While countries including America and now the United Kingdom have shunned the politically incorrect Golliwogg dolls from their shops, Australia seems to be telling a different story.
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According to Kylie Richards, manager of Campbell’s Store, Morpeth, there has been a steady rise in the local popularity of the Golliwogg doll largely because of their controversy overseas.
“The Gollies are very controversial because in places like England they are no longer Kosher,” Ms Richards said. “We sell them every week and I think they are becoming more popular here because you can’t seem to get them anywhere. ”
There are two schools of thought when it comes to the origination of the Golliwogg. One is that New York publisher Florence Upton created the black, curly-haired character in the 1890s.
“Florence had a toy named Golliwogg which provided the inspiration for her book The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg so that’s one story,” Ms Richards said.
“Then there is the belief that the wog part of Golliwogg came from the Africans, Indians and Egyptians who worked for the UK on their rail projects under the name of Workers of the Government Service.”
Then prolific children’s book author Enid Blyton came along and depicted Golliwoggs as rude and untrustworthy. “In her books the Golliwogg was nasty and evil and everything just went from there,” Ms Richards said. “And in America they are pretty much banned but that’s a whole other scenario.”
Ms Richards’ collection of 700 Golliwoggs are about to go on show as part of the store’s Cabinets of Curiosities display.
