Board game
Category
Sports equipment, games and pastimes
Date
Unknown
Materials
Card, Plastic, Printing ink
Measurements
Board - 295 mm (length); 235 mm (width), Pieces - 18 mm (min. height); 30 mm (max. height)
Order this imageCollection
Sudbury Hall Museum of Childhood, Derbyshire
NT 662462
Summary
A board game entitled 'Enid Blyton's Little Noddy Leapfrog Game' in its original box, which features illustrations of Noddy and other characters including a 'golliwog'. Note on golliwogs: The Golliwogg character was created by American-born illustrator Florence Upton, in a series of British children’s books which she co-authored with her mother Bertha Upton. The character was not copyrighted, and ‘golliwog’ dolls based on it became popular toys in Britain from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. Upton based the character on a doll from her own childhood which was bought in the United States in the 1880s and was likely to have been inspired by minstrel entertainers who performed in blackface. The dolls share many characteristics associated with minstrelsy and racist caricatures of Black people, including their bowties, tailcoats, and exaggerated hair, lips and painted black skin. While the Uptons' Golliwogg was a sympathetic character, Enid Blyton's golliwogs were characterised as mischievous and malevolent.