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Toy
Suffrage toy (incomplete) depicting a man and a woman, early 1900s. The woman wears a suffrage badge and holds a 'Votes For Women' banner. Formerly belonged to Olive Ivorene Jenkins of Porth, Rhondda.
The figures are dressed in textile clothes. They have painted ceramic heads, crudely carved wooden torsos and limbs (painted) which are assembled with metal wires which are anchored around a nail. The woman wears a dress made from pale red chintz fabric (tabby woven glazed cotton), which has now faded to a light brown colour. It consists of a long top which extends beyond her hips, a skirt and matching leg wear. The top is gathered at the neck and waist to give it shape (with hand-stitched running stitches using a black thread). Edge at neck is turned inwards, sleeves and front/lower edges are left raw. Skirt has a hand-stitched vertical seam using black thread and the single turn-back along the lower hem is secured with machine stitches. In addition to stitching, the dress is also held in place with adhesive in certain places (e.g legwear below knee, cuffs and upper sleeves).
Her head has a white base with details such as hair and facial features painted on top in red, brown, blue and black. She is wearing a black hat with red hat band and (possibly) the remains of a red decoration (feather/flower?) on the proper left side. The hat is also sculpted from plaster. Her wooden legs are painted to resemble white stockings and red shoes.
She is wearing a very large circular badge which is pinned to her front. It is prined in black reading 'VOTES FOR WOMEN' against a background of the suffrage colours (vertical stripes of purple, white and green). The printed paper is protected by a layer of clear film and is held by a frame of silver coloured metal. The metal frame is decorated with punched scroll work. In her right hand, she holds a flag: a metal wire is anchored into her hand and a rectangular piece of paper, printed in red with 'VOTES FOR WOMEN' is adhered to the upper section of the wire.
The man wears a white waistcoat and a tail coat and trousers made of black tabby woven cotton fabric (muslin?) (now faded to grey). The fabric appears to be coated with a chalky substance. He also wears a bow tie made from white cotton tape and a stiff upright collar made from paper. The base of his face is also white with facial details in red, brown and black and grey for the hair. His clothing has no seams, but is shaped and glued in place. All edges are raw. His carved feet are unpainted but the tops are a little darkened. The two figures are connected by wire: it comes out from the woman's torso, straight across into the man's torso, back out again and in the middle, between the two figures is bent at 90 degrees downwards and extends beyond the feet of the figures by approx 3.5cm.