Rare Norah Wellings Goblin Dolls

Happy New Year Everyone.

I thought I would start the year with these fabulous Very Rare  Special Order Goblin Dolls by Norah Wellings. I purchased one of them many years ago on ebay and the under bidder who collected Goblin items said she thought it may have been made for Goblin, a Company that made electric products and probably for the Teasmade ( electric tea maker). I could not find him in any of my research or catalogues and thought the information might be correct. You can imagine how excited I was to be offered another Goblin and this time from the Niece of the Original Owner and she was able to give me more information.  Her Aunt worked for the  Goblin Company and Goblin had a stand at the 1939  Ideal Home Exhibition , these dolls were used as a promotion. Not only that but the two staff including her Aunt had to wear Goblin Outfits while demonstrating Goblin Vacum Cleaners to potential customers  ! Makes me smile as I can just picture them ! As you can see one of the Goblins has  the original paper tag from the exhibition. I am so pleased I am able to share this with you. It is not often we see Special Order  Dolls by Norah Wellings  made for a Company and here are two of them. The Goblins

Made in a similar style to the Norah Wellings Pixie Dolls. These Goblins are both 9 inches tall, heads and hands made of felt with painted features.  The body is an integral part of the clothing and they have felt shoes , hands and felt hats. Both have white Norah Wellings labels under their shoes with brown writing.The one with the original paper label belonged to the Aunt who worked at Goblin

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year

Wishing You All A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.

Norah Wellings Golly

                                The Elusive Norah Wellings 'Golly'

The Norah Wellings  'Golly'  is model 135 and he was first introduced around 1931, he was in an undated catalogue of possibly the same year and he also appeared in a 1933 to 1934 catalogue. A photograph from the 1933 British Industry Fair shows three gollys but the photo is not clear. There is no sign of him in the 1936 catalogue or indeed ever again. Very rare to find with his production only spanning over 3 years. The catalogue images are very hard to see but he appears to be made of velvet with similar stipe trousers that 'Sammy' the Black Islander wore. He was made in 4 sizes A 11", B 12 1/2", C 15 1/2" and D 20 1/2".

Catalogue photograph above from the 1933/34 catalogue

Photograph from the British Industry Fair 1933 showing three Golly Dolls.


I have not yet found a Norah Wellings Golly with a label but two have crossed my path who I believe are Norah Wellings . One I bought about 20 years ago with his jacket missing and another Daniel Agnew very kindly allowed me to share with you that he bought last year. As I say neither have labels but  I feel sure they are Norah Wellings but it would be wonderful if any of you have one out there with a label that you wouldn't mind sharing so I can add to this article. If you do please email me at norrahwellingsjournal@gmail.com

Thank You Daniel for sharing your wonderful Golly He is in great condition, smaller size with googly type glass eyes, felt mouth and mohair wig. He wears a velvet tail jacket with velvet trousers and top, both an integral part of his body.

Golly bought  years ago and now resides with a Very Dear Friend, larger size not in very good condition and missing his jacket but you can see how he compares to Daniels. Also note that the hands on both have all the fingers defined .

Please check out any Golly Dolls you may have and please email me if it is a Norah Wellings or you think it might be as I would love to see it. Thank you

Norah Wellings Fairy

                                         
                Norah Wellings Fairy Dolls

Christmas is nearly upon us and what better way to add to the Christmas spirit and end the year with Norah Wellings Fairy Dolls. A big thank you to all those who sent me a photo. I do hope you enjoy seeing them and also the catalogue illustration and the photograph from  British Industry Fair.

                                   
 Norah Wellings Norene model 3200 from the 1940's Catalogue 

Thank you to Joanna Bess for sharing her gorgeous Fairy Doll model 3200. She has a newer felt sash added to her outfit. She does vary from the catalogue photo but this does happen with certain models when they are produced for a few years. I think she is wonderful .  

 Norah Wellings Dollymine Doll. She does not have wings and may never have had them but she has the similar little dress with satin pants and shoes. She is 9 inches tall and made in the 1940's.

This photograph was taken in 1952 at the  British Industry Fair showing one of the Norah Wellings Display Stands. It shows Fairies and  Elves playing together.

This lovely photograph was taken by Heather Kendall and shows one of the Fairy Dolls shown in the 1952 Norah Wellings Display Stand. I have not seen her in any of the catalogues yet. Standing 9 inches tall. She would be one of Norah Wellings Character Dolls ( known before 1950 as Novelty Dolls).



Wishing You All A Very Merry Christmas. I hope Santa brings you a Norah Wellings or Two.

I Do Hope 2017 Will Be Happy, Healthy and Prosperous.

Very Best Wishes
Gill

Norah Wellings Dolls on The Queen Mary Cruise Ship

                                 
 Norah Wellings Dolls  in the 'Queen Mary' Childrens Playroom 



 
If you click on this photograph it will enlarge.

 This is a postcard produced for the Cunard White Star Line for the  ' Queen Mary' Maiden Voyage in 1936. It shows the Childrens Playroom. Many Norah Wellings were sold on board Cruiser Ships but this is the first time I have actually seen a photo of a Playroom for the Children showing Norah Wellings Dolls to be played with.  It is amazing how many there are and considering they are cloth dolls how long they would have survived. Sorry the picture is not very good but I have tried to highlight the different models , they are, Norene Old Lady model 893 and Man model 894. Two Norene Dolls in Mexican Outfits,  Girl model 876 and Boy model 885. You can also see a Jollyboy Sailor model 139 playing with a ship and in the foreground looks to be a Norene Boy model 851 with golf clubs.  There is also a Dutch Boy model 854 playing or pushing the organ. All these models were available in the 1936 catalogue and I would expect for sale on board ship This would have been a very good marketing ploy if your Child had been playing with a doll and not wanting to leave it in the Playroom the parent could then go upstairs and buy one. Once again sorry for the poor quality photograph but  I just had to share.

I thought you might like to see the photo's of the dolls from the 1936 catalogue that are shown in the 'Queen Mary' postcard.  The picture of the Golfer is a very like the earlier Cora models. In  1936 there were two Norene Golfers , this one was also seen in earlier catalogues and did not appear in the 1937 catalogue. The other Norene Golfer model 3126 has the slimmer face with heart shape face and appeared up to 1939. I will feature the Golfers in a later article. Always remember various colour combinations than those shown in the catalogues were  also used and sometimes even different materials.  I do hope you enjoy seeing these Wonderful Dolls.

Talk On Norah Wellings at the 200 Years of Childhood Weekend

 Norah Wellings Talk 19th November 2016.

I must start by saying a big Thank You to all those who came to my talk. It was wonderful to meet so many Norah Wellings Enthusiasts. For those who couldn't make it  please keep watching my blog as I will be sharing lots of what I talked about and Norah Wellings Dolls and Soft Toys here.

I have spoken on Norah Wellings before and usually my talk takes around 50 minutes but this time I wanted to try something different. I did a power point presentation for 25 minutes and Show and Tell for 25 minutes. I took lots of Norah Wellings Items for everyone to see and if anyone wanted to share their items they could. A few weeks before my talk The Doll Club of Great Britain bought out their 60th Anniversary edition of the their magazine The Plangon. A talk that I gave them 3 years ago was featured in the Magazine which was only available to Doll Club Members. I was very kindly given permission to copy the article written by their Editor to hand out at my talk, this way nobody missed out on any information.

I was very pleased that Thomas Plant from Special Auction Services introduced me for my talk. I asked everyone to put their name on a piece of paper and  at the end of my talk Thomas very kindly took out a name from a bag and I gave the winner a copy of my book ' Norah Wellings Cloth Dolls and Soft Toys',  now out of print and a small Norah Wellings Novelty English Policeman Doll ( I thought this appropriate as the Talk was in London). The person who won was very excited as they hadn't won anything before. I was very pleased about this, it sounded very familiar to me as I won a Norah Wellings in 1974 who started off my Collection. ( I haven't shared any names due to not having asked permission).

Please keep checking back as I have lots of articles to share with you and I am always happy to hear from you if you have any questions. You need to write to my email norahwellingsjournal@gmail.com 

London International Antique Doll and Teddy Bear Fair Magazine

                                  

 My goodness time is flying past and it will not be long until The London International Antique Doll, Teddy Bear and Toy Fair.  I am so excited as there are many seminars and I am booked to see some of them. I will also be speaking on Norah Wellings Saturday 19th at 10 a.m and I will also have a stall at the Fair under the name The Optimists on Sunday 20th. I am sure there will be some fantastic items at the Fair as there are so many top dealers attending. You will find all the information  you need at the link below.  The Magazine for the Fair is now available for £5 at the same link. It is a lovely glossy magazine and has lots of very interesting articles including ones from the Seminar Speakers, don't miss out. If anyone is coming to my talk or to the weekend I would love to hear from you, please email norahwellingsjournal@gmail.com 

 Please Take a look at the website as you can book to attend one of the many seminars , book a dinner for the Saturday evening, order Fair tickets. There is also information on how to get there Hotels, Parking and of course buy the wonderful magazine.
I hope to see you there.

Gill

 http://london-international-antique-teddy-bear-doll-and-toy-fair.myshopify.com/

(Just copy and paste into your browser if the link doesn't take you there )