Motorised pram made by Dunkly of London in 1923 but it says Manx Norton on the photo.
The photo looked slightly odd, so I blew it up in Photoshop and confirmed the pram’s wheels aren’t turning, despite the nanny’s skirt appearing to be billowing slightly as though the contraption was moving. Suspect there’s a taut thread attached to the hem of the skirt and someone pulling it out of shot,
Bet it didn’t corner as well as later Nortons…
Especially going backwards. Brings a whole new meaning to upskirting though.
Cost as much as a Model T Ford apparently. For parents with a load of dosh!
Can’t be a Norton as all the parts are still there and it isn’t dripping oil.
Is that Fleas-Smugg in that pram with his nanny?
Isn’t that Jaco Ree-Smog in the pram?
Beat you
Snap
Yes you can see where the thread pulling the skirt has been retouched in the photograph.
I love the golliwog
Careful!! You never know who might take offence - tho’ God knows what else one calls them nowadays…
Hideous blackface doll?
The hideous bit is subjective of course, I appreciate some people like them, but then some people like Andouillette or Nigel Farage, so there’s someone to like everything
No, it’s Jacob Rees-Sprogg - not to be confused with the family cat - Jacob Rees-Moggy
Memories of childhood and getting Christmas hampers from England with lovely Robertson’s marmalade!
I loved the jolly doll and never associated it with anything living. But then, a few years later I also loved androgynous troll dolls with neon hair, so probably not the most discerning child.
I had 2 dolls… each with strong plastic body…
One with gently blushing cheeks and golden hair (all painted onto the sculptured plastic head) and blue eyes (which opened and closed !!!)…
She wore a dress of floral, lightweight material with white undies…
My other doll was black/brown skinned, fabulous dark eyes (which opened and closed) and (amazingly) a thick mat of tightlycurled (real, or so I thought ) black hair…
This doll had a red and white check dress, again, with white undergarments.
These dolls had arms and legs which could be moved, each head could be turned (gently) this way and that… in fact the whole package was (to me) very lifelike and I was thrilled… I loved them both.
Although at that age… I’d never seen a human being who was not “white” it didn’t occur to me to question any differences between the dolls. They were my babies…
My elder sister had similar dolls, but being 5 years older than I was… hers were of slightly different designs… and I seem to recall she had the cloth golliwog doll… which was her best pal.
Perhaps those very early days were when we first learnt to accept folk as we found them… to love them all…
My golliwog was hugged to bits. Another one was made for me (there were knitting patterns for all sorts of toys including those), but the second one was never quite the same.
Or Sauron’s minion, Jacob Rees-Mordor.
Do you remember you could collect the gollywog badges if you sent something in (I forget what) from each jar of Robertson’s Marmelade? I think your family needed to use up about 20 jars, for you to to send enough in for 1 badge.
Of course in far flung Empire this was not available to us (though we saw it on the labels) and we were sooo envious of British children in the UK.
But the biting one was Jacob Rees-Mordant - that’s a fine art etcher’s pun, so a tad obscure, will try and redeem myself with obvious mention of that family’s other animal de compagnie, Jacob Rees-Doggie.
But it must get very confusing for them, maybe that’s why he’s started numbering the progeny - was the last one Sextus or Septimus? Either way, I think the Vatican should have a word in his ear…
I believe that Alexander de Pfeffel Johnson has anointed his latest child with the name ‘Odysseus’. What is it about the Eton-taught Tories?