toy collector

Just In – a New Aesop’s Fable Doll!

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Which doll is this?

Which doll is this?

Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post: I have a deep relationship with both the Aesop’s Fable cartoons and these splendid toys. (For another post on the subject and my collecting mania in general see my earlier post, Mine, all mine…at long last.) When I discovered the cartoons, well into adulthood, I felt as though these were finally the long lost cartoons I had always been looking for. Reel after reel of endless black cats and mice – chasing, charmingly anthropomorphic. I share an example that somehow is a high water mark for me Makin’ ’em Move, In a Cartoon Studio. It is, of course, animator cats, dogs and pigs, slaving away at the drawing table – just like something out of Boulevard of Broken Dreams…one of my favorite Kim Deitch books! 

The existence of the toys came to me even later, but I fell hard for them. The promotional photo below was my introduction to them. Not surprisingly, the cat in the polka dot skirt was my first acquisition – The Countess. I bought her in a Hake’s auction (I believe Kim helped on that one – in fact I believe he’s had a hand in helping to purchase virtually all of these. He’s very nice about supporting my habit.) We really paid up. She is pretty pristine. The dog in the red pants (Don the Dog) came off of eBay and I got a pretty good deal. The very hurt one on the lower right (another version of The Countess?) Kim picked up during a visit to San Francisco a few years back. The slightly grimy one in the maroon corduroy, I frankly don’t remember acquiring, although I am thinking it must have also been on eBay – he seems to have been altered and I am not sure who he is – Raffles is my guess.

The good news and the bad news it seems is since people don’t know what these dolls are so one most often just stumbles upon them.

Group of Aesop Fable Dolls

The question I pose for today is – which doll is this new one? It is generally thought that these six were it. But careful study shows he just isn’t one of them – and he’s in pretty pristine condition so I don’t think he’s been altered either. Any thoughts out there in cartoon land?

Aesope's Fables toys

Lastly, this tidbit I turned up while searching for the new doll. This is an old advertisement for a theater contest giveaway of Aesop’s Fables dolls! Oh lucky people of the past. Evidently the outsized Countess was four feet high and a replica of the doll! Would love to find that some day. As I’m sure you know, I will just keep looking.

Aesop Fable Doll Ad

Spooning with Felix

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Pam’s Pictorama: I have been giving these Felix spoons the sideways look on eBay for years now. Suddenly there was this one and no one was bidding on it and the next thing I know…I  own it! I am surprised to find that there is very little information available about the maker, or anything much at all about it at all. It is marked nickel silver, but no maker that I can see, and the smiling, dashing Felix is silver and black enamel. Someone selling one on a website claims that these spoons were made by Charles Horner of Halifax who was an Art Deco designer of jewelry. At first glance Mr. Horner seems a bit higher end than our friend Felix appears. Still, he seems to have produced a broad line of products so perhaps it is possible. It is a nicely made spoon. Like I said in my post, Living the Felix Life, when my ship comes in I plan to use Felix china for our everyday dishes and now I will make sure all the spoons are Felix as well!

When I informed Kim I had purchased the Felix spoon and showed it to him, he told me of his memory of owning an Ollie spoon as a child – part of a Kukla Fran and Ollie set of ice cream spoons with distinctly designed squared off shovel-like bowls at the end. Of course I immediately went to eBay and found a Kukla spoon – no Ollie spoon, except for one that had been made into a ring. It did make an attractive, if somewhat bizarre, ring and I briefly considered buying it – but really, where could I wear it?

Spoons are a surprisingly affordable collectible. The excellent design on some was a bit of a revelation – I saw a rather remarkably well designed W.C. Fields spoon for example – and the actual existence of others being the revelation, such as the Charlie McCarthy spoon or the Dionne quintuplets.  I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if there are some future spoon entries heading your way, dear reader, a future edition of Blame It on the Blog.

Felix on an Outing

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Those of you who are regular readers (or among Kim’s Facebook friends) will know of my ongoing passion for photos of Felix as a prop for beach photos. It is pretty much the cornerstone of my photo collecting, and makes up the bulk of my collection. This is one of two recent acquisitions in this area and I especially like it because the Felix toy does not appear to be a prop just for the photo. Instead this seems to be a much beloved toy, taking a trip to the beach with this little boy who is grasping him firmly in his arms. (Understandable – Felix does have a tendency to run off. See my recent post, Felix on a Leash for more on this. Felix joins another family photo in Felix Family Photo.) Written on the back, Dear All – hope you are all well  having a nice time weather glorious – Best love to all Ronie. (Could also be signed Rorrie.) Oddly, there is no stamp or postmark so if it was mailed it was in an envelope. Therefore, no date either. We’ll have to assume that Ronie/Rorrie expected that everyone knew the little nipper on the front of the card and did not comment on him, or Felix, in particular.

It is of some interest to me that our parents seem to mostly take photos of us with beloved toys when the toys are new. You rarely see a photo of a child holding some really ratty old toy that he or she has been dragging around with them forever. Yet, in some ways that torn-up, faded toy with the food stains, is the one that lives on in memory. Although I guess in our mind’s eye we still see them shining and new. I offer a photo here of me with my stuffed dog, Squeaky, when he was freshly new and immediately adored. And, of course, a photo of Squeaky today. He lives a careful life on a bookshelf now, He now longer squeaks, but his long-lashed brown eyes still open and close. Squeaky saw a lot of miles early in life and we are glad that he is enjoying his retirement here in the apartment with us.

Pam w: SqueakySqueaky in 2015

Blame it on the Blog 2: Bonzo Dog Edition

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Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post: A few weeks back while I was doing some research for my post Going to the Dogs – Bonzo I discovered that the fine British toy makers of Chad Valley made a vast variety of delightful Bonzo dog stuffed toys! And me being me, I had to have one.  I also found out pretty quickly that Bonzo toys are rarefied items and do not go cheap! As I have noticed in some early Felix toys, there seems to be a lot of variation in these toys, many sizes, but their expression as well, so not just any one would entirely do.(For more on my ode to the Chad Valley fine makers of Hygienic Toys, see Felix for a Cause.)  All this has culminated in this wonderful Christmas gift from Kim – welcome to our home Bonzo! Thank you Kim – you’re the very best husband!

As you can see, Bonzo has a bit of sleep sand in his eyes – this seems to be on most of them. Bonzo was, after all, a sleepy fellow. He still has his great little Chad Valley identification button and his Hygienic Toy Made in England Chad Valley Co Ltd tag.  This fellow came from a lovely eBay seller in Belgium who took excellent care to ensure that he reached our shores safely.

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Bonzo is now enjoying a special spot on a shelf with his earlier shown Bonzo brethren. In the interest of further Bonzo education I offer one of the great color full-page spreads snatched from the Google image file and a cartoon below. Ho, ho, ho!

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A Girl and Her Toys

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Another fine example of an item where Kim and I disagree! He’s never been fond of this triptych of toy photos, but I have always liked it since buying it many years ago on eBay. In recent years I have allowed it to be replaced on the wall by some images that we are more mutually fond of, but I stubbornly continue to champion it. My guess is that the small cat toy – barely visible here and in the lower right corner, is how it came to my attention. It really is all about this enormous, lovely teddy bear however. What a lucky little girl!

The background shifts a bit with each subsequent shot until we end up with that interesting bit of advertising featured behind her in the third shot. I will admit that these are somewhat inept from a technical point of view, going from slightly over exposed to too dark in the third shot. I am in love with the idea of a series like this though.

As the child of a man with a masters in film and a news cameraman (his entire career spanning more than thirty years spent at ABC News) you would think I would have been subjected to projects such as this. He did labor over his photos and I have memories of what seemed like endless adjustments of the light meter at a variety of family landmark moments while we stood impatiently. However, such a formal approach never appealed to him. I offer a Christmas snapshot of me as a tiny sprout with my favorite dog toy, dubbed Squeaky, one Christmas morning, who incidentally I still own. I think we can see early signs of a nascent toy collector in this one!

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Pluto

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: I never understood the importance of Pluto until we got a very nice disk of early Mickey Mouse cartoons issued a few years ago. (In fact I think I had Pluto and Goofy somewhat merged in my mind – what was Goofy all about anyway?) As Kim says, Pluto appears in the series and there is a whole new life to it. Suddenly I became a Pluto fan! Still, that doesn’t mean I meant to go out and start collecting Pluto toys. However, not long after, when I saw this hot Dean’s Rag Company Pluto go on auction (Morphys I think, maybe Hake’s) a few years ago I decided that I would scoop it up if I could get it for the right price – and here we are. Pluto, a lesser Disney character, was a bargain and now mine.

In the second photo I wanted to show his wonderful label on the bottom side – Dean’s Rag Company always does a nice job with that – and you get to see his paw pads and the nice leather collar he wears this way. He is a very well constructed toy and there is something very Pluto about him – the magic of the folks at Deans, in my opinion one of the greatest toy makers ever. Founded in 1903 Dean’s has been in continuous operation ever since, although they make only teddy bears today.  Their first product was cloth books, marketed with a hygienic toy label. I scooped the following quote from wanderingbooknut.weebly.com talking about Dean’s:

Pollocks Dictionary of English Dolls, The colours were fast, the produce certified as hygienic. The pages could be washed without damage, and sucked with impunity: perfect, in fact, for children who, in the words of the rag book’s originator, “wear their food and eat their clothes”.

The other Pluto came into my collection in an interesting way. I was watching American Pickers and Frank found one on a pick. As I occasionally do when there’s a really cool toy on their show, I looked it up on eBay and that night there was this nice, if slightly battered, example. Bam! On a whim, he was mine. He does rollover – somewhat laboriously in his case, and I do like to return to my wind-up toy roots occasionally.

Last, but not least, I have included an example of a 1931 Pluto and Mickey cartoon.  Enjoy!

Flip and Froggy

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Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post: The Frogs have it! Let me start with this – I don’t collect frogs. (Not that there’s anything wrong with collecting frogs.) However, as a toy collector these three have found their way into our home. Starting with Flip who I purchased on eBay. He is made by Dean’s Rag Company and I consider him an undervalued toy. Mine isn’t in pristine condition (he’s an old, old frog after all) but I bought him, unchallenged, for very little. No one needed Flip that day, but me I guess.  I am a fan of the Flip the Frog cartoons, although it wasn’t until well into adulthood that I caught up with them. (Kim introduced me to them. He saw them on tv as a child – says it was big news in their house when they went on tv. I’ve already discussed how impoverished my childhood was compared to his.) I can’t resist including a specimen cartoon – I don’t remember seeing this one before.  Flip really is one strange looking frog – even when he isn’t playing a dentist.

Next up is Froggy. This toy came to us as a wedding gift – thank you Monty! Smilin’ Ed and Andy’s Gang did not make it into the rerun tv packages of my childhood either, and I was introduced to Froggy and company while Kim was working on his book Smilin’ Ed.  (Brief commercial for the family product: you can find Smilin’ Ed here.) Kim worked on the story through our early years together so Froggy has endeared himself to me, despite being absolutely evil in the book. Here is a clip of Froggy in action (Incidentally, I have always wondered why there don’t seem to be any Midnight the Cat toys, but they’d probably be sort of scary anyway.)

So you can imagine my great surprise when a few years ago I wandered into the mall at Columbus Circle just before Christmas and there in a pop-up shop I found the new Froggy shown here! That’s right, someone found one of the variations on the Froggy toy and recreated him….as a dog toy. I bought up the few they had in stock and later found the company online. Needless to say, several people received Froggy toys that year! Should you wish to order a rather expensive, lead-free dog toy for you or someone else who appreciates vintage tv you can do so at Roll Over Red Rover. Perhaps given his misdeeds it is Froggy’s karma to end up reincarnated as a dog toy.