Signed Pre-Release Edition for the Australian market

P/789 - Captain James Cook

200th Anniversary Edition

Issued in 1978

This model was created to commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the death of Captain James Cook, and was issued as a Signed Pre-Release Edition to members of the “Peggy Nisbet Doll Collectors’ Club of Australia”.   It went on general release in 1979.

Captain Cook is from the "Portrait" series

The model shown here is a sample; he has a map, (not shown in this picture), see below, which details his three voyages of discovery

Born in 1728 in Marton, (near Middlesborough, Yorkshire, Cook commanded three great voyages of discovery, and sailed around the world twice.   In 1755, he set out on his first voyage, in search of “Terres Australis”, (The Lands in the South), in the ship “Endeavour”.   The voyage was unsuccessful.   The second voyage in the ship “Resolution” circled Antarctica.   The third voyage, again in “Resolution”, was to look for a possible northern sea route, between Europe and Asia.   On this voyage, in 1778, he became the first European to reach the Hawaiian Islands.   On a return visit in 1779, Captain Cook was stabbed to death by natives while investigating the theft of a cutter (a small boat).   He was 51.

Cook's Voyages - the map carried by the model
Taken from Collectors Supplement 1979, Page 13

News

21st September 2023

 

Important Announcement

 

My dear wife, Christine, passed away on the 8th December, 2021after 8 weeks in hospital. I was by her side, when she slipped away from me peacefully, with no pain or suffering.

 

Chris had been struggling with a slow decline in health, associated with a progressive, untreatable, and ultimately terminal lung disease, and finally succumbed to her old adversary, Pneumonia.

 

We had been friends for 55 years, together as a couple for 50 years, and married just a month short of 48 years, when she died.   

 

This website was Chris's idea, and I did all the technical stuff, to make it work.   After news of Chris's passing reached her close friends in the doll collecting world, I was deeply touched and gratified to hear their tributes to my dear wife, and I must thank them all for their kindness and support.   Ultimately, it was her doll friends that gave me the courage to continue with the website.

 

In the months before her eventual hospitalisation, Chris had outlined a number of additions and changes she wanted to make to the website, and it is my intention to honour those wishes, and to implement the changes we had considered, over the coming weeks and months.

 

I must apologise to all those who have written to us via the website, only to have your emails go unanswered.   Unfortunately, the email system had been hacked aroung the time Chris was going into hospital, and many emails must have been lost, as a result.

 

As you might imagine, I felt completely broken by Chris's loss, and it is only now, almost 22 months after her passing, that I have felt strong enough to even look at the website again.   

 

My aim is to continue with the website, and to implement Chris's aims for her many new ideas as soon as I can.   In the meantime, I have hopefully got the email system sorted out, and I will attempt to answer any enquiries as soon as I can, and to send replies with the same high degree of accuracy that a reply from Chris would have had.

 

From now on, I will be flying solo, whilst my co-pilot and guide will be soaring much higher, (though she is always in my heart, and in my thoughts).

 

My thanks to all our website visitors for your continued support

 

Dave (also known as Arthur), and Chris, (my lost love, Guinevere)

 

Christine Poulten

25th December 1949 - 8th December 2021