In the early 1970's my wife's mother purchased two sets of toys
(described below), which they believe were from the UNICEF catalog. 
My wife contacted UNICEF two years ago, however, and their assistant
director of consumer mail order said that she researched UNICEF's
catalog archives, but did not find a record of the toy my wife
described.  She added, "Perhaps they were purchased from another fund
raising organization associated with children such as Save the
Children."

Each set contained a cloth family, each piece about one-and-a-half
inches high with mother, father and (my wife believes) two children. 
These family pieces were beanbags covered in polyester fabric.  The
faces and clothing details were printed on this fabric.

My wife believes the manufacturer made 4 sets in total, and my wife
had 2 of these: an African family and an Eskimo family.  Each set
included a house for the family, and both the African and Eskimo
houses were dome-shaped (the Eskimo house was an igloo).  Each house
may have had a handle on top.

I would like a photo, or any other information about this set, because
I am attempting an internet search to find a used set.  Thank you very
much for your help!

Carl

Greetings Carlhollywood:

Nice to see you again.  I found a reference to a Save The Children
Eskimo Bean Bag doll at a site called Epier.  There is a picture at
http://www.epier.com/BiddingForm.asp?833471 of the doll except it is
six inches tall, more than a bit bigger than your description.  Not
the one.  Also see http://www.chrissy.com/children.html for more of
the same.

I stumbled upon an article mentioning some cloth doll clubs.  You
might consider joining one or more and query the members to see if
they have any of the sets.  See
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/17949/101637

This museum offers a variety of cloth dolls from different countries. 
You might contact this museum with a query.  Someone might have seen
these (they could have been a museum collection item coupled with a
charity). See http://www.umaine.edu/hudsonmuseum/shoptoys.htm

Sorry I couldn't find more information.

Best regards,
journalist-ga


SEARCH STRATEGY:

vintage "bean bag" eskimo
bean bag eskimo
vintage "bean bag" eskimo family
"eskimo family" bean bag dolls
"eskimo family" soft sculpture
"eskimo family" bean bag OR beanbag
eskimo family cloth
eskimo family cloth charity
"eskimo family" charity dolls
eskimo family igloo toy
"cloth dolls" africa OR alaska
"bean bag" dolls africa OR alaska
"african family" bean bag dolls
"african family" cloth dolls hut

Dear Journalist-ga:

Thank you for your research. I'm starting to understand what a
difficult question that my wife has posed, and we appreciate your
comments and suggestions!