DECIDEDLY DOLLY 8

Hello Everyone


Recently, I published a booklet on the history of the Hornby Flower Fairy dolls (available through booksellers) which contains illustrations of nearly all the known dolls in the series. Hornby Flower Fairies are enormously popular at the moment, with some of the rarer dolls selling for £400 plus. The dolls were based on the fairy characters drawn by Cicely Mary Barker in a series of books published in the 1920s, and, at just 6.5 inches high, were dainty and delicate. Their clothes were based on various flowers and included Rose, Poppy, Bindweed, Blackthorne, Red Clover, Narcissus, Lavender, Daisy, Marigold, Fumitory, Pink and Freesia. There were many more. Each fairy had a pair of pretty wings, in varying shapes and colours, which fixed to her back with a plastic peg. Additionally, there were several cute pixies, an inch smaller than the fairies, with jaunty hats and attractive costumes, amongst them Pine, Privet, Thistle, Holly, Strawberry and Plantain. The Pixies had wings as well.

Plenty of accessories were available, such as a Fairyland Home, Petal Pool, Secret Garden, Snail Cart, Fairyland Coach and Winged Horse, and collectors seek these as well. Many of the later fairies, pixies and accessories were only sold for a very short time, and are now almost impossible to find, which is why some sell for such vast sums. Occasionally, sellers place on ebay what they consider to be a standard ‘job lot’ of fairies – only to find the prices rockets to a hundred pounds or more, because a rare fairy, such as Mayflower or Orchid, is amongst the group. Those lucky sellers must be bemused by their good fortune; unfortunately, for most of us, the fairies we find at boot sales and in charity shops are the common kinds, which sell for much less. Still, we can dream!

Did you know that in 1917, a real fairy story evolved which was to hold thousands of people enthralled for decades? Two young girls, Frances Griffiths and Elsie White, who lived in Cottingley, Yorkshire, used to play at Cottingley Beck, claiming they were playing with the fairies. One day Elsie borrowed her father’s camera, saying she would prove their claim, and when the plates were developed they revealed photos of the girls and fairies!

Elsie’s father suspected a trick, and banned the girls from using the camera, but several years later, the photos were examined by experts and technicians at the Kodak factory, most of whom proclaimed them as genuine. Though questioned over and over again, Elsie and Frances stood their ground, adamant that fairies inhabited the beck, and that they hadn’t faked the photos. People pointed out that even when the photos were enlarged, there were no signs of paper creases, scissor cuts or pins on the fairies, and so they couldn’t have been drawn by the girls. It wasn’t until 1983 that Elsie wrote a confession. She claimed that she and Frances had drawn the fairies, fastening them in place with hatpins, before taking the photos. And so, that should have ended the mystery – but even now, some authorities are still convinced that there is more to the photos than meets the eye. Today, the photos, and the original camera which they used, can be seen in the National Media Museum at Bradford.

In my last blog I mentioned my book, Classic Playground Games, and I have had great fun lately, discussing the games and rhymes on various radio stations. At the beginning of October, I gave a talk at ‘literacy and numeracy’ conference. I was rather worried at having to speak to those important people; head-teachers, representatives of various authorities etc – but I soon had them all playing ‘Simon Says’! I have two doll books being published next year – Dolls of the 1950s, and Dolls of the 1960s, both by Pen and Sword – and I’m really looking forward to seeing them in print.

The 1950s and 1960s were classic decades for British dolls; collectors refer to them as the Golden Years. The market was buoyant, and the advent of the new wonder material – plastic – meant that beautiful, durable dolls could be produced more cheaply than ever before. Once vinyl was introduced in the late 1950s, doll manufacturers were ecstatic – now they could make dolls with rooted ‘hair’ which could be shampooed and combed without the risk of it all falling out. Also, because the dolls were now unbreakable, they could be fitted with mechanisms to make them run, dance and skate – it didn’t matter if the dolls took a tumble, because they wouldn’t crack. So innovation and one-upmanship was the name of the game, as manufacturers vied with each other as to who could produce the cleverest doll. Sadly, just a few years later, due to various factors, Britain had lost nearly all of its doll factories, and ever since, our dolls have been imported from abroad.

SueX