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D008 Folk Art Yarn GOLLIWOGG DOLL

This is a very colorful Folk Art Golliwog doll that makes you smile when you look at him. He has his own personality with those great big blue eyes. There are a few scares from being loved and played with. However if you have any kind of a talent with a needle and thread one can easily mend his pants where the thread has pulled apart in a few places. His seam also needs pulled together in a small place on one leg and then again at his crotch. This fellow has been made with wool yarn and knitted with love and I would estimate his age to be approximately 1950. Guaranteed old and authentic. Measures 21" long, and the head is 5" wide. What a great piece of folk art, and if you collect black memorabilia you will also want to add him to your collection.
In the April 8, 2003 Collector's Journal there was a featured article on 'The Grand Story of Golliwoggs' We have kept this article. Some of the interested points are; 'Just about a century ago a fantasy figure named Golliwogg appeared in print and captured the hearts of children throughout England and other parts of Europe. By the turn of the century the appealing Golliwogg image could be found nearly everywhere in the country. It was, in its way, the forerunner of Raggedy Ann and Winne-the-Pooh. The Golliwogg too, went from book to doll, toy, dishware and many other products. Just exactly what the true origins of the Golliwogg are remain uncertain. Historians say the Golliwogg images sprang from the imagination of Florence Upton who illustrated a series of delightful book starting in 1895 in England. The figure had only a minor role in the first book. The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls, but children loved it. 
Miss Upton's biographers say the creation was based in part on a cloth Blackamoor (African) doll she fondly remembered from her childhood. Other sources say some of the inspiration may have been from handmade dolls brought home by British soldiers from occupied Egypt during the latter 19th century. At any rate, Miss Upton's drawings, and the text provided by her mother, Bertha, gave the Golliwoggs immortality. After the first book there were a dozen more, and the Golliwogg name was incorporated in the title of every single one from the late 1890's, through 1909. Before the final book was finished Golliwogg dolls began appearing everywhere. Most of the early models were handmade, but some were also produced by the Margarete Steiff Company in Germany. The distinguished company offered these cloth dolls in white vests, red neckties, blue jackets, and black leather boots, ranging in size from 11 inches to more than 3 feet tall. 
For all her creativity Miss Upton never saw the need to copyright her creation, Thus, everyone was free to capitalize on her creative genius. - $175.