Golly Variations 1950/60.

BAGPIPERS - Watch for the shapes in the feet and hands. You should also look for the different positions of the pipes.  

Also look for the words GOLDEN SHRED on the bag. Some have it and some don't.  

A closer look at the main listed differences:

Different shaped mouths with different shaped blow-pipes.

Different shaped White waistcoat showing

Complete or broken drone pipes over the Gollie's left shoulder

Golden shred on the bag.

Different ways that the chanter ( bottom pipe ) cuts into the Gollie's right leg.

CRICKETERS - Things to notice from this picture

Top left - No enamel in pop eyes, no pockets on waistcoat, Black hands and feet, small feet, legs joined by brass insert, bat is pointed. Also the head has a slightly jagged edge.

Top Middle - Pop eyes, blue hands and red feet, mouth and eyes quite close together, pockets on waistcoat, bar at the bottom has pointed ends and extends beyond feet. 

Top right - smaller pockets on waistcoat, bar at bottom does not go beyond feet.

Left bottom - Smaller lettering on waistcoat, bar at bottom extends beyond gollie's left foot only and is rounded.

Middle bottom - Darker blue jacket, Jagged edge to head, smaller mouth, all of body is wider than others, large feet and hands, bar at bottom extends beyond feet and is pointed at the ends, shorter bat.

Right bottom -   Eyes are down and not Pop like the others, thin feet, bar at bottom is very textured.

The cricket bat was once described to me as a butter knife. Given the Robertson's connection to the breakfast table this was a pretty good idea. I think the person was from the USA and , of course , cricket isn't widely known or played over there   

Footballers -

Well, the balls shown are all different. Also the shade of blue in the jackets varies. The eyes in the centre brooch are looking down where others come as pop eyed. All footballers seem to come with metal hands and feet although they do vary in size. Waistcoat pockets and mouth sizes vary quite a lot.  The colours of the footballs are a nightmare to determine except  by comparison. You're OK with a white football but the difference between dark brown and brown is a bit vague.

FRUITS - 

Two fruit brooches were produced in the 1950's and 1960's. They didn't feature a golly image or face but have become very collectable. 

The Lemons come in different shades of green and yellow and I've shown the sort of contrast in these pictures.

The Raspberries did have noticeable differences. The ribbons bisect the top leaf on some, but not all, of them. The wording is also different from one to another. Different sized letters and also different words. The middle one ( a Miller type 2 ) says "ROBERTSON'S" and the others say "ROBERTSON". The enamel also seems to vary in thickness giving the appearance of different shading (  i.e. the middle Raspberry has thicker enamel and so looks darker ) 

The very lovely Skaters. Occasionally mistaken for a dancing golly :-) 

Once again you get bobble headed gollies from Miller but you also get variations in the skates. Jacket colours vary from light to dark and , like with many others , you have to compare them carefully to find the difference. They also come with and without waistcoat pockets and none of them displays a bow tie.