Not on display

Happy

Soft Toy
1954 -1955 (manufactured)
Artist/Maker
Merrythought Limited (manufacturer)
Place of origin
England (manufactured)

Merrythought made its first teddy bear in 1930. The company employed key staff who formerly worked for Chad Valley and Farnell. It quickly established itself as one of the leading teddy manufacturers. As well as bears, Merrythought produced many different examples of soft toy animals including an extensive range of character toys. From 1954 to 1980 Merrythought made Walt Disney animals and toys based on characters from animated films.

Object details

Categories
Dolls & Toys
Children & Childhood
Object type
Soft toy
TitleHappy (manufacturer's title)
Materials and techniques
Cotton, cloth, felt and metal
Cloth
Cotton (Textile)
Felt
Metal
Stitching
Moulded
Felting
Brief description
Soft toy figure of Happy made in England by Merrythought Hygenic Toys in 1954 or 1955.
Physical description
The manufactured soft toy is Happy from the Snow White and the Seven dwarfs. The toy has a pressed felt mask face with painted blue eyes, white eyebrows and with black eyelashes and wrinkle lines. The toy has a red nose and lips. His smiling face is framed a long white beard and a detachable green hat. Happy is a stuffed toy with a cloth torso and light brown trousers. He is dressed in a short-sleeve dark brown shirt with two felted pockets sewn on. The oversized shirt is belted at the waist with a dark green band. He wears green felted slippers.
Dimensions
  • Length: 24cm
  • From waist width: 9.7cm
  • From head depth: 7cm
length included hat
Production typeMass produced
Marks and inscriptions
  • happy (written on the front right side of torso in pen)
  • MERRYTHOUGHT IRONBRIDGE, SHROPS. MADE IN ENGLAND REGD DESIGN Made in England (cloth label located on right foot)
Summary
Merrythought made its first teddy bear in 1930. The company employed key staff who formerly worked for Chad Valley and Farnell. It quickly established itself as one of the leading teddy manufacturers. As well as bears, Merrythought produced many different examples of soft toy animals including an extensive range of character toys. From 1954 to 1980 Merrythought made Walt Disney animals and toys based on characters from animated films.
Collection
Young V&A Collection
Accession number
B.13-2005

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Record createdSeptember 19, 2007
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O139338/happy-soft-toy-merrythought-limited/
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