Merrythought

and with a bow decorated with Iron Bridges.]] Merrythought was founded in 1930 by Gordon Holmes and George H. Laxton, with the first catalogue in 1931. The company hired AC Janisch who had been in charge of sales at J. K. Farnell as well as two former employees of Chad Valley, Clifton James Rendle and Florence May Attwood, with Attwood producing the company's first catalogue – an imaginative range of 32 toys including the first Merrythought teddy bear 'Magnet' ('M' series). Perhaps Merrythought's most famous individual bear was "Mr Whoppit", the mascot of land and water speed record breaker Donald Campbell. The company first produced teddy bears based on the "Woppit" character (a teddy bear…

.]] The company still uses traditional methods and materials (such as mohair for its bears) to produce a limited range of hand-crafted toys, appealing to the high end of the market. The founder's grandson, Oliver Holmes, ran the business as managing director until his death in 2011; his eldest daughter, Sarah Holmes, has been involved in its management since 2010, and middle daughter Hannah Holmes since 2011, thereby continuing the Holmes family connection. The present range includes for the most part traditional and collectable teddy bears (including the company's collectable "Punkinhead" (1948) and "Cheeky" (1956) variants), some other soft toy animals. Since the relaunch in 2007 the…