Soft toy
Category
Toys
Date
c. 1900 - c. 1938
Materials
Faux fur and glass
Measurements
170 mm (Height)
Order this imageCollection
Chartwell, Kent
NT 1100838
Caption
In the winter of 1938–9, the arrival of a panda cub called Ming at London Zoo caused a sensation in the British press. Ming was celebrated as ‘the Shirley Temple of the animal world’, and Winston Churchill (1874–1965) was invited to meet her by Julian Huxley (1887–1975), Secretary of the Zoological Society. Churchill later remarked that the visit ‘exceeded all my expectations … and they were very high!’ This toy panda was thought to date from that visit but recent research has revealed not only that Churchill owned it prior to Ming’s arrival, but that it was in fact the outer case of a hot-water bottle. Churchill reportedly told Huxley that he owned a hot-water bottle cover made of faux panda fur. His youngest daughter also recalled that he had ‘a much-loved panda hot-water bottle cover’. The original bottle has not survived but the panda continued to be used by Churchill’s secretaries when a book was removed from a shelf, marking the spot to which it should be returned.
Summary
A stuffed soft toy panda in black and white cloth.