This afternoon I was very excited to spot these two little brooches at my local church’s Autumn Fair. (It was a Christmas Fair, but I suspect they didn’t want to call it a Christmas Fair when advent doesn’t start until tomorrow.) They cost a grand total of 30p each, and although they’re rather yellowed, I was really pleased with them.
I was absolutely convinced they they were a) Holly Hobbie, and b) the same as a mug and plate my sister and I each had when we were kids. Turns out I was wrong on both counts.
They’re definitely not Holly Hobbie. The little girl above is Holly Hobbie, and these little girls aren’t even her friends. (How mean.)
They’re also not the same as the plate and mug I had as a kid! I was absolutely 100% convinced that the little girl with the yellow cap and pink apron was on this plate. Wrong again!
However, the two little brooches are by the same artist as the plate – Gisela Gottlschlich, a German illustrator. The plate and mug are by Purbeck of Swanage, but Gottschlich’s designs must have been licensed very widely, as there are ceramics by all sorts of different companies listed on Ebay.
I’m now wondering whether the little dark haired girl is the one from my sister’s plate and mug – I know I’ve seen her before. Usually I had things with pictures of dark haired girls and my sister with blonde, to match our own hair. (Let’s not talk about the brunette Girl’s World head that you couldn’t dye the hair of, when my sister had fancy streaking pens for her blonde one. Apparently I made up for that by messing with my own hair in later life!), But if our names happened to be on the plates with the opposite-coloured illustrations, then maybe my sister does have the dark haired girl on her plate and mug. I’ll have to ask.
Either way, I’ll be keeping one of these little brooches, and hoping my sister would like to have the other.
I’m sure I had a room name plate with illustrations by the same artist in the early 80s.
I also had a Holly Hobbie novel, in which Holly was the heroine’s ancestor, who came to life from a painting in her bedroom, and the two of them went on adventure to South America to find the heroine’s missing father. I think I won the book in a raffle at Brownies!
Oh I loved Holly Hobbie, I think I had a duvet set and a little round house. Sweet little raggedy girls like this, Sunbonnet Sue and Kate Greenaway had a such a big revival during the Laura Ashley years when we were little. Oh and Victoria Plum too.
Somewhere I have a little embroidery of a girl like this holding flowers behind her back, and instead of flowers, there are eyeballs on stems.
What a find – so lucky! I hold these girls in a special part of my childhood heart! If you ever fancy selling them on do let me know otherwise I hope you and your sister enjoy them.
Regards