Peggy Nisbet Dolls

On a trip to the local grocery store with my mother, while still in kindergarten, I spotted a marvelous doll-collecting opportunity. The venerable British doll-maker, Peggy Nisbet, had – somewhat unbelievably – teamed up with another institution, Izal Toilet Paper, to promote their wares. I’m not sure what was in it for Mrs Nesbit, as she insisted that none of the promoted dolls would be branded. Presumably Izal paid her company handsomely, in exchange for anonymity. Before this I had never heard of Peggy Nesbit, or her dolls of the world, but the attraction was ‘dolls for free’.

So that summer my poor family worked their way through an unfeasibly large amount of toilet paper. For those unfamiliar with this august British product, Izal Medicated resembles most closely baking parchment (greaseproof paper), with crunchy, distinctly non-absorbent properties. It’s strong, but absolutely not fit for purpose. By the time the promotion had ended, many, many rolls later, not only were we were all heartily sick of this product but we also found we only had enough labels for a meager two dolls. We barely scratched the surface, which is more than can be said for the toilet paper, which was still available as recently as 2009, but is now only to be found as a curiosity on the secondary market. Thank goodness!

I chose Japan and Spain as the most exotic dolls of the range available, and I still have them to this day. They’re not the most beautiful dolls and are somewhat crudely painted, but I wouldn’t part with them, I love their period charm. I still have an aversion to Izal Medicated Strong Toilet Tissue though.

For more information about everything Peggy Nisbet, visit the collectors’ guide, and see some Peggy Nisbet Christmas dolls here.

The Peggy Nisbet company produced a vast range of dolls over its long history. Here’s a brief snapshot of just a few of them.

Here’s a video of Peggy Nisbet’s Hollywood Dolls: