Dumpies

Tower Treasures "Dumpies" were a range of wooden 2½ inch (6cm) tall, or 4 inch (10cm) tall wooden dolls. This set of nine strange little dolls resembled wooden bullets, dressed in various costumes.

The list of characters is here :

D/1 England - London
D/2 England - Country
D/3 Scots Piper
D/4 Scotland - Chieftain
D/5 Ireland - Colleen
D/6 Wales
D/7 Guardsman (4 inch / 10cm tall)
D/8 Piper (4 inch / 10cm tall)
D/9 Big Chief

Dumpies were introduced for sale by W H Smith & Son Airport Shops, and through Boots the Chemist. They were intended primarily for the tourist trade, and are quite unusual finds for the Nisbet collector. Their attraction rests in their curiosity value, more than any other attribute

Update :16th March 2014

Our thanks to Keith P for a number of very interesting pictures, and some new information :

Shown below are three new "Dumpies" - D7 Guardsman and D8 Piper are 5" tall (though the dumpie body may well be only 4" tall). The final picture shows a pair of dumpies that were previously unknown to us. Keith tells us that they were Barristers, and that he can recall his mother, (who was an Outworker (home worker) for Peggy Nisbet), making at least one batch of these unusual dumpies. He also suggests that they might have been samples, or trials for a new doll.

Can you throw any light on these unusual dolls for us?

Picture courtesy of Keith P

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