Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Stuffed Creatures Part 3: Edward Gorey Commercial Made Dolls

Our final area of Edward Gorey collectible stuffed dolls & toys is the commercially made items (see my postings from October 6 & 28, 2010 for previous discussions on stuffed toys). The commercial dolls come in several different forms. Some had limited availability, while others were, and occasionally still are, available through catalogs such as Signals.

The rarest of the commercially made dolls is the limited edition Doubtful Guest figure which was created in 1974 under Mr. Gorey's supervision. This doll was discussed fully in my posting on October 20, 2008.

There were five characters created by Toy Works in the late 1970's and 1980. Each bean bag animal features full color printing on fabric, is stuffed with hard plastic beads, and each has a printed copyright date. The animals are printed front and back and the detailing on these pieces is really wonderful.

The Toy Works collection includes a Bat (1980), Cat (1978), Pig (1979), Frog (1980), and a Rabbit (1980).
The Toy Works Bat is the most common of the dolls and one of the most wonderful. The fabric is printed with Edward Gorey's distinctive cross hatching which has been shaded to give the doll more three dimensionality. The eyes of the creature are red rhinestones and the wings are stitched and stiffened. With its 14.5" wingspan, the bat is the largest of the Toy Works collection.
The Toy Works Cat is a favorite amongst collectors. Each 6.5" cat wears a printed sweater with boldly colored stripes. Cats were available wearing orange/yellow or two tone blue sweaters.
The Toy Works Pig is an animal of sartorial distinction. This pant-less farm animal stands approximately 7" tall and is attired in a snappy vest, bow tie, and jacket. Pigs are usually printed with pink skin, but I have a second example with light purple skin.
The Toy Works Cat & Pig were also available as "Sew It Yourself" kits. Unopened kits are fairly uncommon.
The Toy Works Frog is a collegiate fellow and can be relatively difficult to find. Decked out in a letter sweater and tennis shoes, this amphibian is ready for the big game. The frog is approximately 7.5" in length when laid flat and has button eyes. The frog is the most acrobatic of the animals. He can lay flat, drape over the edge of chair, or sit up to watch the game.

The Toy Works Rabbit is by far the rarest of the animals. At approximately 6" tall this snappy fellow is boldly adorned in a green jacket and orange/yellow kilt. When I first encountered a stuffed rabbit years ago at Matthew Monahan's NYC apartment, he told me that this animal was not put into regular production, and very few were created. The fact that I have only seen of three examples in 30 years of collecting reinforces this opinion. The example pictured to the left belongs to a fellow collector.

A Bah Humbug doll accompanied the limited edition of The Headless Bust. Since the book had an edition of 776 copies, there were 776 dolls made. These dolls have tons of personality and can be set about in many different positions.

A small number of extra Bah Humbug dolls were made and were sold individually by Gotham Book Mart. One interesting thing about the Bah Humbug dolls is that some were printed facing left and some facing right. I am not sure which is more prevalent or if there were equal numbers of each.
In 2003, Gund came out with a stuffed Gorey Cat doll. These cats come with different colored, removable knitted sweaters. The detailing on these plush pussycats is fantastic. They look like they stepped right out of an Edward Gorey illustration.

10 comments:

Chloe said...

Do you by any chance know where (other than ebay which I troll for these items regularly) any of these items, other than the Gund cat, could be bought? Thanks so much! This is an EXCELLENT collection- I'm jealous!

ampootozote said...

eBay seems to be the place where the stuffed creatures turn up most frequently...book dealers occasionally have the stuffed animals, but they are all getting harder to find these days.

There is a hand made Figbash and a Gorey bat in the Bloomsbury auction tomorrow...

Unknown said...

I've been going through some old boxes that were in storage and came across an unopened Gorey Cat 'sew it yourself' kit-(orange & Yellow) in PERFECT condition. I didn't know that they are such collectible an item!

ampootozote said...

Hmmmm...what else might you have hiding away?! That is a great Gorey find.

Unknown said...

I was wondering if it is better to leave the sewing kits exactly as is, or construct them as intended? Do you know which would have more worth?

Thank you,

Becky

ampootozote said...

The finished dolls and the kits are really two different collectibles at this point. Either sells for about the same price, but the "factory made" dolls are more valuable than "home made" dolls. The rarest of the dolls is the Rabbit in Kilt, and this one commands premium prices in either format.

Carol said...

Other than Worthpoint where can you find out what the stuffed toys are worth. I've searched the internet and can find nothing. I'm looking for the worth of a 6" stuffed cat, gray and blue striped, marked and dated (1978 Edward Gorey). I saw a Toy Works one on Etsy priced at $295 but I do not know if these are worth more because they are a beanbag one and a Toy Works. Thank you for any help!

ampootozote said...

That would be high for a Toy Works Cat. You can search on eBay. They are listed almost weekly and you will get a sense of pricing and what does and does not sell.

Carol said...

Hi again!

The ones on eBay appear to just be Toy Works beanbags or the newer Gund ones. I did not see a regular plush one which is what I have. Could it be that I have a Sew It Yourself Kit that someone did? As I stated previously it is dated 1978 and marked Edward Gorey, I do not know if the kit patterns are marked and can be seen when sewn together. I was trying to determine if the beanbag ones have more value than one that was a regular plush, but now I wonder the value if it is one that was a Sew It Yourself Kit. Again, thank you for any help!

CMB said...

Hi there, I just discovered this blog post and I wanted to comment. I don't know how many Gorey rabbits were put into production, but I know for a fact that they were sold by the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston around the time that there was a exhibition there of his works in the very early 1980s. I had one that was purchased their gift shop, along with the cat (sadly both were lost in a move at some point.) Perhaps they were only made for that one event, but I definitely had one and I'm sure that they weren't terribly expensive. That said, perhaps the manufacturer only made them for that one location for that one event.