Book of paper cut-out dolls, Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin; possibly designed by Queen Holden, published by Stephen Slesinger; New York, 1935

Eight-page book of paper cut-out dolls representing characters from the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, plus costumes, colour-printed stiff paper. The dolls and their costumes can be punched-out from the pages, and dressed. The characters shown are Pooh, Christopher Robin, Tigger, Piglet, Kanga, Roo and Rabbit.

Purchased by the Museum in 2016 [2016/810].

Winnie the Pooh is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear, created in the 1920s by British author A.A. Milne. Pooh was based on a toy bear owned by his son, Christopher Robin Milne. The Pooh stories are some of the best-loved children’s literature ever produced, they have been translated into many languages, including Latin. US and Canadian rights to the character were purchased from Milne in 1930 by Stephen Slesinger (1901- 1953), it was at around this time Pooh acquired his now-familiar red shirt. Certain rights were licenced to Disney in 1961, they have since gone on to turn Pooh into a truly global commercial asset, boasting numerous feature films, television series’ and merchandise.

Stephen Slesinger formerly worked in publicity and also wrote children’s stories. By 1930 he was a seller of fabric designs to manufacturers. He had the idea of selling goods featuring the images of literary characters. On 6 January 1930 Slesinger bought rights from A. A. Milne for $1000 plus percentage profits to license his characters on products in the USA and Canada, and additional broadcast and performance rights two years later. He formed the Winnie-the-Pooh Association, Inc. on 20 August 1930. By 1931 Slesinger was boasting more than ‘200 different Winnie-the-Pooh items on the market, manufactured by twenty-odd concerns who do a gross business of over fifty million dollars annually* and include the Oneida Community, Ltd. (makers of Community Plate), Dennison, Dixon, Shawmut, Woolen Mills, New York Knitting Mills, and Richard G. Kreuger, Inc. These tems are sold through the infant and children’s book, toy, stationery, jewelry, silverware, chinaware, needlework, linen, handkerchief, perfume, phonograph, lampshade, and apparel departments in most stores throughout the country.

Within three years Slesinger had several times moved to larger and smarter offices, from Broadway to Fifth Avenue then Park Avenue in 1933. His success with Winnie-the-Pooh later led him to expand into other characters such as Tarzan and change the company name to Stephen Slesigner Inc.

In a letter inviting one manufacturer (Richard G Krueger) to license the character, Slesinger summed the appeal of Milne’s characters:
‘I want you to consider adapting the famous A. A. Milne character, Winnie-the-Pooh for use in your line. The modern child thinks and dreams in terms of Winnie-the-Pooh. The parents, who after all do the actual buying, are equally fond of the Milne books because of their sophisticated appeal. The department stores and retailers who sell books – and most of them so – have long been acquainted with Milne as fast-selling merchandise.’

At that time licensing literary characters for merchandise was almost unheard of: a contemporary writer St Clair McKelway wrote in 1935 in the New Yorker that ‘although the same sort of thing has been done in the field of visual art with such creations as Mickey Mouse, the Kewpie Doll, and the Little King, the case of the Winnie-the-Pooh Association represents a new angle in the writing business’.

Slesinger’s work received approval from Milne and his agents. Milne wrote a dedicatory verse in 1931:
‘The fellow’s name, Pooh used to think,
Was “Faithfully Yours-Slesingers Ink,”
Now, when he calls on Heaven to bless
His friend he names him “Stephen S”
And, giving thanks today, he’ll even
Elide the “s” and drink “To Stephen.”
(signed) POOH / A. A. MILNE

The American publisher was much less enamoured of what they believed was a threat to the market for the books and the ‘good name’ of Milne and Shepard, as letters in the E. P. Dutton Archive in Syracuse Elliot Macrae to the agent Curtis Brown show:

‘A great deal of harm has already been done to Mr. Milne’s and Mr. Shepard’s names, and a great deal of injury to the property of the publishers has ensued, because the other books have been used to make all kinds of different manufactured articles out of them. We cannot sell this book to the kind of people who will buy it, if these pictures are to be advertised and used for making all kinds of toys, wall-paper, lamps, table-cloths and napkins and every kind of gimcrack.’ (5 April 1932)

*50 million gross refers to total sales of the businesses not Winnie-the-Pooh

First edition.

From the 1930s through to the 1950s, paper dolls were among the most popular toys, a result of their relatively low cost compared to other playthings. This beautiful 1935 booklet of Winnie the Pooh paper dolls was probably designed by Queen Holden, one of the most famous designers of paper dolls in this period. The representations of the characters in this book bear a greater resemblance to E.H. Shepard’s illustrations for the original A.A. Milne stories than they do to other contemporary depictions of Pooh and friends. For instance, the somewhat shaggy Pooh Bear does not have his red shirt, a feature which first appeared in 1932. The existence of these dolls tells the story of the growth of character branding and licensing, and underlines the far-reaching appeal and legacy of A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books.

B.18-2016