Chad Valley, ISA and Peacock
The Chad Valley Toy Company had its origins in a printing and book binding business that was set up in Birmingham England by an Anthony Bunn Johnson.
A small stream called the Chad flowed close by the new factory and it soon acquired the name of The Chad Valley Works from which the registered trade mark "Chad Valley" was derived.
Johnstone Brothers (Harborne) Ltd, began to produce a range of cardboard games and toys which was gradually extended over the years.
With the outbreak of the First World War (1914-1918) the imports of toys and games into the United Kingdom stopped and the company produced its first soft toys, a range of traditional, jointed, plush Teddy Bears in 1915. Chad bought Isaacs and Co in 1923 (ISA) who were essentially furniture makers and the Peacock Company in 1931. Their bears received the Royal warrant from the Queen in 1938 which featured on their labels. In 1953 their label said "Queen Mother" after our present Queen acceded to the throne.
Chad Valley bears identifying features:-
- Early bears stuffed with kapok or cork
- Celluloid button in ear or on torso
- Glass amber and black eyes finished with a knot at the back.
- Large flat ears set on corner of head
- Cardboard inserts in large oval feet with label, red green or blue on white
- 4 claws on paws, 5 on pads
- Prominent shaved muzzles but stitching varies
- Horizontal Magna nose,
- Vertical "coal" nose with a horizontal top final stitch
Further details below
History (1820 – 1988) Chad Valley
Chad Valley was founded after the Napoleonic Wars in 1823 by Anthony Bunn-Johnson. He started as proprietor of a small printing and book binding company in Lichfield Street in Handsworth, Birmingham.
In 1860 Johnson’s two sons, Joseph and Alfred opened a printing business called Johnson Brother Ltd situated in George Street Parade, Birmingham. Their business did so well they moved (1897) to a larger factory located near a stream named “Chad” in the village of Harborne near Birmingham. The company name was changed to Johnson Brothers Harborne and the factory was known as Chad Valley Works. In 1919 they took the tradename “Chad Valley.” Alfred Johnson was the Managing Director in 1904 and he worked until 1936. Chad like Steiff, was a steadily evolved family concern.
In the early years on the 20thC dolls were made representing famous fictional and non-fictional personalities of the day. Chad Valley made dolls based on the Mabel Lucy Atwell characters. Norah Wellings (1926-1960) a prolific producer of fabric dolls, worked for Chad before starting her own company at Wellington, Shropshire with her brother.
From the 1920’s Chad Valley made dolls from stockinet, felt and velvet and is particularly famous for the dolls portraying the English Princess Elizabeth and Margaret. Most of the dolls were labelled with “Hygienic Toys made in England by the Chad Valley Co Ltd’. After 1938 with the Royal Warrant they were labelled “Toymakers to H.M. the Queen”, with the royal coat of arms.
In 1915, the company included in its first toy pattern, a range of teddy bears. “Grunter” bear was interesting, as it is the first type made at Chad Valley and very obviously a close copy of early German designs. Made in the Harborne factory. He had painted back roughly shaped glass eyes and was originally a bright yellow long pile mohair. The nose was defined in felt and stitched over to give a raised effect. His hump was exaggerated and he had very long, slightly tapering arms, large feet with four embroidered claws on all paws. The Chad “Grunter” mechanical voice produced with a 1915 patent carried a green label. The large form of the growler made it necessary to give the bear a rather pot-bellied shape i.e. a Pooh-like stomach. The bear was completely stuffed with wood wool.
Following the ban on German imports to Britain during WWI, which stultified German bear makers such as Steiff and Bing and led to the establishment and development of more British and French makers. The Johnson family saw this as an opportunity of a big expansion of their business as there was a shortage of soft toys. Chad Valley concentrated on German lookalike teddies but also produced soft artificial velveteen bears in three sizes. These early toys were unmarked but by 1921, teddy bears were made in six fur qualities and 13 sizes. The more expensive had growlers and brass sleigh bells onto the 8, 10, 11 and 12” sizes of all versions. These Chad Valley bears have wide-apart, large ears, a large triangular nose and a distinctive blue button at his throat, details of which would determine his age. Buttons may have also been attached to his right ear or back of the throat.
The merging of the three companies in 1920, under the one title of the Chad Valley Company. The Old Harborne Institute was taken over for production. After patenting a stuffing machine Chad Valley expanded their range of soft toys and moved to larger works in Wellington, Shropshire. The Wrekin Toy Works in Shropshire was opened (1920). They specialised in making teddy bears, Mascots, grotesque animals and popular commercially known subjects (such as Dame Quack who carried an umbrella under her wing, Percy Penguin wearing a policeman’s helmet and The Padre). These characters were made of soft velveteen with felt hats. Early versions of their toys appeared to be of poor quality but they soon improved. In their 1921 catalogue they advertised their toys as ‘the most lifelike toys ever produced, made throughout from British materials’.
Britain was probably the country to see the greatest amount of new teddy bear activity and by the 1920’s-30’s the industry was booming, although inevitably the Depression made it hard for small companies to survive. The woven mohair plush, known as ‘Yorkshire cloth’, which had been exported in quantity to Germany before WWI, began to find an extensive market at home.
In the 1920’s with the company’s’ combined resources Chad Valley purchased one company after another Issa Works, Warriwillows and H.S.Hooper. They created the famous bull terrier pup Bonzo, originally drawn by G.Studdy for The Daily Sketch newspaper. Bonzo was made in several different designs and sizes. He often had air-brushed features. His body was made of velvet stuffed with kapok. A leather collar and red felt tongue. As part of their Bonzo promotion at the British Industries Fair (1920) Chad entertained King George V and Queen Mary with a dwarf dressed in a Bonzo suit.
Colour was used to create some novelties, like the ‘Rainbow’ Tubby Bear, a standing novelty bear made in 1926, which came in several colours, for example, scarlet mohair; with a cream head, ears plus his paws and pads. They wore clown like ruffs and hats. ‘Honey Bear’, in dark brown alpaca and biscuit coloured wool plush, with two large brown buttons on the biscuit coloured front of his body.
Chad Valley was one of the few companies who generally labelled their toys. Before the 1930’s they labelled their teddy bears on the footpad with the words “Hygienic Toys, made in England by the Chad Valley Co Ltd.” These labels were colour woven in a silky thread in either black or red.
Between the years 1923 – 26 they used a steel rimmed button in the right ear (as opposed to Steiff placing in the left ear) with the words “Chad Valley Hygienic Toys” printed in black and covered with clear plastic. Sometimes it appears on the chest or the upper back, as a result of Steiff challenging the ear button trademark. If the word ‘Areolite’ was printed across the centre, this indicated that the bear was stuffed entirely with kapok resulting in a much softer bear than a wood wool stuffed one. The button changed to cream coloured or blue buttons, with raised centres, which were slightly convex. In addition small narrow single ply labels were stitched into the side seams of Chad Valley bears.
By 1929, Chad Valley manufactured teddy bears in 13 sizes (the largest being 29 ½” to the smallest 8 ½”), made of gold or tangerine plush in short or long pile. Bears over 17” had “Patent Chad Valley grunters.” The 14-20” bears were produced in (although quite rare) brightly coloured artificial silk bears including pink, blue and green. In the 1930’s Chad Valley only made six wine coloured teddy bears.
In 1929 Cubby Bear (The Real Baby Bear) were in a fixed sitting position in sizes of 9 ½”, 11 ½”, and 13 ½”, large painted glass eyes, vertically stitched nose, wool felt paws, jointed arms which curved gently downwards. Initially they came in a shaggy alpaca plush or artificial silk plush but by the 1950’s they had been made in the new nylon plush. This bear was created as an answer to Steiff’s Petsy introduced in 1928.
In the early 1930’s bears were available “hard or soft stuffed” which indicated the wood wool stuffing and had the coal-shaped nose which was their standard design. The nose design was changed from the rectangular, horizontally stitched and the triangular, vertically stitched and developed into a thickly bound, oval nose with vertical stitches, topped with a single horizontal stitch.
In the 1940’s the Magna range of teddy bears had small wide set ears, an unshaved muzzle, made in mohair and a narrow rectangular nose with horizontal stitching. They had a foot pad label with blue text “Chad Valley, ‘Magna Series’ Harborne England.”
In 1938 they were awarded a Royal Warrant of Appointment as Toymakers to Her Majesty the Queen. This was Queen Elizabeth, the wife of the monarch, King George VI. A square label with these details was sewn to the foot pad. This had the words “The Chad Valley Co Ltd by appointment Toy Makers to H.M. Queen Elizabeth” with what appears to be a picture of the royal family crest. In 1953, when Queen Elizabeth II was crowned, the word ‘Queen’ was changed to ‘Queen Mother’.
When WWII was declared, the majority of factories switched to Government contract work. The printing works produced charts. The Wrekin Works made utility marked children’s clothing. Yet some production for box games still occurred for the armed forces and used in Military hospitals. The wood working machines were also used to make gun barrels, instrument cases and electrical work.
When WWII ended the company continued to prosper, buying other well established factories i.e. Isaacs & Co who were well known for stuffed toys (usually on wheels) with the ISA trademark. Also Peacock & Co, a London based manufacturer of painted wooden blocks in 1921. They introduced the Peacock range of bears. A very traditional design of bear with the large round ears and eyes, a shaven snout, long tapered arms and legs with well-defined boot shaped feet. The colour woven label featured an open-tailed peacock on the left hand side with the word Peacock incorporated too. Their bear design remained basically the same but the bodies became less plump and the limbs were shortened due to material shortages and cost cutting measures.
In 1950 the Chad Valley Company was dissolved as a family business and was declared a public company. Post WWII advances in the plastics industry impacted on teddy bears. During the 1950’s Chad Valley gradually replaced glass eyes with plastic and produced some teddy bears with realistic moulded plastic noses or black stitched button noses rather than the earlier bound noses. Safety eyes were locked in with washers appeared along with synthetic pile fabrics.
Some 1950’s Chad Valley bears footpads were in an unusual teardrop shape, no claws and made in Rexine (imitation leather).
The company began production of character bears from TV and radio. A replica of Harry Corbett’s popular TV character Sooty came out in 1954, together with his friend Sweep and children readily identified with them. Chad Valley were given the sole right to manufacture Sooty in 1952 and continued producing him until 1980. He was made as a glove puppet and also a fully jointed bear.
Another favourite was Toffee (who wore a red knitted hat and scarf), a character who featured in Jane Alan’s Lulupet and Toffee stories read on the BBC radio program called “Watch with Mother”. Also washable bears made from synthetic fabrics and filled with plastic foam became more popular during the 1960’s and 70’s.
In 1960 Chad Valley celebrated their centenary and had seven factories with over 1000 employees. The 1960’s catalogues advertised four ranges with 18 sizes of fully jointed bears: De-Luxe in London Gold, Super in honey or gold blended mohair, Popular in gold-blended mohair, and Nylon in white, and after lemon plush with red paws. By the mid-1960’s noses were often moulded plastic. As the years passed they began to produce more and more inexpensive, unjointed bears, in direct competition with all the cheaper Far Eastern imports.
On amalgamation with Chiltern Toys (1967) they became the largest soft toy manufacturer in Great Britain. Chad Valley / Chiltern labels were used for a short while. Most of the production was moved to Pontypool, Wales. Their bears were traditionally fully jointed with characteristically short chunky limbs. Large fully jointed bears were used to promote Bear Brand hosiery.
Severely hit by the recession of the 1970’s led to closure of six of the seven factories, before Chad Valley were taken over by Palitoy (a subsidiary of the American firm General Mills, U.K. Limited) in 1978.
Their trade name was bought by Woolworths in 1988, who introduced a new range of Chad Valley soft toys that were manufactured in East Asia.
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