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MILNE, A. A.
Pooh and Piglet plush dolls.
Stuffed toys with presentation inscriptions by A. A. Milne in ink on the left foot, "To Babs [Seligman]" and on the right foot, "from A. A. Milne". These dolls – apparently prototypes preceding the first publicly manufactured Pooh toys – are the earliest products of one of the first and most successful licensing deals ever made. The deal Milne signed on 6 January 1930 with the American literary agent and marketer Stephen Slesinger to sell merchandising rights to the Winnie-the-Pooh works has been credited with creating the modern licensing industry. Milne was not the first to turn his literary creation into a stuffed toy (Beatrix Potter had gone before him in that respect), but his deal took merchandising to a new level. By November 1931, according to Fortune magazine, Pooh was a $50 million-a-year business. Slesinger retained the sole rights for more than 30 years, until he sold part of them to Disney in 1961. The Pooh and Piglet dolls were among the most iconic of the early items. Slesinger granted manufacturing rights to the Pooh doll to the American toy manufacturer Agnes Brush, who is created with first putting Pooh into his signature red shirt, which was to persist through to Disney's version. (Shepard's original illustrations were uncoloured and Pooh usually unclothed.) These dolls have the appearance of being early prototypes, preceding the manufactured Agnes Brush versions. Pooh here wears a full body suit, rather than a shirt, and the resemblance to Shepard's illustrations is more remote than in Brush's earliest manufactured version. The recipient Barbara Seligman was a personal friend of Milne's. She was married to Vincent Julian Seligman, descendant of a German Jewish mercantile family that emigrated to the USA and London in the 19th century. Vincent's father ran the London bank Seligman Brothers; his mother came from an artistic and musical family, and had an affair with Puccini. Seligman had dedicated his 1923 book, Oxford Oddities, to Milne. In return he was recipient of a specially inscribed copy of one of the 20 deluxe copies of The House at Pooh Corner in 1928, as well as the manuscript of Milne's play Michael and Mary, inscribed and specially bound as a joint wedding present, in 1930.
Two plush toys (Pooh 290 × 140 mm; Piglet 270 × 70 mm). Pooh: brown velour, thread-knot eyes, red clothing. Piglet: brown velour, plastic eyes, brown silk ribbon tied around neck. Some wear: Pooh with one thread eye coming unknotted, small split to seam of left leg; Piglet missing an arm, some repairs to feet, metal armature slightly protruding from back of right foot.
