Cascelloid Ltd was founded by Alfred Edward Pallett in 1919. They produced their first toy in 1920 and their first doll in 1925. Unfortunately, the works were destroyed in 1927.
They were a listed exhibitor at the 1929 British Industries Fair as manufacturers of everything in Celluloid and Erinoid including toys, advertising novelties, mirrors, photo frames, brushes, calendars amongst others. The company was purchased by British Xylonite in 1931, moved to Abbey Lane in Leicester in 1932, and launched the Palitoy range of toys, based on the founder’s name, in 1935.
After the Second World War Cascelloid wrote to the designer Bill Pugh inviting him for an interview, but he replied saying he was too busy and could not come. Cascelloid’s Managing Director, Henry Senior persisted and Pugh was secured by the company, along with an imported blow moulding machine. In 1949, he designed the first novelty shaped bottle, a pale pink teddy-bear with a screwtop for Vinolia baby powder. He modelled it by hand in clay, then cast it into plaster for mould-making. The squeeze lemon, marketed now as Jif, began life as a wooden core carved by Pugh and covered painstakingly with fresh lemon peel which he cast into a plaster mould, experimenting until he had it just right.
When Cascelloid split into two in 1965, Pugh became Director of Design, Research and Development at Palitoy, heading a staff of 22 designers, engineers and chemists. These were set to be exciting times, in which they devised exacting techniques to make precisely detailed electric locomotives in plastic. The company was purchased by General Mills in 1968 and then became independent again in 1980. They ceased trading in 1986 at which point the factory at Coalville, moulds and copyrights were acquired by Hasbro.
