Merrythought Golli – Old Edric – signed edition

Description

Pre Loved Merrythought Golli.  Measures 30cm in height.  Retains original wishbone tag.  Limited Edition Number 7 from 12.  Signed on base of one foot by designer Jacqueline Revitt & Merrythought owner at the time of production, Oliver Holmes.

A little Merrythought History from Wikipedia:

Merrythought is a toy manufacturing company established in 1930 in the United Kingdom. The company specialises in plush toys, especially teddy bears.  Merrythought has handmade traditional teddy bears in the World Heritage Site of Ironbridge, Shropshire, UK since 1930.

The company’s site in Ironbridge has a small museum and shop open to the public, and is where the toys are made. The site is a former iron foundry building on the banks of the River Severn, less than half a mile (0.7 km) upstream from the world-famous Iron Bridge itself. The vicinity is known as Dale End, lying at the bottom of the Coalbrookdale valley, and falls within the wider Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site.

The origin of the firm’s name is uncertain but possibly derives from an archaic word for wishbone – the company has used a wishbone as an emblem from 1930.

Trayton Holmes, son of founder Gordon Holmes (1930), joined the company in 1949; his son, Oliver Holmes, joined the company in 1972 and eventually became the managing director. Also in 1949 notable designer Clifton Rendle died, while designer Florence Attwood lived until 1952. After the war new buildings were built on the site and an automatic stuffing machine was bought from the United States in 1955.  In 1957 the “Cheeky” bear was first introduced to the Merrythought range, a design which continues to be produced to the present day. In 1996 the Farnell brand name was bought by Merrythought.

In modern times some people now regard the golliwogg, or Golly doll, that is a traditional children’s toy dating back to the 19th Century, as a symbol of racism. From the 1930s Merrythought produced gollies as part of their traditional range and in August 2011 the Sunday People tabloid criticised Merrythought for producing Golly dolls, quoting the former athlete Darren Campbell who regards them as not in-keeping with “Olympic values”. The company defended the dolls as “an innocent, traditional British toy”.  Since the company came under new management in 2011 the range has been discontinued, with a review of the overall product range given as the reason.

Oliver Holmes died from cancer, aged 60, on 30 April 2011. The eldest of his three daughters, Sarah, was working at Merrythought at the time so took over the running of the company; she was shortly joined by her younger sister Hannah who left her career in London to join the family firm; together they are the fourth generation in the Holmes family to be involved in the company.  Sarah and Hannah Holmes are now joint managing directors.