Doll-A-Day 2023 #170: Violet Pickles Figure and Goodbye E.J. Taylor

    If you've been reading the blog for a while you may have seen my posts on Ivy Cottage dolls. Ivy Cottage was a book series by dollmaker E.J. Taylor, about a retired nanny named Miss Biscuit, and her live rag doll, who move to the country to live in an old ivy covered cottage. Violet is lonely, so Miss Biscuit makes her a companion named Ruby Buttons. 

  There were several sizes of dolls of  the main characters from the books, Ruby Buttons and Violet Pickles. I read the books to my kids when they were little. Emma and Ivy loved them, and Emma had a set of Ruby and Violet dolls.

Like these.

  I also posted about a set of dolls based on a couple of  the lesser characters from one of the books, Cecily Thistle and Rag Bag Annie. These dolls are a lot less known. In fact, my set is the only one I've ever seen. I found it online one year, and Ken got it for me for Christmas. 

  Something I've mentioned before, but never posted about, is the small PVC Ivy Cottage figures. They were also made by Horsman, like the dolls. They were approximately 2 1/2 inches tall. They were carded figures, and we found them in Canada when Emma was very small. She already had the first book and the soft dolls, and she loved playing with little figures, so we bought them for her. She had Ruby Buttons, Miss Biscuit, and their goose, Hanna Honk. But we never managed to find Violet Pickles. 

  Years ago I mentioned the figures and the Ivy Cottage Pop Up Playhouse mentioned on the back of the doll boxes. We never found it, and had no idea if it was a playhouse for kids, or a house of some sort for the dolls or figures. A kind reader named Christel messaged me that she had, in fact, had the Ivy Cottage house, and offered to send me pictures.

You can read what Christel had to say about The Ivy Cottage  . She didn't think much of it, but I'm sure Emma would have loved it. As Christel and I were emailing about the house, I mentioned that we had never managed to find Emma a Violet figure. Christel was so unbelievably nice that she sent Emma her extra Violet Pickles!

That was, as I said, years ago. The package was in better condition then!

The front of the package shows E.J. Taylor's illustration of Ruby and Violet as they look in the books.

Except their clothes are different colours!

The back of the package tells a bit about the story and characters.

Funny that the package doesn't mention the Ivy Cottage Playhouse. I read about it either on the packages of the figures, or of the dolls. Maybe it was only sold in Canada?

  Here's Violet. She comes with her bear, which she loved, and a book, her other love.

In the books her dress is always light green, as were the doll dresses. The figure is in purple, like the illustration on the package.

The back of the package shows all four figures that were available.

Ruby is still dressed like the book illustrations.

Ruby loves animals and has a pet mouse.

Violet.

Miss Biscuit.

Emma called hers by another name. I knew she knew who it was, so I asked her what she was calling it. She told me and I nearly died laughing. The figure bears a great resemblance to a man we knew, and that's what she was calling it! She was only about 2 maybe, but she was absolutely right!

The 4th figure is their goose, Hanna Honk.

 Violet is unopened, and will probably stay that way a while longer at least. Emma was 24 when she was sent Violet, and very happy to have gotten her.

  In doing this post I found that E.J. Taylor passed away last December from complications from diabetes. He was very talented, and created amazing art dolls. You can see his memorial on the NIADA site HERE. The Ivy Cottage books were just a side project. It seems they have an almost cult following though. The post on the Ruby and Violet dolls is, in fact, one of my all time highest viewed posts. People ask me quite frequently if I have any Ruby or Violet dolls to sell, as they read the books to their kids when they were little, and are now reading them to their grandchildren and want to give them the dolls. Or some people had the books or as kids, and now want to share that with their children. The books were published in the late 1980's, so the fact that they are still living on over 30 years later is a testament to the warmth and love they hold.

  That's the doll for today. See you again tomorrow.