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Pedigree
Company History
| Date |
Event |
| mid 1800's |
Two brothers, George and Joseph
Lines, established G & J Lines Ltd to make wooden toys
and baby carriages |
| 1919 |
Joseph's three sons, William, Arthur and Walter,
established Lines Bros Ltd in Old Kent Road, London. |
| 1924 |
The firm moved to a purpose built factory, covering 27 acres,
in Morden Road, Merton, London. Triang Toys was registered as
a trademark, the triangle symbol represented the three brothers.
The company produced mainly large wooden and metal toys. |
| 1931 |
The Pedigree name was registered and first used
as a trademark for prams. |
| 1937 |
Pedigree Soft Toys Ltd produced it's first catalogue
offering soft toys (known as Pedigree Pets) and dolls which
were produced at Merton Triang Works.. |
| 1946 |
Lines bought the Australian Joy-Toys Ltd factory
at Whangarei, New Zealand and founded Lines Bros (NZ) Ltd. A
large new factory was later built in Auckland where Pedigree
soft toys "Made in NZ" were produced.
Another factory, in Castlereagh Road, Belfast, was opened in
October by Countess Granville where soft toys "Made in
Ireland" were produced. |
| 1950 |
Lines merged activities of International Model
Aircraft Ltd (plastics) with Pedigree Soft Toys with the former
making and marketing both products. |
| 1951 |
Lines bought Rovex Plastics Ltd of Richmond, Surrey
and built a new factory for them in Margate, Kent. Also acquired
50% holding in Australian owned Cyclops and formed Cyclops and
Lines Bros (Aust) Ltd. |
| 1955 |
Acquired remaining 50% share of Cyclops. All UK soft toy production
moved to Belfast and the factory employed 50 machinists producing
up to 500 jointed mohair bears each day. |
| 1966 |
Lines bought Joy-Toys Ltd in Victoria, Australia.
Lines Bros reorganised to form Rovex Triang Ltd. The Belfast
factory closed and soft toy production moved to Canterbury. |
| 1971 |
Rovex Triang collapsed. |
| 1972 |
Dunbee-Combex-Marx took over |
| 1988 |
The factory in Canterbury closed and Pedigree
ceased business. |
Pedigree
bears
Around 1960 Ann Wood, designer at the Belfast factory, introduced
the inset muzzle to Pedigree bears.
The early 1960's saw an upsurge in the use of washable, synthetic
materials such as nylon. In the early 1960's Pedigree produced an
unjointed, fully washable, nylon bear with foam rubber filling which
was very similar to those made by Wendy Boston. Pedigree introduced
novelty bears such as Simon, The Walking Bear and
a talking Rupert Bear which contained batteries.
| 1960's Pedigree |
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To see more examples, visit our Vintage
Bears where, depending on availability, you will see more Pedigree
bears.
Pedigree
Bear Identification
- 1955-1966 Pedigree Soft Toys (Belfast) printed label, used after
soft toy production moved to Belfast, N Ireland. The label is
often found stitched in the back seam. Earlier bears, made in
England, may have a similar label but show "England"
rather than "N Ireland"
- printed label used in the late 1960's onwards, after Pedigree
moved it's soft toy production to Canterbury
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®
Pedigree
MADE IN ENGLAND |
- Noses: these vary and may be a piece of stiff black felt,
be stitched with black silk or, after the mid 1950's, be made
of moulded plastic
- Eyes: often amber and black plastic. Later novelty bears often
had blue glass eyes
- Mouth: an inverted "T" shape, stitched in black
- Ears: sometimes contain bells
- Legs: straight, feet small with round velveteen paw pads. There
is no claw stitching
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