The babies have come to the shop from an employee of the Pelham Puppet factory between 1959 to 1964 (or later). The baby has a solid head mould, the mould line can be seen. He then has a body attached. The face is painted and a style of hair painted. We have three babies for sale, all sold individually. Each one has a different colour hair!
It is unknown what the use for the babies was, the only known baby character is the Type SL Duchess from the Alice in Wonderland series, where she holds a screaming baby as in the storybook. Most Duchess characters have no baby and many collectors have made their own copies based on one in existence with the Duchess. The ones copied have a single dowel for the body, then wrapped in clothes. They don't have the body parts. The other difference is that the nose is within the mould on these three, but the 'original' Duchess Baby had a small ball nose added on.
These could have been slightly later moulded heads which were never put into production, even for a different character.
We only know they were made at the factory between 1959-1964.

I wasn't sure how Covid-19 would affect my ability to source puppets and interesting related items. I'm happy to say, I'm still managing to find some really amazing and rare things for collectors who kindly visit this page looking for the unusual.
In lockdown, people are taking time to go through their cupboards and lofts and coming across forgotten treasures. The Auction Houses are still running but with a different service. I try to source most of my stock from original owners if possible and this is what has happened this last week, a lot of Puppets and Puppetry related items have come this way, which is wonderful news for me to pass on to you.
Next week, the Cook from Alice in Wonderland will be on sale, such a rarely found puppet and sought after by many for their 'Alice Set'. 
We will also have more Pelpup News magazines and lots of interesting parts from the factory as well as Puppets galore.

​Below is a fabulous Pelham Puppet theatre curtain made in the factory in 1950's. So stylized and perfect for the period. This is something that sold some years ago to a lucky buyer! I wonder if we'll ever see this one again.