Thursday, March 15, 2007

CAN YOU BELIEVE THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE THAT HAVE NEVER SEEN A GOLLYWOG

What a Weird Wide World Webbything we all exist in? Have you ever stopped to think about some of the expressions we use as we blog. I just did I was going to say "I overheard a conversation on a blog"
WTF? Or should I say H(ow)TF. What I should have said was I read a comment on a blog site from someone who is linked to this site and it's not Ice (this time) so it narrows it down a bit, that they had never seen a GOLLYWOG.
The story of the Gollywog is a little bit complicated as in sometimes it's difficult to know whether the controversy drove the product or the other way round!
They were banned because of political correctness some years ago but originally a label such as this was put on jars of Robertson's jams and marmalades.

You had to collect a certain number of labels and send off for a Golly badge, which of course you wore with pride, this one is from the 30's and ones in good condition fetch quite a price on E Bay etc.

The Gollywog itself became so famous that they made dolls, or rag dolls to be correct of the labels and the badges. Again some older ones do still exist but I've never gone to Doll Collecting on E Bay!

Some companies in both Ireland and Australia still make them and sell them by the thousand. Because despite all the colour controversy they are still incredibly popular but sadly no more on the side of jam jars!

6 comments:

SIMON said...

Funny thing is there was never offence intended, it was small minded people who get a kick out of telling people what they can and can't do!

tkkerouac said...

I love these dolls, I have one tiny one that I bring out for Xmas which I bought from a doll store, it was imported from England.
I just think they are so cute. Wish I could get a hold of one of these. My mother actually has the gollywog pin you posted.

Ice said...

LOL I used to have some of those, now mind you... mum was from there, so that explains that... but I'd believe it... I bet my German hubby hasn't.

SIMON said...

Hey tk so glad I overheard you with aka-k. They changed the designs to keep with the times and the last pins they did looked very happy, like the pictured label. Your mum's could be worth quite a bit.
The dolls are quite readily available on some non american! web sites but hugely expensive.

Hey Ice good to see you...As I said Can you believe etc. I honestly didn't believe that there were people that had never seen a gollywog but then that's the British viewpoint isn't it?
Ask him!

Ta both for the visit

Ice said...

My mum still has some Gollywog stuff, hers and her mothers(my grandmothers) from when she passed... I should get them off her, being that they are so rare 'round these parts... but they might scare my children, LOL!
Kidding : P

SIMON said...

Somewhere in the back of my mind there was a big fuss about them being scary! No it's true.

See you soon