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.

The Ivy Cottage Pop Up Playhouse

  I've had a doll post in the works, but things aren't cooperating. I can't find all the clothing to go with the doll, that I KNOW I have. I'm still looking for the last few things, so bear with me. On the bright side, doing research for the post I discovered that some other pieces I have that I hadn't yet identified, belong to said doll! So there will be some pieces included that I didn't even realize I'd have for the post.
  In the meantime, it has been ages since a kind reader named Christel gave me some information--- and even photos!---- of a toy I have been curious about for ages. I was having trouble moving the pictures from her email to my picture folder,and just didn't have time to figure out the problem with Christmas and all. Then I nearly forgot about it, because my brain is like that these days! But tonight I remembered again when I was actually at the computer, so now, with the photo problem straightened out, here we are.
  Some time ago I posted about the Ivy Cottage dolls,(You can read those posts HERE and HERE.) and books by E.J. Taylor.

The main characters of the Ivy Cottage books, rag dolls Violet Pickles and Ruby Buttons.

The first book in the series, which eventually included 5 books.

When my daughter Emma was small we read the Ivy Cottage books often, and we both had a set of the Ruby and Violet dolls. Emma also had a few of the Ivy Cottage PVC figures that Ken and I bought in Canada.

The back of the doll boxes shows the PVC figures at the bottom.

 She had Ruby Buttons and Miss Biscuit, and their goose Hanna Honk. But we were never able to find Violet. Here I have to stop and tell you that after all these years Emma's collection is complete! Christel and I were emailing about Ivy Cottage and I mentioned our Violet-less existence.Christel very kindly offered to send Emma a spare Violet she had! Even at 24 Emma was excited to receive her.
  The one thing I had never been able to find, or even find any information about, or even a picture of,was what was called on the back of the doll boxes and PVC packages 'the Ivy Cottage Pop Up Playhouse'. (Believe me, there is NOTHING on the entire internet about this house.) I never knew if it was a child's playhouse, or a house for the dolls.Either sounded pretty cool to me. The artwork in the books was beautiful.

If you read the other posts you'll have seen this before, but it's probably my favourite picture from any of the books.

I have searched for all these years for something about this house. And recently Christel dropped out of the sky with pictures of it!

  Christel bought her house second hand, and it didn't come with any furniture, so we still don't know if it originally came with any accessories.
   Here's what Christel has to say about the Ivy Cottage house:

Officially, it was known as the “Horsman Ivy Cottage Playhouse” from the “Horsman Design Studio”, and it was unfortunately made entirely of folding cardboard.  From the outside, it was covered with a leafy print, with a few “windows” spilling “light”, so it did not live up to my hopes.  

Because the construction was so flimsy, the floors would simply buckle up.  If you added furniture, it simply slipped into the corners, making it impossible to play with it. The cardboard insured that it would not survive. 
 

   So it's pretty disappointing to find this out after all these years of wondering! I still thought it was worth posting about the house though, simply because there is NO information about this house out there, let alone photos. So thanks to Christel for solving the mystery. Maybe now this house will no longer drive people crazy!