SS Orsova Sailor Doll made by Empire

Price: NZ$64.67

Code: BH345

SS Orsova, was a British ocean liner, built by Vickers Armstrong Shipbuilders Ltd. of Barrow-in-Furness, England for the Orient Steam Navigation Company (Orient Line) for their Great Britain-to-Australia services via the Suez Canal. She was the final development of the 28,000 ton class which began with the SS Orcades of 1948 and continued with the SS Oronsay of 1951. In 1960, in conjuction with the introduction of the new larger and faster Oriana and Canberra, the fleets of Orient (which was majority owned by P&O) and P&O were combined as P&O-Orient Lines, although the Orient ships retained their corn coloured hulls and sailed under their own house flag. In 1966, P&O acquired the balance of the Orient shares and the Orient Line was discontinued, with Orsova and her fleet mates being transferred to the ownership of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), painted white and under the P&O houseflag till 1974.

Cloth Sailor dolls were created by Norah Wellings, England. Norah, the chief designer for Chad Valley, opened her own doll company Victory Toys with her brother Leo in 1926. Travel by ship was a very popular means of transport during this period and almost all the shipping companies sold the souvenir sailor dolls on board their ocean liners. They were produced right up until 1960, the year of Leo’s passing, when the company closed.

The Empire company produced sailor dolls in a similar style. To distinguish between the two dolls, Empire or Wellings, look for the ‘Empire’ sticker under the collar on the back, or remnants of, and check the foot as Norah Wellings dolls will be tagged.

Each soft cloth sailor doll wears the name of the ocean liner proudly on their hat bands.

SS Orsova Sailor Doll made by Empire 1950’s

This doll is in good condition slightly faded and had some repairs to tighten his waist it seems, makes him look a little like Popeye, apart from that its in nice condition for its age his hat shows a little discolouration as most do, see all the photo’s of him, these dolls are often sold a Nora Welling’s dolls mistakenly this one is an Empire doll you can see in photo where sticker is, they are mischievously moorish, one is never enough believe me, we have a large inventory of all types of sailor dolls including rare Welling’s examples.