A History of Doll-Making: A Welsh Perspective 10 August 2012 A male doll from the late 19th century Amgueddfa Cymru houses a fine collection of dolls dating from around 1800 to 2000. Made from a range of different materials, they all possess some link to Wales. From early wooden examples to contemporary plastic figures, the development of doll-making can be traced from simple, home-made items to mass-produced factory goods. Playtime in the Ancient World Past and present, children have always played - escaping to their own imaginary world is an integral part of a healthy and stimulating childhood. Primitive dolls from materials such as wood and clay have been found in Egyptian tombs dating from 1600 BC, and such figures were enjoyed as playthings in ancient Greece and Rome. The Middle Ages saw dolls being produced in Europe, and as the centuries progressed, so did the variety of materials employed to create dolls and toys in general. Doll classification Dolls are classified according to their head type. Most early dolls in the woodcarving areas of Germany and Austria were, unsurprisingly, made from wood. Wax dolls appeared during the 17th century, and by around 1800 composition dolls, namely mixtures of pulped wood or paper, were introduced in Germany. Papier-mâché, a type of composition and a cheaper alternative to wood, was a popular mix and its mass-production during the early-nineteenth century marked the beginnings of the German doll-making industry. The production of glazed porcelain, or china dolls during the mid-19th century meant that wax doll-making had halted by around 1890. Porcelain dolls boasted a shiny appearance, creating a very pleasing finish. Most were produced in Germany and France. Also common in both countries from around the 1860s were dolls of bisque (unglazed porcelain), which featured delicately painted faces and a most attractive skin colour. While the heads were of china, the dolls' bodies tended to be of leather or wood. Historically most dolls were representations of adult women, the French 'bebe', popular in the 1880s, depicted a younger girl for the first time. The 19th century was truly a golden era for the production of dolls, whether in wood, wax, or china, when most were made in Germany, France, England (and later in the United States). This anti-suffragette 'voodoo' doll is an unflattering and grotesque caricature of a suffrage campaigner. The anti-suffrage movement used images such as this in cartoons and posters to ridicule and insult women who wanted the right to vote. An Edwardian suffragette rag doll, c.1890-1900 Set of three miniature bisque dolls, c.1920-25 Whereas travelling fairs and markets commonly sold toys and dolls during the pre-industrial era, by the 19th century more permanent toyshops had been opened to sell goods on a regular basis. Undressed dolls were often purchased, after which mothers or their daughters sewed their own outfits, either following their own designs or shop-bought patterns. The sewing of the body is a good indication of a doll's date, for sewing machines were not generally used until about 1870. By this time, dolls were generally becoming less of a luxury item and more affordable for a larger audience. In Wales, however, until the mid-20th century few Welsh families had money to spend on anything save life's essentials, which usually meant creating one's own forms of entertainment and amusement. Dolls were made by local craftsmen or a child's parents from wood or cloth, thus being rather unsophisticated, yet, at the same time, often charming and full of character. Owing to new production methods, the toy industry in Britain was transformed following the Second World War by the emergence of new, cheaper materials, such as plastic. Prices dropped as toys and dolls became available for all children. Hard plastic dolls were first manufactured in the 1940s, and from then on, such brightly coloured and fashionable new creations led to the demise of home-made items, which appeared rather dowdy in comparison. The internationally successful Barbie doll first hit the shelves from America in 1959 and nowadays, large toy shops stock a staggeringly large array of dolls, many of which are based on female characters from popular films and television programmes. The Museum's doll collection continues to grow and it is important that contemporary examples are collected to reflect the changing nature of doll-making as new materials and techniques are introduced into the market. Welsh connections remain essential, with the doll needing either to have been made or played with in Wales before it can be accessioned. The Museum is particularly proud of its Welsh costume dolls, ranging from rare mid-19th century pieces to a 1999 'Cool Cymru' Barbie smartly donned in Welsh dragon dress.
Food from our shores 23 July 2012 Introduction Cockle-gathering on Llan-saint beach. Cockle–gathering tools — a large sieve, a rake and cocses (a bent sickle blade). For centuries, communities living close to the coast have taken advantage of the source of food available to them on the beach or coastal rocks. There is extensive evidence from prehistoric and Roman sites that shellfish have been harvested in Wales throughout the centuries. Free for their collecting, shell-fish have been found in profusion along the coast, the types most commonly collected and marketed by ordinary people being cockles and mussels. Cockle gathering During the latter half of the nineteenth and early decades of the 20th century, female cockle-gatherers were regular stall-holders at urban markets in south Wales. Others sold their harvest from door to door in industrial and coastal villages in both north and south. Cockles, boiled and removed from their shells (cocs rhython), were usually carried in a wooden pail, balanced on the vendor's head, while the untreated variety (cocs cregyn) were carried in a large basket on the arm. By the time she reached her eightieth year one woman from Llan-saint, a coastal village in south Wales, had experienced sixty years of beach-combing for cockles. She referred to the usual pattern of daughters succeeding mothers in this occupation. They were dependent on this source of income. She recalled selling cockles for halfpenny a pint, but towards the end of her career the same quantity was sold for sixpence, a very mean reward for the tedious work involved. Gathering, washing and transporting them home from the beach was the initial stage, which had to be followed by a second process of washing, boiling and further transporting for marketing. Served with bread and butter or oatcakes, cockles made a light meal and were included in various dishes containing eggs or milk and chives. Women in the village of Penrhyndeudraeth, Merioneth, would sing the following rhyme as they sold the shellfish from door to door: Cocos a wya Bara ceirch tena Merched y Penrhyn Yn ysgwyd 'u tina (Eggs and cockles Thin oatcake The girls of Penrhyn Their bottoms ashake) Welsh caviar? Laver gatherer huts (1936) Another important food product from the sea was an edible seaweed called laver. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries women living in the coastal regions of Anglesey, Glamorgan and Pembrokeshire were ardent gatherers of laver. Collected from sea-shore rocks and stones, it had to be washed in seven lots of water to rid it of all its grit and sand. All excess moisture was then removed, and the clean laver boiled away slowly in its own moisture for some seven hours. Finally, it was drained and chopped very finely to give a greeny-black pulp. Tossed in oatmeal and fried in bacon fat, it was usually served with bacon. Know as bara lawr, llafan or menyn y môr, laverbread was prepared as a commercial product by Glamorgan families, and was sold along with the cockles on the market stalls. At one time, these two items were prepared and sold strictly by low-income families. Eventually their marketing was developed into commercial enterprises of considerable importance. Today laverbread, often called Welsh caviar, has found its way on to delicatessen counters and is offered as an hors d'œuvre in first-class restaurants.
Captain Scott’s Welsh Flag Elen Phillips, 1 March 2012 The Terra Nova leaving Cardiff on 15 June 1910. The Welsh flag flies from the mizzen mast, while the White Ensign flies from the mizzen gaff. On the foremast is the flag of the City of Cardiff. The Welsh flag made by Howell & Co and presented to Captain Scott's Antarctic Expedition. Full-page advertisement for James Howell & Co - featured in a guide to the National Pageant of Wales, 1909. Published by the Great Western Railway Co. The textile collection of Amgueddfa Cymru includes several Welsh flags. Most were originally hoisted above civic buildings; one has even flown in outer space! The oldest and largest example in the collection is associated with another daring mission — Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s 1910–13 British Antarctic Expedition.The flag in question was displayed at a departure dinner held for Captain Scott and his officers in Cardiff on 13 June 1910 and was flown on the Terra Nova as the ship sailed from Cardiff and when she returned in 1913.On St David’s Day 1911 and 1912, the flag was hoisted in Antarctica at Scott’s expedition base hut.Made from a coarse woollen fabric, with selvages at the top and bottom edges, the flag measures an impressive 3.45m x 1.83m. The dragon motif is a cut-out which has been machine stitched to the green and white ground fabric. Details — such as its claws, tongue and eyes — have been achieved using black and white paint.James Howell & Co. of CardiffWe do not know who stitched and painted the flag, but we do know that it was made by James Howell & Co in Cardiff, probably by its dressmaking department.During a lunch held for Lieutenant E. R. G. R. Evans of Scott’s expedition on 1 November 1909, Howell’s offered to make a large Welsh flag for him ‘to take to the South Pole’. Evans had given up plans for his own Welsh Antarctic Expedition and had joined Scott as second-in-command.Evans was particularly influential in drumming up publicity and donations to the expedition, largely through the editor of the Western Mail, Willie Davies — it was Davies’s wife who came up with the idea of presenting a Welsh flag to the expedition.Cardiff ‘one of the most enterprising cities in the Empire’The inhabitants of Cardiff, in particular, had embraced the British Antarctic Expedition like no other region. Having achieved city status in 1905, Cardiff’s civic leaders were on a re-branding mission. They wanted, in the words of the Town Clark, J. L. Wheatley, to promote Cardiff ‘as one of the most enterprising cities in the Empire’.Closely associating the city with Scott’s voyage to Antarctica — one of the last great frontiers — was indicative of this newfound civic confidence.James Howell was a prominent figure within Cardiff’s business community. His department store, James Howell & Co., established in 1865, was the largest of its kind in Wales. It is of no surprise that James Howell felt compelled to contribute in some way to Scott’s venture. He had a track-record of ‘sponsoring’ civic events in Cardiff. In early 1909, he supplied one of his buildings on Wharton Street free-of-charge to the National Pageant of Wales. Postcard issued to commemorate the National Pageant of Wales, 1909 The Marchioness of Bute as 'Dame Wales' at the National Pageant of Wales, July 1909. In the summer of 1914, the Museum held a temporary exhibition of Edward Wilson's Antarctic watercolours and sketches. Wilson was Chief Scientist on Scott's expedition and died with him on the return journey from the South Pole in 1912. The exhibition was held in the City Hall as the Museum building was still under construction at that time. The Welsh flag and the flag of the City of Cardiff, both flown on the Terra Nova were displayed on the wall at the back of the exhibition. The two penguins in the display case are still in the Museum's collections. National Pageant of WalesThe National Pageant was essentially the great and the good of high society re-enacted scenes from Wales’s heroic past. The Pageant organisers required 40,000 items of costume and a team of 800 ‘lady workers’ were drafted in to help. For six months, the ladies set up camp in Wharton Street. As a Pageant sponsor, Howell would have also supplied professional dressmakers from his own workforce. Indeed, the iconic ‘Dame Wales’ dress worn in the Pageant’s opening scene on 26 July 1909 is remarkably similar in execution to the Terra Nova flag.Both the dress and the flag have similar, naïvely designed, appliquéd Welsh dragon motifs. Made probably only months apart in workrooms associated with James Howell & Co., could they have been stitched by the same hands?The Welsh Dragon of the 1890sThe dragon on the Terra Nova flag is noticeably different from that on today’s flag. It is more upright, a dragon segreant, rather than a dragon passant. This style of dragon was common during the 1890s and early 1900s. It can be seen, in various guises, on eisteddfod bardic chairs from this period, as well as on a host of other national insignia. The dressmakers of Howell’s probably adapted the Terra Nova dragon from such sources.Standardising the Welsh FlagIn 1910, the National Eisteddfod of Wales wrote to the Museum asking for advice on the design of the dragon: ‘We are anxious to have as near as possible the true form of the device’. A curator replied: ‘I regret to say that we have no authentic specimen of the animal in the National Museum’. The letter was handed to Mr Thomas Henry Thomas, a recognized authority on these matters, who had for many years attempted to standardise the Welsh dragon. His sketches and papers are now deposited at the Museum.The flag gets cut up for souvenirsWhen the Terra Nova returned to Cardiff in June 1913, with this Welsh flag flying from the mainmast, the Western Mail noted that it was ‘considerably smaller than when first hoisted three years ago. While the Terra Nova was berthed at Lyttleton, in New Zealand, the representatives of the Welsh societies at that port were allowed to cut away portions of the flag and to keep them as mementoes of the expedition’.At a dinner held in the Royal Hotel on 16 June 1913 to mark the expedition’s return to Cardiff, Teddy Evans announced that the flag was to be given to the National Museum of Wales. However, following the festivities there seems to have been some confusion as to what Evans had done with the flag. He thought he had given it to the Lord Mayor, but in fact it was found in the Royal Hotel some four months later!
Hooks, wheels and rag dolls 16 December 2011 Home-made toys A group of children, photographed around 1892 in Rowe Square, Cardiff, with one holding an iron hoop and two others sitting on what appears to be an upturned wheelbarrow. In Wales, as in many parts of the world before the rise of factory-produced items, the toys of yesteryear consisted of unsophisticated, home-made objects, constructed from whichever raw materials were locally available. Wood was the main material used to make children's toys, as it could easily be shaped into a wide variety of objects such as dolls, spinning tops and rattles. Also popular were iron hooks and wheels and footballs made from pigs' bladders. These were commonplace at home and in schoolyards and would entertain children for hours. Being in possession of a ball opened the door to a host of exciting team games such as rounders, hand ball and football, especially for boys, while both boys and girls would roll wooden or iron hoops to their hearts' content, either on their own, or in competitions to see who could roll the fastest, the slowest or the furthest. Treasured possessions Homemade toys such as these were played with in Wales before the rise of factory-made products. The cup and ball, whistle and rattle shown are modern replicas. Folk toys describe playthings made either by the child, or by parents or craftspeople according to the child's wishes. In nineteenth-century Wales children from poor families where little money was available for life's essentials, let alone playthings, owned only the simplest of toys. These, however, would have been treasured possessions and a means of escaping the harshness of daily life. With poverty the reality for many families at this time, making one's own forms of entertainment and amusement was a necessity, and children were justifiably proud of fashioning their own toys out of nothing. All that was needed for a paper kite, for example, was a light wooden frame and some paper, while even the youngest children could create a hobby horse from a stick and a considerable amount of imagination. For a see-saw, two wooden planks were often placed one over the other on a barrel. Two children would then sit either end, happily rocking up and down until they tired. Ropes could be used for skipping, or climbed by securing one end to a strong branch, leaving the other end free to be scaled by the brave and fearless. For boys, creating such objects as paper kites, toy boats or catapults was extremely satisfying, while girls could use their needlework skills to make rag dolls and dolls' house pieces, or play drapers' shops using little scraps of material. Mass-produced toys Toy steamroller, produced by Glamtoys Ltd at Treforest Industrial Estate, late 1950s Until the early twentieth century, bought toys belonged almost exclusively to the wealthy. As methods of mass-production improved, however, more affordable toys were made available. These transformed the toy market in Wales and elsewhere. Toy factories were opened in great numbers, and as their marketing and advertising campaigns became increasingly high profile, they reached children of all social backgrounds. As a result the simple folk toy became surplus to the requirements of most youngsters, who stopped making their own toys and saved their pennies for the brightly-coloured, decorative and more fashionable shop-bought versions.Although home-made folk toys are often regarded today as somewhat quaint and quirky, in recent years a growing number of craftsmen have begun to turn their hand to toy-making, perhaps in reaction to the large number of factory-made items shipped into Britain from elsewhere. Despite the continuing dominance of commercially-made toys, most people would agree that home-made objects possess a more enduring appeal, for who could deny the innocent and timeless charms of such items as a knitted finger-puppet or a painted peg-doll? The unique individuality of hand-crafted pieces and the care and patience that have gone into their creation undoubtedly tell us more about the maker than a mass-produced Barbie or computer game ever could.
Witch-bottles and healing charms 16 June 2011 Bitten by a mad dog or cursed by a witch? Ever wondered what you should do if you were bitten by a mad dog or cursed by a witch? In Wales it was a common practice, as late as the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in some parts, for people to use various kinds of charms for healing or protection against witchcraft. These could be in the form of prayer-like words, which were recited or written on a piece of paper to be safely hidden, while objects such as shoes or stones were also believed to cure illnesses and bring good luck. Snakestones Adder stones from Pen-tyrch, Glamorgan The most renowned stone charms in Wales are the Maen Magl or Glain Nadredd — snakestones. In 1695 Edward Lhuyd described these as Cerrig y Drudion — Druid stones. The belief was that they were created when snakes joined their heads together, forming a kind of bubble about the head of one snake. This 'bubble' is similar to a glass ring like the one found at Twyn-y-tila, Caerleon, and was thought to bring good luck to whoever found it. It was also believed to be a remedy for eye diseases and was often in great demand. The term Maen signifies a stone and Magl is an ancient word for an eye ailment such as a stye. The water in which the stone had been soaked could be dabbed on the affected area, but the most common form of treatment involved rolling or rubbing the stone over the eyelid. People used to use the expression 'fel y glaim', literally 'like the stone', to mean very healthy. A cure for rabies Hydrophobia stone from Henllan, Ceredigion The Llaethfaen or hydrophobia stone, thought to cure rabies, is a variant of the Maen Magl. In his Folk-Lore of West and Mid Wales, Jonathan Ceredig Davies wrote about a llaethfaen that was 'very much in request' because it was widely believed to cure those bitten by a mad dog, a common problem in the nineteenth century. Whether it had curative or preventative powers, those who used the stone were said to be safe from hydrophobia. Iolo Morgannwg described seeing a stone like this in Pembrokeshire in 1802, when he met a man who carried one around the country. He would scrape it into a powder which could be dissolved into a drink, and sell it for five shillings an ounce as a remedy for rabies. Witch-bottles and pots Now a witch bottle is a totally different kind of charm. Take this eighteenth- century Buckley pot, or witch-bottle, found buried at the foot of an old yew tree at Allt-y-Rhiw farmhouse near Llansilin, Powys. What is interesting about the jug is that a quarter if it was filled with lead. This suggests that it was used as some form of protection or, indeed, as a means of sealing or capturing a troublesome spirit, similar to the concealed shoes in our collection. Often with witchcraft beliefs the act of sealing an object within a bottle or pot symbolised the entrapment of the evil spirit, and so was used as a protective charm. There are many tales of troublesome ghosts being 'put down' in this way, like the ghost of 'Lady Jeffreys' who was persuaded to enter a bottle which was corked and sealed and thrown into the pool underneath the Short Bridge in Llanidloes. Conjurers or dynion hysbys When any bad luck occurred a conjurer was consulted to discover who had done the "witching", one such conjurer was Evan Griffiths from Pantybenni. People who had been bewitched could also carry out their own counter-magic rituals by placing sharp objects like thorns and pins inside a bottle, which was usually filled with the victim's urine. It was then sealed and boiled over the fire or buried under the hearthstone. This was believed to torment the witch into revealing her identity, thereby breaking the spell. The bottle symbolised the witch's bladder, and so the sharp objects were believed to cause her much pain. Alternatively, you could buy a charm from a dyn hysbys — wise man. These figures were very common in Wales at one time, and their services ranged from countering witchcraft, healing, and astrology, to fortune telling and uncovering lost property. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Llangurig was especially famous for its dynion hysbys. Charms against witchcraft were written on a piece of paper which was carefully rolled up and sealed inside a bottle. This was then placed under the hearth or hidden in one of the main beams in the house, thus ensuring protection from witchcraft and any other evildoer. Should you find one of these charms, as with the concealed garments, remember to take photographs and record the details of exactly where you found it, and contact your local museum. Whatever you do, mind, always remember to keep the bottle sealed!
