A rough guide to collecting Pelham Puppets

by The Puppet Surgery

To celebrate 60 years of Pelham Puppets a brand new range is now available from David Leech

The new yellow box

The Old Yellow Box

For non eBay related topics on Pelham Puppets please scroll to the bottom of the page.

Mathew Mattic Pelham Puppet

Restored by Dr. Pelham

Pelham Puppets were the brain child of the late Bob Pelham and produced between 1946 and 1992 . The earliest and arguably most valuable were those made under the name of Wonkey Toys, prior to being called Pelham Puppets. The most recognisable packaging they came in was the yellow box pictured above. For the first 9 years of the company the puppets came packaged in brown boxes, seen below with Hank, and dates a puppet quite well. The yellow box appeared in its first form in 1956. Even without the box it is easy to roughly date a puppet depending on the construction and paint work, once you know what to look for.

Undoubtedly the beauty of Pelham Puppets lay in their personality as they were all individually hand made and hand painted. This meant that no same two characters looked identical. They were the last hand made and hand painted mass produced and world exported British toy, rightfully earning  their place as a part of British toy history and putting Marlborough wilts on the world map.

A must have for collectors and dealers is David Leech's new book 'Pelham Puppets' which gives you an excellent idea of what to look for and a great background to how it all started. David is the leading authority on Pelham Puppets, was a friend of Bob Pelham and an employee of the company.

Pelham Puppets

By David Leech

 Roughly dating a Pelham puppet ' what to look for'

From 1946 to the 50's for the standard 12" marionette range of Pelham Puppets used an 8" folding cross control bar with small steel eyelets attached to the bar through which black linen strings( Barbour's no. 18 carpet thread originally)were threaded to control the puppets movements. However the very first controls they used for Wonky toys were especially crude and looked very much 'home made'. Around about 1954 they introduced the 'anti tangle' device. By adding coloured rubber washers to the metal eyelets it enabled one to easily remove the strings should a puppet get tangled badly. Now that the strings were colour coded for each of the puppets movements it made the task of untangling simpler, even for children. For a short period of time between the 1950's and 60's a smaller 6" folding cross control bar appeared as opposed to the more familiar 8" folding cross control. Of course there were other types of puppet that used different controls but the one I mention here was used mainly on the SS, SM and SL ranges.

Another good indicator of age are the type of hands. The earliest ones were wood and then went on to be made in lead, composite and finally plastic. As a rough guide :1946-48 wood  1948- 50's lead, 50's-60's Lead or composite, 60's -70's Composite, 70's - 90's Plastic or composite.

Legs can also help to date your puppet. Up till about 1969 the standard range puppets had legs mostly made of wood with metal strip knee joints. In the 70's they had plastic jointed legs fixed with a black cylinder pin at the knee and in the 80's they use threaded plastic barrel legs. Plastic threaded barrel legs were used on only some puppets from the 50's onwards and were made of a mottled rubbery type plastic, it was wasn't till the 80's that the standard range had legs that were only threaded made of a harder, brittler type plastic.

The composite material used for Pelham Puppets was originally used in doll making. Made from ground pumice stone (volcanic ash),animal glue and water, poured in to aluminium moulds in its hot liquid form, cooled on ice beds and dried in a wind tunnel over night, the compound became an ideally weighted and robust material. Well suited to making puppets and resembling a grey china bisque, it was moulded in to many puppet parts , namely heads hands and feet. Bob Pelham discovered this technique from a chap who's company made dolls. Bob eventually purchased the method for his own use and the first characters to be made with this material were 'The Alice in Wonderland' range and 'Mr. Turnip' at the beginning of the 1950's.

Although quite robust once dried it had two major faults: 1. The wooden dowel glued into the neck of heads, which took the screw eye and made the joint between the neck and shoulder, would swell and crack the composite if left in a damp environment. 2. Possibly the worst fault was, that if left in severe damp conditions or even immersed in water, the composite would quite literally melt.

1950's Hank Pelham Puppet.

With the early brown box.

Pelham puppets on E-Bay, for Buyers and Sellers.

Watch out for restored Puppets!

To the untrained eyed of new or even seasoned collectors of Pelham Puppets, one can be easily fooled into thinking that a puppet is authentic. Unfortunately from time to time Pelham Puppets come along that are not all what they are described to be. The term 'Used' in the item description can be a licence for some unorthodox sellers to attempt restoration of some puppets and then say nothing of what they have done. Occasionally they slip up and you get 2 items  listed not too far apart and the exact same puppet appears but there are anomalies , they have gained strings , or items of clothing that they did not have originally.

               before         after  

                                          Seen recently on eBay                                     

Anyone bidding on a 'USED' Pelham Puppet or any Pelham Puppet which is rare and likely to fetch a lot of money, we strongly advise that you contact the seller and ask if there are any signs of restoration being done ? Alternatively join one of the Pelham Puppet clubs which are on Yahoo and in online web searches. You will be able to ask questions about any Pelham Puppet you are interested in and you should get some sound advice.

Do not take any description at face value, especially if your going to be handing over large sums of money for an item described as 'USED'

Questions to ask prior to placing a bid :

Are there any signs of any restoration or tampering ? 

Has the puppet been re-strung ?

Are all the clothes original ? or are there any moth holes, stains or tears?

Are all the joints and limbs original and in tact/ rust free?

Is all the paint work original ?

Any cracks, chips , hairlines ,blemishes or paint loss from anywhere?

Asking these questions can help you to feel more confident about bidding, helping you make a more informed choice as to how much you are prepared to pay for the item. Never under any circumstances buy outside e-bay by contacting the e-bay seller privately, you have no come back at all and can leave you feeling extremely disappointed and frustrated.

Valuation and Selling

Pelham Puppets in the last 12 years or so have become incredibly collectible and sought after. Depending on the rarity of the character many can fetch hundreds of pounds/dollars by the end of auction. However there are an awful lot of  Pelham Puppet characters that are common place which people  think are rare or very rare, which sadly is not the case. A little research in the completed items section will give you an idea of a characters rarity by the frequency with which they appear and their final bid price, although this is by no means an absolute.

The surgery is often contacted and asked how much a Pelham Puppet is worth ? The most honest and simplest answer is " What ever someone is prepared to pay for it" If a puppet is sought after by several bidders, is 'rare' or just wanted, the item can fetch quite a bit. When it comes to buying, and come to that selling, take a look at Orville4 they are excellent, professional sellers and you will find the puppets that they offer are of a good to high standard, post clear pictures, describe the puppet honestly and start their bidding at the lowest price, in a lot of cases 1p. After years of selling Pelham puppets their experience has shown them that each puppet will find its own value. On the other side there are sellers who ask ridiculous amounts of money for the puppet they are selling and as often as not it doesn't sell and is re listed and re listed till people are prepared to bid, if at all.

Pelham Puppet ' Punch'

Sold by Orville4

A word of warning for those people who have a Pelham puppet which they no longer want and would like to sell.

 There are Pelham Puppet sites*  which have forums, swap or sell pages on them which one should be very wary of......Why? You may have a rare or valuable Pelham Puppet without realising it, using their pages you could get a lot less than if you were to sell them on E-bay. These transactions are private and as such have no safety net for buyer or seller, should there be a dispute. You will also find there are no links to any other Pelham Puppet sites of any relevance. Our advice is sell on E-bay or any auction room and do some home work before you decide to sell or buy any Pelham puppet, if your unsure of what it is you have for sale or indeed what you may be buying! 

 *Avoid Pelham puppet sites offering forums for swapping and selling.

Postal Charges

Finally, watch out for postal charges within the UK. A single standard 12" Puppet, in its original size box , normal first class post should cost no more than £7.00 ( Display types cost more ) I have seen some quoted as much as £19.99 I would query this before you bid.

Good luck and we hope you win the Pelham Puppets you bid on  :o)

The Puppet Surgery

For original and authentic information regarding Pelham Puppets web search:

traditionalpuppets

For restoration information web search :

puppetsurgery

To join The Pelham Puppet Collectors club web search:

Yahoo Groups

See youtube

Pelham Puppet show -  Hansel and Gretel - Part 1

Many thanks to David Leech, Sue & John Valentine, David Showler, Roger Stevenson, Keith and Tracey Mutton and the many members of  The Pelham Puppets Collectors Club who help keep the memory of Bob Pelham and his Puppet creations alive for future generations to enjoy.

Copyright 2006 - 2009 The Puppet Surgery