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Rock-a-bye Baby . . .
NOTICE: You never get too old to play with dolls! Come in and join us. We've been playing again and there are new dolls to meet. The latest additions to this page are scattered among the earlier occupants -- including the oldest doll in our collection!
This tiny tot dressed in her original clothes is an Armand Marseille "Rock-A-Bye Baby". A diminutive 10" tall, she can sit in the palm of your hand.
Our smallest doll is the Armand Marseille doll marked 661 Germany 5. At 2" tall, the doll is considerably shorter than it's 3" companion. There are almost 100 years difference in their ages since the doll dates from the early 1900s, and the bear from the early 2000s.
Another teensy doll complete with organdy dress, lace slip, muslin pantaloons and painted Mary Jane slippers. This shy little miss has a one piece body with moveable arms. She is 2-5/8" high.
A Heubach - Koppelsdorf baby doll 320.9 made in Germany circa 1910. At 19" tall, she's as big as a real baby and wears one of my baby dresses. She has sleep eyes that open and close, pierced nostrils and a "wobbly tongue" that moves in and out of her mouth.
This nicely redressed young Germany lady is a 30" Charles M. Bergmann with a Simon & Halbig body. Circa early 1900s, she sits atop an American-made 1860's bed joined by a much younger Gund bear made in 1985.
A new "baby" for the Bergmann was found in North Platte, Nebraska, -- and her "twin" was seen in Rock Springs, Wyoming. This small, hand painted bisque doll is a current day reproduction that is designed to look like an early Bye-Lo Baby. There is an imperfection in the shape of the right side of the mouth which was identical on both dolls. This particular doll had been beautifully dressed in a cap, dress, slip and diapers created from old, lace trimmed and embroidered handkerchiefs.
This is an Ichimatsu, a Japanese traditional play doll. Made between 1920 and 1930, this doll has a paper maché swivel head on shoulder plate, bent legs jointed at the hips and bent arms jointed at the shoulder. It has a hair wig, dark glass eyes, and pierced nostrils. The baby with bent limbs was a popular souvenir doll.
A pretty blonde J. D. Kestner #171 made in Germany around 1910-1915. At 24" high, she has an older child's tall, slender body.
This cutie found in Chicago probably dates from between 1920 and 1930. Dressed in what appears to be her original outfit (the headband was a 1990s addition), she is just over 12" tall. She has a composition body with a painted face, socks and shoes. Hidden inside the doll is a box containing a "shaking" mechanism that includes a rotating a shaft through her body. There is a disc on the front (under her clothes) which turns when the shaft is rotating; the shaking mechanism is activated by winding a key on her back. When activated, the doll shakes like she's scared and trembling.
A modern Furga circa 1950s. I've yet to document her name, but her original outfit suggests she might be Cinderella. When we found her, she was lying in a box in desperate need of restringing and repair for a broken shoulder.
Another Furga, probably 1960s, is dressed in her original two piece bathing suit and matching cover-up, platform sandals and sun hat decorated with artificial fruit. She is "suntanned" with painted fingernails and toenails, and is made from a light-weight hard plastic and she has sleep eyes. Her companion in the grass skirt and lei is an unmarked soft vinyl doll circa 1970s.
We recently discovered this flirty-eyed little lady in Denver. Her eyes eyes move both up and down, and side to side. She has no markings but the shape of her body, hands and feet are quite similar to the Furgas. With her dark hair, eyes and "skin", I think she was originally a souvenir doll circa 1960s. Eventually she convinced us she was indeed an Indian Princess so I created this new costume from sheepskin chamoise with handmade bead details.
By coincidence, we acquired a pair of Horsman dolls from the 1920s which have almost identical faces but which were produced a number of years apart. The boy who someone has redressed as Buster Brown appears to be the older of the two. We found him in Memphis, Tennessee. His head and neck are one molded piece (composition) that attaches to a cloth body which extends to include the upper 2" of each leg. His composition arms join at the shoulder and his composition legs join the cloth body about 1-1/2" above his knees. He appears to have been designed to be a "boy" based on the shape of his body which is full across the shoulders and chest with very narrow hips. He has a crier that no longer works and an open mouth with 4 teeth, two of which are chipped. -- probably from playing. Marked E.I.H. Co., Inc., I believe he’s an 18" "Can’t Break ‘Em" cloth and composition produced from 1910-1920.
Our next surprise came when we were working on part of our family genealogy and ran across a photograph of one of my mother’s friends and her doll. This doll is either an early Horsman "Can't Break 'Em" composition and cloth doll or a look-alike competitor. Notice that along with her brown skin, she also has brown tin sleep eyes, rather than blue.
This doll has the fixed head on a shoulder plate and excelsior stuffed cloth body with a constructed "bend" where the body meets the legs so the doll can placed sitting down. Her original outfit was long gone when we acquired her from a lady from East Texas so she's redressed in an old-fashioned looking dress that was handmade by a lady in Centerville, Indiana. Her companions are both late 1990s vintage.
This 6" doll is a great example of souvenir dolls from the 1940s and 50s. Made by Carlson Manufacturing Company of Maple Lake, Minnesota, the doll is labeled, "Deerfoot and Brown Eagle, an Indian family, are designers in the manufacture of this American Made Indian Doll." She stands on stationary legs, but her head and arms are jointed. She is completely original dressed in her original beaded doeskin outfit and moccasins and holding a small bow. This doll was a special gift from a family member who was the original owner.
A much earlier souvenir Indian doll was the Skookums. Handmade, they are carefully detailed from the painted designs on their moccasins to their feathers. Most wore hand dyed and woven blankets.
Even modern dolls are fun! The darling red headed Götz baby doll was made in Germany. Madeline, her dark haired companion, was made in France, probably by Corolle. These vinyl head and limbed dolls have stuffed cloth bodies and are extremely soft to the touch making them suitable for very young children. Both are approximately 10 years old and were probably sold by the parent of their original owners at garage sales. Their furry companion under the Christmas tree is a teddy made in China in 2000, who has a wonderfully expressive face, and who is appropriately dressed for the night before Christmas in a flannel nightshirt and miniature Bunny Slippers.
Probably the oldest doll in our collection is the German Heinrich Handwerk doll #139 made before 1897. The Handwerk Company began making dolls in 1876 and in 1897 developed a jointed composition body for the dolls. This doll has a kid body with a bisque shoulder head. Her tiny arms and hands are bisque; her short, stubby feet are made of cloth and stuffed with excelsior. When her original owner received her, the doll would have been wearing a modest white slip with with a camisole and bloomers. When I found her, an interim owner had redressed her in the vintage dress and hat. Ironically, her dress -- a perfect copy of a lady's day dress from about 1921 -- is 20 years newer than the doll. This doll chose a modern beanie bear to be her companion.
A wonderful Boyd's bear, "Doomoore Buckshot", gazes into a very special snow globe.
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The 20" young lady
on the left is a Horsman "Rosebud" produced in 1928. She is also
made from composition and cloth, but her head is separate from the neck which is
molded as part of a shoulder plate. This enables her to move or tilt her
head. Also, her legs attach directly to the torso at hip level which
enables her to sit. She has a crier that still works and an open mouth
with 4 perfect teeth. We found Rosebud at a national doll convention in
Dallas, Texas, and although she had been "restored" and the area
around her eyes obviously repaired, she is dressed in her original costume.
