marketing the Dolls

Tower Treasures - Mary, Queen of Scots

Although the production of the dolls was difficult, selling them was easy.   Anyone introduced to these fairy tale little 7" dolls, liked them. They were appealing, colourful, well made and innovative.   Peggy took the dolls everywhere and showed them to everyone.   They were a sensation at the Brighton Toy and Doll Fair in January 1957.   Through the fair, important contacts and customers were found and orders were placed.

Demand grew, with orders coming in from the major London stores, including Harrods, Selfridges, and Hamleys. The dolls made good window displays; there was a particularly successful stockist in Stratford upon Avon, and others in several Scottish locations that were popular with visitors.   They sold very well on the QE II, as well as other liners and cruise ships.   Then orders started to arrive from overseas, notably USA, from famous stores including Sachs, Shwartz, Marshall Fields and Neaman Marcus.

In March 1959 Peggy Nisbet exhibited at the International Toy and Trade fair in New York where, again, the Queen Elizabeth II doll was a huge success.   Reports in the "Daily Sketch" and "The Citizen" explained that demand was high, partly due to the Queen's visit to Chicago in the summer of 1959.   This was good for business, and put Peggy Nisbet Ltd and Weston‑super‑Mare even more firmly on the American map.

Demand continued to grow all over the world.   In 1972, the wedding of Princess Anne (whose wedding dress was a very guarded secret, no one having seen it until she walked down the aisle) saw frantic activity in the factory with production of the royal couple starting one day after the event.   In July 1981 the business was once again poised for a royal wedding - that of Princess Diana, with the Nisbet staff eagerly waiting to see the wedding dress.   The doll, with Prince Charles at her side, was on sale twenty‑five hours after the first glimpse of the dress!

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