Auntie Kitty Patchwork Doll

Image taken from "Doll collectors'Club Newsletter No.11, dated July 1981

Scheduled for release in the spring of 1980 was the "Auntie Kitty Patchwork Doll".   She was to be released in a limited edition of 1000 models, each one having its issue number marked on the doll body, and on a tag sewn into the clothes.   In addition, the authorised signature of Alison Nisbet would be found on the underskirt of the doll.

In the Doll Collectors Club Newsletter No. 10, February 1981, it was announced that "Until arrangements with Royal Doulton are progressed, we shall be unable to announce the price or the date of introduction (of the Auntie Kitty doll)".   We can find no further mention of the "Auntie Kitty" doll after this date, and believe that this interesting model never progressed beyond the prototype seen in the illustration above.

Miss Kate Adams came to the Nisbet family when Peggy was a baby.   Kate was the Fiance of Peggy's uncle, but he died before they could be married.   Until her death in 1975, the much loved Auntie Kitty was a great and selfless woman who loved and cared for four generations of the Nisbet family.

Auntie Kitty was an exquisite needlewoman.   With her talent, inspiration, and seemingly endless patience, it was natural that she would help Peggy to create her first dolls, back in the early 1950s.   This then is how Auntie Kitty came to be Peggy's first needlewoman, and in her honour, the House of Nisbet commemorated the opening of the Kate Adams building in 1979.

The doll of Auntie Kitty was intended to be a study of the graciousness and kindliness of old age, which Auntie Kitty epitomised, and was scheduled to be a limited edition of 1000 models.

(Quoted from the Tower Treasures Newsletter of February 1980)

News

21st September 2023

 

Important Announcement

 

My dear wife, Christine, passed away on the 8th December, 2021, after 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