 | ||||
Glove Puppets
Trumptonalia.
A range of 1960's Camberwick glove puppets produced by Chad Valley.
For years there wasn't a single known sighting of these.
But,as so often happens,one suddenly appeared on the collectables market
and a few more followed.
Still only a trickle though,and still very hard-to-find,but at least they're no longer
filed under "don't hold your breath"
Maybe we shouldn't be too surprised,given that glove puppets were never much
of a match for the punishment they often received.
This eBay pic of Mickey Murphy is the only one I've ever seen that still has its
original sales label.
And the listing confirmed he was about 9" tall and had a 1967 copyright mark.
Although Chad Valley were being a little optimistic when labelling him as "cuddly",
even if you'd like to think Mrs Murphy thought he was !
Continued below next pic ........
The pic,above,is taken from the 1970 Chad Valley trade catalogue,
and tells us the following :-
1) If that 1967 date was correct for the Mickey Murphy ebay survivor,then this proves a shelf life of at least 2-3 years.
Which is impressive enough even if 1970 turns out to be the last year of production.....which still needs to be established.
and,
2) All those featured are from Camberwick.
And when you consider that even Mrs Dingle got a look in,it's probably safe to assume there were quite a few more,over-and-above the obvious omissions like Windy and Captain Snort.
Although it's strange why there's no mention of them in this 1970 catalogue.
And even stranger if they brought them out in batches spread over different years.
But I can't think what other conclusions to draw,until copies of their 1966,67,68 and 69 catalogues surface somewhere.
And if you can shed any light on it then please do. As ever......Email on home page.
