Following on from his lecture at The Millennium Jam last year Ralph Dewey has been building up the history of our balloon art,
Ralph emailed this over to me and has said it was Ok to post onto the forum;

Hello History Buffs,
I've just purchased a very rare A.C. Gilbert Toy Balloon Kit (#600) made in 1931.  This has been the one significant item that my balloon history collection has been lacking.  The A.C. Gilbert company was ahead of their time when they produced the kit.  It was in 1931 when Neil Tillotson began dipping balloon molds in liquid latex.  He claimed to be the first to do that, but I've received information that Neil wasn't the very first to do so.  The A.C. Gilbert company also made another toy balloon kit which contained some Tinker Toy pieces.  I've not had a chance to examine the other kit to see the difference in the two kits.  I've only seen photos of it.
See the attached photos.  

A couple more pictures, I thought the talk Ralph gave at TMJ was very interesting. I did do a little write up in the events section about the talk.
The one balloon dog as we know it only goes back to 1965/6, so not that long ago.

Quote from: "Graham Lee"I thought the talk Ralph gave at TMJ was very interesting.

Absolutely agree, Graham.  It was a great insight into the history of this art, and surprising just how recent some of the models we churn out everyday are.  It was a joy watching and listening to someone with such passion for the subject and encyclopaedic knowledge.  I thought the most poignant and most wonderful part of the talk was that Ralph has met with a few of the pioneers still with us, and he said he's shown them some of the work today's artists produce and they are in awe of it.  Just lovely.  

--Neil