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A new addition to the Pelham Puppet display case is this fresh-as-the-day-she-was-made Gretel, alas without her Hansel, but as good an example of the little puppet as I’ve seen. Hansel and Gretel first appeared in the Pelham range in 1954, though I estimate this version dates from a decade later. I found her yesterday in the back of an antique shop, neatly cradled in tissue paper in her original box. Somebody has looked after her extremely well. The fact that she’s in such good condition and was not at all expensive, meant that she left the shop with me, and now hangs alongside other marionettes from my Pelham collection. I rarely acquire Pelham marionettes these days, being entirely happy with what I already have. But sometimes something nearly falls into your lap, and so it was yesterday.
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Gretel keeping company with Enid Blyton’s Big Ears.
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Puppets from the popular SS range. L to R: cowboy, cowgirl, Dutch girl and Tyrolean boy.
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L to R: an early policeman (made 1950-53), a sailor, a gypsy, a soldier and a Tyrolean girl.
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The earlier puppets can be dated by the colour of their boxes, which were brown before the introduction of the well-known yellow ones. The paintwork of faces can indicate manufacture date, as can the costumes. The colours of their strings too, give clues. (Later puppets have coloured strings.) The brownish skin tone and the style of painting indicate this policeman is quite an early puppet, as do the fine details of his uniform. His number, PC 89, is embroidered in the tiniest chain-stich.
What a find! I try to imagine the feeling and the excitement of such a discovery! Maybe Gretel has waited just you! She looks at her place among the other marionettes! Can you manipulate them? You have a pretty big collection.
I’m just wondering where’s Hansel now – maybe old and forgotten or kept with love and care…
I wish Hansel had been there too. I certainly wouldn’t have split them up, and would have come away with two puppets instead of one!
Lucky you! What a wonderful find!
Actually Anita, it was Meri who told me where to look. She’d seen some puppets in the back room of a shop and recommended I drop by. There were a few of them, but nearly all ones I already have. Unusual to find puppets in such good condition. Lucky me indeed.
If the others were in such good shape, you could sell them to collectors via Ebay. Might make some other grown up boys and girls very happy! Just a thought. How many we’re there? Which were they? (My curiosity does not mean I want them.) ; )
AM
From what I remember, an SM minstrel (moving mouth type) a Dutch girl and boy, an old lady and a couple of junior puppets… a girl and boy I think… with simple controls. Maybe one other, but I can’t quite recall which. All in good condition, and I imagine they’re from the same source. Dating from the 1960s, before the company started using plastic hands. But fairly commonplace, and certainly nothing to make me seriously think I should purchase them to sell on. If you want them you should tell me quickly, and I’ll go back. But don’t get carried away with the notion that they’re rare and there would be much profit to make. They’re not, and there wouldn’t be.
I have too many really, but they give me a lot of pleasure. (Including my snake-charmer!) (-;
No, we don’t need any more puppets… we love the ones we have though. Especially the ballerina you gave to Helen. xo AM
Ha ha! OK, we’ll leave those Pelhams to languish in the back-room of the shop for someone else to discover and enjoy.
(-;
Oh how I wish I’d kept my Pelhams. I had the gypsy she was called Mitzi. I often wondered if all the gypsy’s created were given different names.
Two of the puppets were called Mitzi and Fritzi, though the Mitzi wasn’t the gypsy brunette, but a Lana Turner-esque blonde with a jaunty hat and flowered skirt. Fritzi was the chocolate-box soldier in a red jacket. And no, the names didn’t change, but stayed constant for the many years the characters were produced. I don’t think the gypsy had a name. The labels on the boxes for her always read ‘Gypsy’. Mitzi and Fritzi were in the same ‘SS’ range as the puppets identified either by nationality or calling, but were the only two I know of with names. The rest went by the descriptions Dutch boy and girl, Tyrollean boy and girl, gypsy girl (no gypsy boy) cowboy and cowgirl, sailor, policeman etc. And they all had those distinctive round heads and button noses. Bob Pelham had a liking for Hollywood glamour, and the girl puppets sported a distinctive lacquered maquillage, with whip-thin eyebrows, curling lashes and glossy red lips. Although they were relatively simple in comparison to the puppets with moving mouths, or the characters with modelled heads, the ‘SS’ puppets were… and still are… my favourites. There’s just something so pleasingly schematic about them.
Of course! You are so right. I’d forgotten the blonde with her hat, and of course I did have both so that must have been why I remembered the name Mitzi though I loved the gypsy character with her dark hair and earrings and fringed shawl. Wonder where they are now? Hopefully being cherished by someone, along with George Harrison and Ringo Star – how mad was I to give them all away to a former friend for his children to play with. I shall have to keep a look out for them I think though the Beatles ones will be harder to find these days I should think.
I too lost all my childhood puppets, Jacqui. This collection has been assembled as an adult. If I’d held on to the Pelhams I’d had as a child, I certainly wouldn’t have started collecting again as an adult. The collecting began because I was trying to replace what had been lost, but once I’d done that, I continued, because I was in the habit.
You really do inspire! I shall therefore keep my eyes open for those gone so I can share them with Lucy and Joe, and hopefully others along the way to share with you all. thanks j x
Your conversation with Anita reminded me that my sister had a ballerina and a witch too, I’d forgotten those, wonder if she still has them I shall have to ask.