'Golliwogg', a leather and cloth golly doll, probably made in the United States about 1880

A soft toy figure of stuffed brown cloth. The face is made of black leather with simple features. The eyes are white buttons, the nose a triangular cutout of leather and the mouth consists of two red stitched lines. The hair is black animal skin. The body is clothed with red felt trousers, a white cotton shirt with card collar and red fabric bowtie. There is a longsleeved blue jacket with tailcoats and six metal buttons, four on the front and two on the back. The buttons are each stamped with a crown. The feet are covered with black leather.

This is the original 'golly' owned by Florence Upton, upon which she based the eponymous hero of a series of books illustrated by her with verses written by her mother, Bertha. The doll had been given to Upton and her sisters whilst living in the USA, although they had left it at their Aunt Kate Hudson’s house in London during an earlier visit. Upton retained the 'Golliwogg' and the Dutch Dolls until 1917, when she donated them to the Red Cross, to be sold in support of the First World War effort. The lot included the dolls, a complete set of original drawings for eleven of the Golliwogg books and the manuscripts for four of the books. The collection was purchased for 450 guineas, which allowed the Red Cross to fund and equip an ambulance named after the 'Golliwogg' to serve in France. The dolls resided for many years at Chequers, the official residence of the Prime Minister, before being acquired by the V&A Museum of Childhood in 1997.

The attire worn by the 'Golliwogg' links the character directly to 'minstrels', real-life figures, black slaves, who would entertain at their masters' houses. A form of popular entertainment emerged in the early nineteenth century which parodied black minstrels: white people would 'black-up' (i.e. cover their faces with black make-up, soot or paint), dress in the bright, stereotypical clothing associated with minstrels, and then perform musical shows in a broken English 'negro dialect'. The style of dress also parodied ‘Black Dandies’, free black men in American cities.

The original golliwog was a central character in a series of books by Bertha and Florence Upton published between 1895 and 1909. Florence, the illustrator of the stories, based the golliwog on a doll she had acquired in the USA in the 1880s. The appearance of this doll was influenced by the Blackface performance tradition. From the late 19th century until the 1960s, the golliwog flourished as a toy. Its image featured on toys, games, textiles and ceramics and was also used by food companies. From the 1970s the golliwog’s popularity began to wane as many British people felt that it promoted racial stereotypes.

B.493-1997