original outfit as she was only produced for a couple of years.Sorry the picture isn't very clear but I only have a photo copy of the catalogue. To enlarge the photo just click on it.

Norah Wellings Photographs

Hello Everyone,
Sorry I have taken so long to add anything to my Norah Wellings Journal. I have been away in Australia visiting my family having a wonderful time. I did not pick up any Norah Wellings on my travels I'm afraid but on my return had an email from a fellow collector Leeanne Simpson sharing some of her wonderful dolls. I have asked permission to add a few of them to my Norah Wellings Journal and Leeanne has kindly allowed me to use them.

The top picture shows a rare pair of Norah Wellings Native American Indians. They are hard to find in the larger sizes and these are both 16 inches tall in lovely condition. Wonderful realistic faces and bright felt costumes. They have painted eyes and I have never seen any with glass eyes. The male is model K23 called 'Hawk Eye'. The female squaw in this photo is rare to find and she is not shown in any of the catalogues I have. an early British Industry Fair photo in the 1930's shows both models on display and believe this was their debut. Norah Wellings made a few different Native American Indian models including a squaw in a different costume and I will write more about them at a later date.

The two black dolls in the next picture are both the earlier glass eyed Norah Wellings. They were made from 1927 to mid 1930's with glass eyes and the later ones had painted eyes. The female is called 'DuDu' model 119 and she is also found with a short curly wig as well as her longer hair pulled on top in a bun. The male is 'ZuZu' model 109. He was made with painted eyes right up until the catalogue in the last Norah Wellings 1959. Both dolls were made in various sizes from 9 inches to 36 inches.

Next we have a fabulous large 36 inch Norah Wellings Girl once again called 'DuDu' but this is model 122 with glass eyes, she was made from 1927. She does not appear in the Norah Wellings catalogues after 1940. Later dolls are seen with painted eyes. She waers a raffia skirt,raffia bra style top and beads around her arms and ankles. She came with variations to her raffia clothing and also sometimes with a short curly wig. Made in sizes 9 1/2 inches to 37 inches.

Another wonderful large Black doll called 'ZuZu', model 121 he is 36 inches tall with glass eyes, produced from 1927 until around 1940. Later dolls had painted eyes. he wears a raffia skirt with raffia tied around his legs, leg bracelets with raffia threaded just like the necklace he wears. Once again he can be found with variations to his raffia costume and in a range of sizes from 12 inches to 37 inches.

Norah Wellings made a variety of Black Dolls and I hope to show you more at a later date

Thank you once again Leeanne for sharing your photo's with us.
If anyone would like to share photo's please email me at norahwellingsjournal@gmail.com

Happy Norah Wellings Hunting
Gill

Norah Wellings and Cinderella Plastic Shoes

I am sure many collectors when buying a Norah Wellings doll with plastic shoes would think they can't possibly be original.....well they are. Norah Wellings used them in the early 1950's on most of her Norene Models and also on some smaller National Dolls.If you have not seen these shoes before they have Made In England, Cinderella and a number written on sole of the shoe corresponding to the size of the shoe. I have taken two photo's from a 1950's catalogue showing some Norene Models, as you can see only one doll out of seven is wearing felt shoes, all the others are the are plastic Cinderella shoes. I do not know why they were used and can only guess that perhaps Norah Wellings thought she would use shoes more like a child's. It must have been cheaper to make the felt shoes so I can't see the cost being the reason unless she was given a huge selection of them. Anyway the next time you see a 1950's Norah Wellings doll with plastic shoes don't take them off and make felt ones as they are probably original this also means if you wish to replace any shoes on the Norene Dolls I have shown in this catalogue buy plastic Cinderella ones.

Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year

I would like to wish you all A Very Merry Christmas and A Happy, Healthy and Safe New Year.

Norah Wellings Baby Jolly Toddlers

I thought you might like to see two rare Norah Wellings babies from my collection. These wonderful Twins are Norah Wellings Jolly Todders and are model 2129. They were made from about 1939 to early 1940's. They are only 10 inches tall and quite chubby. They have felt heads with painted features. The hair is air brushed and they have separate ears. Only the head is jointed. Arms and legs are velvet and they have a cotton body. Both wear original organdy dresses, cotton pants and knitted booties. The bonnets were made later, the original ones would have been organdy to match their dresses. Both have Norah Wellings labels on the inside of their wrists. I have shown a picture taken from the 1939 catalogue. Wonderful pair so cute.

Wonderful Box Of Norah Wellings Pixie People

Just after I completed my book in 2003 I was delighted to see advertised at Auction in America this wonderful box of Pixies. Luckily for me I won them but unfortunately too late for my book. They are really a mystery, the box is marked 1001 which should contain the items shown on the box lid. Looking at them from left to right Dutch Boy model 123, Sammy model 126, Knutto Monkey model 450 Dudu model 122,Jollyboy model 139 and Turko, model 955. As you can see the box has four wonderful Pixes inside. Normally a box of Pixies would contain 6 different models and it would be marked 1006.This leads to the Mystery.. either.. the wrong box was sent with an order containing only 4 Pixies or 6 Pixies were sent and 2 have gone missing. Another possibility is the box and the Pixies may have been matched up at a later date by the original owner of both, only speculation. Despite them being mix and match I was thrilled to win them and it is lovely to see such a colourful box with equally bright and colourful contents. I should mention the box itself is all red with a gold design and measures 11 1/2 inches by 9 inches. Usually the Norah Wellings Boxes are very plain with only the Norah Wellings symbol at the end of the box.
The Pixies were first shown in the Norah Wellings Catalgue in 1936. They are at the top of my list of favourites. The models in this box from left to right are 1121, 1123, 1124 and 1125. The first two models only appeared for a couple of years and are the hardest to find. They are all between 8 and 9 inches in height. All have felt heads with painted faces (no ears). The first two models are bald and the last two have painted hair. All have Painted faces, velvet clothing as an integral part of their bodies, felt hats,felt pointy feet to represent pixie shoes and felt single piece hands. The blue model 1124 has Felt Wings.All have Norah Wellings labels sewn to their their feet. Two of the Pixies also have their cardboard round label stating 'I'm one of Norah Wellings' "Little Pixie People"
I hope you enjoy seeing these wonderful Norah Wellings Pixies and their Mystery Box.

Norah Wellings 'Bones' The Dog

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.