Dolls Make The World Go Round.

Doll pictures are still being added to this blog. These are being added a few at a time so that my dial -up connection doesn't blow up. HA HA

A lot of my dolls come from estate sales in and around my home town, with many from my county surrounding my town. When I purchased these, almost all of these dolls needed some sort of cleaning or repair or dressing in order to be presentable. Over the years I have learned the valuable knowledge of doll repair, so that I could make my own repairs. Sending dolls out for doll repair is very expensive.

Anytime a local person wants to visit us to see the dolls, they are most welcome, although I may not be considered the absolute best housekeeper in the world. And, dolls take up a lot of room and there is overcrowding in both doll rooms.

The first is a bisque doll head made in Germany. This doll is an Armand Marseilles bisque head, made in Germany around the early 1900's. This doll would have come with a leather body but I aquired her without a body. I am currently looking for a leather body on ebay and at estate sales. Her head has tiny holes to be able to attach the head to the body. Bisque is like porcelain but in the early days, it was called porcelain. Bisque dolls in their original state are usually very valuable.

This composition baby doll is one of my favorites. She came from a town just 7 miles from my house and was given to me by a dear friend. She had a huge crack in the back of her head and her wood fiber stuffing was coming out of huge tears in several places. Her legs were almost torn from the body. I repaired her head crack and in order to salvage her legs, I put casts around the tears inthe legs as the cheesecloth body was too fragile to attempt to sew the legs back together. The casts were made from gauze and glue and actually are holding her legs together quite well. I used one of my family's heirloom christening dresses and bonnet to clothe her. She is from the late 1890's or early 1900's.

Cutie little dolls appear in this picture. The dolls on the right side are all printed with Japan on their back and are typically known as little bisque dolls. These dolls were usually painted with bright colors and we very inexpensive dolls, sold at dimestores. Since the arms and legs don't move, these are called "frozen leg/arm dolls". These are just under 3 inches tall. The doll on the left is a carnival doll. She has a loop on her head and when she was first sold, she was attached to a string and a small stick and was sold in a carnival or was given as a prize to a winner of a game. She is made of a hard plastic, while some carnival dolls were made of a highly flamable celluloid plastic which was the first plastic made.

This doll is fondly called Walda by a number of doll collecting groups, although that isn't her real name. In fact, she didn't have a name when she was sold. This is a cheap porcelain doll which was sold in mass quanities through mail order advertisements put in women's craft magazines. These ads came out in the early 1970's and lasted 3 or 4 years, so a lot of dolls were sold. Most dolls are dressed in the brown print dresses although I have also seen green, red and yellow print dresses of the same style. Almost every doll collector has a "Walda" doll but she isn't really valuable. I still see these dolls at flea markets for $1.00 to $3.00. I'm also putting a picture of the original advertisment from a Workbasket magazine.

Small hard plastic dolls like this were made by the Irwin Company in the 1930's and the 1940's and are about 6 inches tall. Their arms and legs move too. When these were issued, I believe they were not dressed. At that time, crocheting doll dresses was a popular past time, so now when I find these dolls, many times they are dressed in wide skirted crocheted dresses. Also a note, many of the Irwin dolls were made with holes in their heads to accomodate talc powder. The pictured dolls do not have holes in their heads. Note their Kewpie eyes, looking to the side.

In the 1940's and 1950's many dolls were manufactured in Japan and sold in the United States. In the mid-1950's there almost every dimestore in America sold little plastic dolls with red hair in ponytails with red shoes and white socks painted on their feet. Some of these dolls came in a package labelled as "Topsee". These pictures show two types of these little red hair ponytail dolls. Many doll collectors have fondly named these dolls "Millie" for the girls and "Willie" for the boys (which were actually girl dolls with hats). The first picture shows a mechanical red hair ponytail doll. She has a wind-up key to make her move. Her felt skirt covers the movement mechanics.

The second picture shows a grouping of small dolls, including several red haired ponytail "Millie" dolls and even one "Willie" doll lying in the cradle. These particular dolls are about 4 to 5 inches tall. I also have some little "african topsee dolls" which have black skin, black hair in ponytails and red shoes with white socks, but the aren't included in this picture. Also in this picture is a Penny Brite doll from the mid 1960's, dressed in a red dress and she is to the left of Willie in the cradle. To the left of Penny Brite is a minature Samantha Parkington doll made by the Pleasant Company. This is a doll replicating the American Girl doll. This doll is from 1995 and were only sold by the American Girl Doll company for $20.00 at that time. Note the tiny highchair to the left of the cradle. I also have the potty chair in my collection. One of the red haired ponytail dolls is having a tea party, using china dishes and sitting at a snappy red table.

As you can see so far, I have an eclectic collection. Later I will post pictures of some Madame Alexander, Betsy Wetsy, Betsy McCall and others which were very popular in their day. Keep watching this blog for additional pictures.