80 Years ago my Mother and Dad started a small business in New York City that made small stuffed animal pincushions.  From those pincushions which are today as up-to-date as the buggy whip, evolved a company that manufactured stuffed plush toys.  Mary Meyer was my Mother and she and Dad started Mary Meyer Manufacturing Co. in NYC in 1933.

The first few years they made Animal Pincushions, which were scotties, lambs, horses, and elephants.  Mother was the designer and the maker and Dad, Hans Meyer, was the salesman.  He travelled all over the eastern half of the USA and sold animal pincushions to department stores and 5¢ & 10¢ chain stores like Woolworths.

Dad was a great salesman and kept a good size crew of ladies busy sewing, stuffing and making stuffed animal pincushions.

After World War 2 women didn’t sew their own clothing as much as they use to and there wasn’t a need for a stuffed animal pincushion to store their pins and needles in.  Mothers did not make all of the family’s clothing the way they did in the 1930s and 40s.

When I was 12 years old I helped Dad carry cartons containing order shipments to the post office for shipping to 40 to 50 Woolworth stores or department stores.  In each carton was one, two or three dozen 5” to 7” stuffed animal pincushions for each “5¢ & 10¢” branch store.

Whether I knew it or not, I was being exposed to a business, that I later joined after college and a tour with the US Army in the mid 1950s.

Mother grew up in New York City and learned the dressmaking trade at Manhattan Trade School for Girls.  She loved to sew and helped the business grow.  They first made Tomato Pincushion, then animal pincushions and finally stuffed plush toy animals.  Today that business is in southern Vermont.  Over those 80 years Mary Meyer has made many millions of stuffed toy animals and probably a few hundred thousand animal pincushions.

Today I answer emails from adults who have grown up with our toys and want to know something about their teddy bear or stuffed dog that they had for 20, 30 or 40 years ago.  I’m pretty good and  I can tell them what is ours and what is not and it’s history.  It’s like looking at one of your kids and saying “I know that kid.   He’s one of mine”.

This past week I saw a Camel animal pincushion that I haven’t see for 70 years, but I knew it was one of ours.  Stuffed Camels were never in great demand.  Dogs, Cat and Teddy Bears are the most popular designs, followed by Lambs and Rabbits.  Camels are fairly far down the list of popularity.

   How many Camels did Mother make?  Well, I have to guess at some of these
   answers, because there are no records saying “x number of pieces”.  I’m
   guessing they were made from 1939 through 1945.  If there were one Camel
   per dozen assorted pincushions, there could be 5,000 or more Camel
   pincushions made during that period.

  A Mary Meyer collector friend of mine sent me a photo of her Camel.  Keep in mind this pincushion is 70 years old and she bought it after it had been used for many years.  It’s faded and the ribbon is frizzy.  Pincushions were all made of cotton percale fabric, stuffed with cotton batting, with sewn on felt eyes, nose and tongues, with a satin neck-ribbon, with a tiny spool of thread and 5 brass safety pins attached.  They did not have a sewn in tag stating the name of the maker as we do today.

The Mary Meyer Camel pincushion is 7″ long and 6½” high.  If you look at the belly of the Camel the fabric is not as faded as the fabric on the sides.   It is still stuffed fairly firmly, but the safety pins are gone.  This pincushion is still in pretty good shape considering it over 70 years old.

 Why am I writing this?  Well, I wonder, are there any more Camels or other stuffed animal pincushions out there?  I have a few and I’m looking for others.  There are dogs, cats, horses, lambs, dolls, elephants, dolls and camels.  We also made toys out of oilcloth, but I’ll save that story for another day.

I’m a stuffed toy detective. I spent 30 years designing and making stuffed toy animals and now I’m looking for some of the products my family made 60 to 70+ years ago.  I am hoping there are some animal pincushions hidden in attics and garages all over this huge country, that will jump out and say “Here I am”.  Hopefully their owners will email me.

If you find something you would like me to see, you can contact me at wallym@svcable.net.   I would love to hear from you.

by Walter Meyer
Mary Meyer Corp.
Townshend, VT – USA
Photos by Linda Laughlin

Share This Post:

• Share
• Tweet

“If You Build It – They Will Come” is a well known saying.

I built and sold them and now I wondering what happened to them.

I’m talking about stuffed toys.  I was a stuffed toy designer from the late 1950s to the early 1980s – about 25+ years.  The Lazy Hound was one of my favorite designs.  Probably because it was one of my best selling creations. 

My Mother was Mary Meyer of the Mary Meyer stuffed toy company.  The company has been making “stuffed stuff”, mostly stuffed toys, for 80 years.  Mary Meyer stuffed toy company is a family business started by my Mother and Father in 1933. I continued managing through the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.  My four sons took over in 1985 and manage it today.

Lazy Hound from Mary Meyer 1960’s

My favorite job was creating new designs. How do you do that?  Well, you look at what has been successful and you go from there. You experiment with new ideas, new fabrics, possibly new colors and try and create something you like, that’s not the same old teddy bear.

That’s how the Lazy Hound came into being.  I wanted a body that was different and the lazy, lying body concept looked good.  I wanted either a cat or dog, because they are the most loved pets, people have.  I can’t do a “Lovable Spider”, because who wants to take a Spider to bed with them.  It should be warm, cuddly and lovable.  So the Lazy Hound came into being.

His colors are Cocoa Brown like many everyday pups.  His ears and snout were a contrasting color.  Blue buttons on his chest, Large Red tongue, and a light Blue satin ribbon finished a nice color combination.  I was totally happy with his design.

The Lazy Hound went into production in 1965 and sold for over 10 years, until the late 1970s.  We sold over 1,000 a year for over 10 years.  There could be 10,000 Lazy Hound in closets and attics all over the USA, but I haven’t seen one in years.  If you check on ebay and search for stuffed animals, as I just did,  you will find 314,263 on website for sale.  

314,263 Stuffed Animals for sale on one website. Add Amazon, etc.  How many other websites have stuffed animals for sale?

How many stuffed animals are sold in the USA each year on website and in stores?  Millions.

How many stuffed animals are in attics and closets waiting to be found again, after being discarded after many years of love. Million and Millions.

People don’t throw stuffed animals away.  Yes some get lost each year.  A few are discarded and sent to thrift shops.  But the vast majority are saved because they are loved and are the prize possession of a youngster, now grown into an adult.

That’s where my Lazy Hounds are hiding.  In closets, attics and in suitcase and laundry bags of every youngsters once-loved stuffed toy pals.

Hey, you out there!

Do you have my Lazy Hound sleeping in your attic?  You can’t just forget him.  He was your pal, your buddy for many years and you can’t just abandon him sleep forever in some remote bureau.  He deserves a place of honor in your life.  Show him to your kids and maybe grand kids.  He was your best friend and should be where you can continue your friendship for years to come.

Anyone finding a Lazy Hound, please email me at walter_meyer@marymeyer.com and send me a photo if you can.

Sincerely,

Walter Meyer

Share This Post:

• Share
• Tweet

Looking for Special stuffed toy is like looking for a friend. you haven’t seen in years  – I know exactly what he looks like, but it’s been years since I have seen one.

I spent the first 25+ years of my working life as a stuffed toy designer for Mary Meyer – our family stuffed toy business here in Vermont.  As a kid I swept floors and chopped out Red felt tongues for thousands of stuffed dogs, cats, elephant, etc.

In 1955, after college and the US Army, I settled down to a life producing a few thousand stuffed animals each year.   I have often wondered where they all went.  Today with the social media I can look for them.  Each week I receive a few requests for the history of a favorite stuffed animal or someone trying to find out where their old teddy bear was made.  Each of these people have one or two favorite toys, but I have many favorites. 

My Mother was Mary Meyer and she and Dad started Mary Meyer Mfg. Co. in 1933.  This is our 80th year in business.  In the late 1950s Mother passed the designing responsibility over to me.  It wasn’t an immediate change.  I just sort of slid into the job.  She was in her mid 50s and looking for a new challenge.

Toy designing is a skill that involves many things –  some artistic ability, learning how to cut and sew fabrics, some knowledge regarding what might sell and which toys will not sell, toy safety factors and mixture of many different things.  An additional factor – I was the father of 6 youngsters which gave me a great group on which to test my designs.

But this story is about one of my favorite stuffed toys and I’m hoping we can find one of them. 

In the early 1960s a fabric – new to me – was shaggy plush.  I had been using standard toy plush 3/8″ to 1/2″  high for over 10 years.   Shaggy plush was 2″ to 3″ long.  It was an acrylic knitted plush toy fabric.  I made a number of toys using this material and I used it as trim fabric on medium size toys.  My favorite design was a very large Dog.  He was about 46″ high and retailed for $25.00 in a toy store or a department store.  He had  a shaggy White head, legs and body and shaggy Black ears, muzzle and tail.  He had Black and White felt eyes, Red felt tongue and a White pompon nose. I believe 1963 or 1964 was the first year they were made and 1974 was the last year.

During that 10 year period how many did Mary Meyer make? 

I know we sold 100 pieces to Jordan Marsh Co. in Boston.  Most of our customers were the toy stores, department stores, hospital gift shops and many tourist shops.  This was a very large and goreous stuffed dog.  It was a traffic stopper and kids loved him.  I guess we made well over 1,000 pieces during the 10 years he was in our line of stuffed toys.  Keep in mind this was a very expensive toy.  It sold for $25.00 and in those days that was a lot of money.  Unless you were trying to impress your girl-friend.

I sit here in southern Vermont today wondering, are there any of them still out there?  I haven’t seen one on Ebay or Craigs List.  People don’t throw away the toys that they loved as a kid.  There has to be some of them out there and Yes, they may be in terrible condition. 

If anyone has seen or knows where one of these Giant White Shaggy Dogs is hiding, please drop me an email at walter_meyer@marymeyer.com . 

I’m looking for some of my old “stuffed toy friends”.  As a toy maker I’m always looking for stuffed toys I made years ago.  They are like family.   This White ShaggyDog is 50 years old and waiting for someone to find him.

 by Walter Meyer

Share This Post:

• Share
• Tweet

I wonder how many Old Humpty Dumpty stuffed toys are out there.

When I did the designing of Mary Meyer stuffed toys I had a wind-up musical version, a “Shake Me I Chime” version and a soft stuffed version.  

Why so many?  The first design was a soft, non-musical stuffed toy.  It was a popular design for girls and boys. They were made combining Pink plush and Blue felt. This maked the toy acceptable for both girls and boys.  The design was introduced  in 1969.

Adding a musical mechanism was simple.  Just insertd a wind-up musical mechanism playing an infants tune like “Rock-A-Bye Baby” and “Brahms Lullaby” .  The musical mechanisms were made in Switzerland and were  added creating this musical version.  We made sure the key was placed in the back of the toy and stuffing the toy  firmly enough so the music box does not turn as key is wound.

This photo showing Humpty Dumpty with large felt eyes was the original creation of 1969.  The rayon plush was made by Baxter, Kelly & Faust in their Philadelphia, Pa. mill.  The eyes, the Red mouth and Blue collar and hat were felt. Finally a Blue pompon was added as the nose.

In the case of the musical version, a satin ribbon was added saying “I’m A Musical”.  This assisted a shopper in purchasing  a musical Humpty Dumpty toy on display in a retail store.

The final addition to the Humpty Dumpty family was the “Shake Me – I Chime” version.  This was done by adding a small (approximately 2½” long by 1½”  in diameter) cylinder containing the mechanism that chimed as the toy is rolled around.  These mechanisms required no winding or batteries.  They just chimed when moved or rolled around. 

The retail prices on Humpty Dumpty was $3.50 for the soft toy, $4.98 for the musical and about $4.50 for the chime toy in the early 1970s.

The final creation of  Humpty Dumpty was done in the mid-1970s, when colorful plastic eyes were  added and Pink version replaced the original design.  In this one the felt hat and collar were Pink along with the plush and the ribbon and the collar became White felt and it became more of a little girl’s toy (see photo) .  Was there a Blue version for little boys? I am not sure. Possibly someone reading this will contact me and tell me they have a Blue version.

These design were in the early 1970s – about 40 years ago.  Like most people I do not remember everything I did 40 years ago.  I did not keep detailed records, so I have to try and reconstruct Mary Meyer’s Humpty Dumpty’s life.  They system is not always fool-proof.

If you read this and want to help us reconstruct the history of some of your toys from long ago, contact me – at walter_meyer@marymeyer.com . 

I helped my Mother and Dad while I was in high school in the late 1940s and came home to Mary Meyer full time in 1955.  I’ve been involved in every facet of stuffed toy manufacture from 1955 to 1985.  Today I manage halfpriceplush.com, a Mary Meyer website that sells case packs of retired Mary Meyer toys.

How many STUFFED TOYS are there in attics and closets throughout the USA?  How many were made by Mary Meyer?  I wish I knew.

We have made a lot of kids happy. It all originated with a family, who has been making stuffed animals for 80 years.  We love what we do.  I hope others love our toys  as much as I do.

by Walter Meyer

Share This Post:

• Share
• Tweet

I’ve spent most of my life designing and manufacturing stuffed animals and dolls. I took over the job from my mother who was Mary Meyer of the Mary Meyer Manufacturing Company, which was known by most simply as the Mary Meyer stuffed toy company.

Mother and dad, Hans Meyer, started making toys and pin cushions at the company they started in 1933 inNew York City.

I grew up in the family business my entire life. When I was a youngster in the 1940s, I began to pay close attention to the family business. My parents put me to work doing a variety of labor tasks at the company like sweeping floors and other odd jobs around the factory. Of course, that was normal in a family business back in those days. I worked fulltime for 58 years at the Mary Meyer Company and continue to dedicate some of my time to the company today where we still proudly own and operate our family business inVermont.

For the past few months, I have been trying to reconstruct how my mother designed her plush toys and what type of toys she made in the early days.  Mother told me a number of times that when we were manufacturing toys in New York Cityat 3 West 29^th Street – just offFifth Avenue – she had 108 girls making items for the company.  But the question is, “What did they make?”

Mother and dad started Mary Meyer Mfg. Co. in 1933 during the depression.  Mother was a very successful seamstress and could sew anything.  She worked for Miss Carroll, a high-end ladies dress maker who made $3,000 dresses for wealthy women in the early 1930s.   Dad was a great salesman.  He sold Fuller Brush Company products and was quite successful.

My parents were a natural team.  She created it, and he sold it.  Now what did they make and sell?  I can go back to the early 1940s and find stuffed animals, but before that in the 1930s, they made stuffed animal pin cushions and Tomato pincushions.

I never asked my mother how she designed the soft products that she made in the early days.  Being a designer myself, I can understand the progression or evolution of design work. Mother began the business with the Tomato Pincushion, then moved to designing the Animal and Doll Pincushions then onto stuffed animals and stuffed dolls. 

In the 1930s almost every woman sewed – dresses for herself and her daughters and possibly shirts and shorts for the boys.  Since women sewed so much, they needed a way to keep and store their pins and needles, so a Tomato pincushion is what they began using.  After begin successful with the Tomato pincushion, mother went a step further in her design work. Using her design talent, she took that Tomato pincushion shape and with a little innovation she was able to design a Scottie dog, Lamb, Horse and a Doll pincushion.  These all became early Mary Meyer pincushions.

During the past few months, I have put together a collection of vintage Mary Meyer Pincushion Dolls.  These dolls were found on the Internet and from different parts of theUnited States.  It makes sense that these pincushions were found from so many different locations because dad traveled the Eastern half of the U.S. and sold the Mary Meyer products to department stores like Marshall Field’s in Chicago; the J.L. Hudson Company in Detroit; the Hecht Company and Woodward & Lothrop in Washington, D.C.; F. W. Woolworth 5 & 10 Cent Stores; and many others

But in the mid1930s, what did those 108 employees make for Mary Meyer Co.?

I may have found part of the answer.  What I found are they made both pincushions and dolls.  Some of these dolls have a loop on top of their heads for hanging.  (See the nearby photo.) It is easy enough to hang them by placing a straight pin on the wall in front of a work area and store pins and needles there.  Looking at the photo here, you can see the second doll down on the right column dressed in red is loaded with pins by a sewer who needed a place to keep them.

By looking at all of the pincushion dolls in the photo, you can see my mother’s evolution of her design work. The design elements are refined each time she made a different style of doll.

If you are wondering how I found these pincushions, they were on Internet sites.  When I went to the eBay website, there were 5,539 pincushions listed.  More than likely, none were made by Mary Meyer as those are few and far between.  But after all, we are talking about dolls that were made 75 years ago and probably sold for 49¢ to 79¢ each in the 1930s.  How many of these vintage pincushions are people hanging on to today.  Possibly more than we think. At the top of the photo is a hang-tag that was on many of Mary Meyer dolls.

If anyone who reads this happens to have a doll pincushion or an animal pincushion please email me with a photo of it and where you live.

Those dolls and animals are part of “My Family” and I love to see them and find out more about where they are today.

You can email me at  walter_meyer@marymeyer.com

Thanks for listening to my story

Sincerely,

Walter Meyer

Share This Post:

• Share
• Tweet

I get all kinds of phone calls from people looking for stuffed toys.
A few weeks ago a Father called me about a project his 8 or 9 year old daughter was working on.
It seems his young daughter and her pal visited a friend in the hospital a number of times while he was laid up there. They saw all the kids there who needed a boost, so they decided they wanted to do something for them.   They had a tag sale with stuff they got together and raised $300 to buy something for the kids in the hospital who needed something to cheer them up. 

This is where I come into the picture.  I’m the Closeout King  at a stuffed toy company in southern Vermont and I sell last year’s teddy bears at discount prices.  What so great is these two little girls decide they want to do something to help some other kids and they did.  They raised $300 and came to me and basically said to me,  “Give me the best deal you can for some kids in a hospital”.

I picked out an assortment for them which was a “good deal” and they went happily on their way.  One of the young ladies fell in love with “Cheery Cheek” Mopsy Mouse” and she went home with one of them.  A couple of weeks later I received a hand-made ” Thank You” note from them and it was great.  I’m a grand father and  I have 18 grandchildrens.  I have a soft spot in my heart for grand-kids, especially when they doing something  for others.  These two young ladies made an extra effort to help other kids.  They raised money – $300 – to provide happiness to some other kids who were having a hard time in their lives.  I am happy to have been a part of it.

Here’s the Thank You note.

Share This Post:

• Share
• Tweet

Lazy Hound from Mary Meyer 1960’s

This morning a friend sent me a photo of her favorite Vintage Mary Meyer stuffed toy.

The “Lazy Hound” is 13″ long with a Brown plush body and head and Honey  plush ears, chest and snout.
He has a large Black pompom nose, a Red felt tongue, felt buttons on his chest and a satin neck-ribbon.  The fabric in the 1960’s when we first manufactured the Lazy Hound was Rayon plush, made in Philadelphia, PA. by Baxter, Kelly & Faust.  They were usually stuffed with chopped foam rubber to make a soft cuddly stuffed toy.

In the 1960’s the Lazy Hound retailed in a toy store for $2.98 .  We made this design for over 20 years and it was one of our most successful stuffed toys.

The Lazy Hound was Mary Meyer’s design #467.  In those days we added 20 to 30 new designs each year. The Lazy Hound was a very successful and long running design and is one of my favorite.

New designs are very important.  When someone, such as my wife goes shopping for a new blouce or dress, she does not buy the same one or same color or same design as she did last year.  She wants something NEW.  Stuffed toy designs are exactly the same.  New designs are the life blood of a stuff toy manufacturer.  Today at Mary Meyer, Steven Meyer ( Mary Meyer’s grandson)  is the head designer and creates well over 100 new designs each year.  He probably creates 200 to 300 new design and weeds out the poorer design and puts the best 100+ designs into production.

I’m Walter Meyer and I started working at Mary Meyer in 1955 and I’m still here.  Mary Meyer was my Mother.  I try and remember all of the designs we did during the past 50 years.  It’s fun and I see a lot of old friends that we made here at Mary Meyer in Townshend, VT over the past 60 years.  When I see an old Mary Meyer toy, it’s like looking at one of your old friends.  You look at them and try and remeber when that design was made.  It may have been over 50 years ago.  It’s tough recognizing an old friend after that length of time. 

Share This Post:

• Share
• Tweet

Mary Meyer Stuffed Toys was founded by my Mother and Father in 1933.  I joined the company full time in September1955 and I have many great memories of our early days.

During World War 2 Hans Meyer, my Dad, had a difficult time buying fabrics to make animals pin cushions and stuffed toys.  Businesses that were working for the war effort had a priority to buy materials, which is the way it should be.  Mary Meyer was not making anything for the war effort, so Dad had to pick up cotton fabric where ever he could.

I was 12 years old about that time and I heard a lot of business conversation at the dinner table.  Similar to the talk conversation my children heard, when I was managing Mary Meyer.

The conversation I remember was in regard to the fabric that the camouflage teddy bear was made from.  I am sure camouflage fabric was not a standard cotton material offered on the market.  If it was available it would go directly to a factory making army uniforms.

This was fabric left over after an order of army camouflage uniforms was finished.  When making 10,000 camouflage shirts and pants the maker would receive extra fabric in case of imperfections in the fabric, end of the rolls of fabric and many other reasons to have pieces left.  Dad bought these remnants and gave them to Mother, who then made them into teddy bears.

The pattern for the Camouflage Teddy Bear is a fairly standard pattern of what the stuffed toy industry calls a “cuddle body” with a bear head.  This has been a fairly standard pattern for the past 50 years.  The legs bend at the bottom of the body by not stuffing that area too densely, allowing the legs to flop back and forth.  The whole body is stuffed softly to create a soft, cuddly stuffed toy bear.

The eyes are each composed of 2 pieces of felt – Black in the front and Red in the back, with a French knot as the center of the eye.  The nose and mouth are also sewn on or embroidered with Black embroidery floss – a Black yarn made especially for embroidering details on a toy or embroidery.

The bear was stuffed by hand with cotton, through an opening in the back of the body.  This was then sewn closed by a running stitch.  Beverly, an older Mary Meyer employee of the late 1940’s through 1980 recently told me about how Mother, Mary Meyer, taught her this special stitch  to close the opening through which the toys are stuffed.

About 1946 Beverly started working for Mary Meyer.  She remembers the date well, because her husband, Wendell was just coming home from World War 2.  Her job was to sew the animals closed and attach the eyes and noses and embroider the mouth.  Though an excellent sewer, she asked Mother for pointers on the best way the close the opening through which the toys were stuffed.

Relying on her training at the Manhattan Trade School For Girls in New York City, she showed Beverly a new stitch.  Beverly had never learned this stitch before and she taught all the women she worked with for the next 30 years the stitch that Mother had taught her.

Finally a Red satin neck-ribbon is tied around the neck to make the teddy bear a finish product, ready for shipment to a retail store.

I am always looking for early Mary Meyer products, especially from the 1930’s and 1940’s.  If you have ever seen one of these pictured above, please email me at walter_meyer@marymeyer.com .  I would really like to hear from you.

Share This Post:

• Share
• Tweet

Mary Meyer – the stuffed toy company was founded by my Mother and Father.  I have many great memories of them and the business they started in 1933.

The company was started in New York City, moved to New Jersey in 1937 and to Vermont in 1944 and we have been here ever since.

Mary Meyer was the creative genius who made new designs for her salesman husband Hans Meyer, to offer to his customers all over the eastern USA.  Hans was my Dad and traveled over much of his territory by train in the 1940’s.

In the Mary Meyer museum in Townshend, VT I have a number of toys they made in the late 1930’s and 1940’s.  One of my favorites in a Red stuffed toy horse made of oil cloth.  If you don’t remember oil cloth, it was used to cover kitchen tables in the 1930’s and 40’s, because it could be wiped clean very easily.

My parents and other toy companies used oil cloth to make toys, because the toys could be wiped clean, when they became soiled or dirty, just like the kitchen table cloth.  It came in many colors and my Dad would have a cotton fabric that he especially liked to be coated with the plastic-like resin to create a fabric called oil cloth.  Oil cloth was used for raincoats, as it shed water very well.

Getting back to the Red horse, in the mid 1940’s we made this Red horse about 4 to 5 inches high with silk screened decorations.  The body parts of the horse were first cut out and then silk screened using White decorations for the horse’s harness, eyes and noses, hoofs and saddle. 

The ears were made of a plastic fabric, a solid color center piece created the horse’s forehead and a White cotton mane and tail were sewn in.   The horse was sewn wrong-side-out, then turned right-side-out and then stuffed by hand with cotton stuffing material.  The opening through which it had been stuffed and turned was then sewn closed.  Sewing this opening closed was not an easy job.  Oil cloth tended to tear as the resin coating made the fabric fairly stiff.  The important thing was the toy was great for kids as it could be washed  and wiped clean.

Some of the other animals we made at the time were stuffed toy Zebras, which had silk screened Black stripes on a White body.

I am always looking for early Mary Meyer products, especially from the 1930’s and 1940’s.  If you have ever seen one of these please email me at walter_meyer@marymeyer.com.

Share This Post:

• Share
• Tweet

My name is Walter Meyer and I have been writing about my experience working with my Mother, Mary Meyer and the stuffed toy business. During the 1930’s and early 1940’s Mary Meyer manufactured animal pin cushions and oil cloth covered stuffed toys.

 The two products – animals pin cushion and oil cloth covered stuffed toys are very similar in design.  The major difference is the outside covering of the animals.  Pin cushions are made of cotton percale fabric, so pins and needles can be pushed through the fabric.

Oil cloth covered stuffed toys are made, so that they may be washed or wiped clean after a child has gotten them dirty.  The outer covering resists water, but it is not soft and cuddly as toys are today.

In the 1930’s and 40’s the oil cloth was practical as it could be washed many times.  In the 1930’s and 40’s kitchen tables were covered with oil cloth, as it could be easily wiped clean, when kids spilled food or milk.  For that same reason it was practical to use in the making of stuffed toys.

During that period Mary Meyer made pin cushions in the form of Scotties, Lambs, Horses, Ducks, Cats and other animals.  These exact same designs could be made with oil cloth and became stuffed toys. 

So, animal pin cushions and oil cloth stuffed toys were very closely related.  The stuffing material for both was cotton stuffing, as washable foam rubber had not been invented yet.  That only came along in the mid 1950’s.

The Elephant Pin Cushion pictured here was made in the early 1940’s.  The exact same pattern was use through the 1930’s.  The ears were made of felt as was the tail and in this case the centerpiece that covered his forehead.   Again this pin cushion was stuffed by hand with cotton through an opening in its belly, which was sewn closed after the stuffing operation.

The eyes were sewn on by making a French knot as the center of the eye, inserting the needle through a Black felt circle for the eye and sewing through the elephant’s head and coming out where the second eye should be, adding the second Black felt eye, adding another French knot for the second eye, and then inserting the needle, make a few blind stitches and then cutting off the thread.

The final work on the Elephant was tying a ribbon around its neck and tying a bow on the back of its head.  When tying the ribbon a tiny spool of thread is tied into the neck ribbon, more to make the animal more attractive than for practical use.  Finally 5 brass safety pins are pinned on the Elephant to complete its decoration.

Sad to say there were no name tags saying made by Mary Meyer.  The only people who recognize these animals are few and far between.  Hopefully a few animal pin cushions may surface, if enough people read this blog.

Share This Post:

• Share
• Tweet