Soft toy dog

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

52645

Title

Soft toy dog sitting on hind legs belonging to Jean Petrie, c. 1922

Description

Soft toy dog, sitting on hind legs. Linen stitched with mohair (?) (white,brown/rust). Stuffed with wood wool. Front paws on wires. Jointed head. Boot button eyes (brown); stitched nose and mouth (brown). Wearing leather collar (brown) with round metal identity disc. Engraved inscription on one side, 'Nyasa' Columba Road, Blackhall'. 'Baby' scratched on other side. [Bobby?]

Date

1922

Type

Toy

Accession number

MC87.2000

Copyright

The City of Edinburgh Council Museums & Galleries

This toy dog was given to Jean Catherine Petrie as a first birthday present. It survived many adventures and features in a photograph album also in the collection.

Jean Petrie was born in 1920 in Lossiemouth, the home of her maternal grandmother. Her parents, James and Ethel, both worked in communications, James as a surveyor and Ethel as a telephone supervisor for the Post Office.

James worked in Africa on the Gold Coast for much of Jean's childhood and the photograph albums were made so that he could see the progress of her childhood. The family home was 2 Boswall Loan, Granton and then 3 Columba Road, Blackhall, Edinburgh.

Because the albums were compiled to show Jean's childhood, they capture every day life in a way many albums do not. The albums are a unique record of a child's life and have an ability to show the world through Jean's eyes.

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