I have quite a few antique dolls from the ABG factory. They are china and bisque shoulder heads, many with molded hair, all beautifully made, probably all made before 1900. You say in your books that ABG produced character heads in the 1920s. Could you be more specific about these later dolls?
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During a nearly 30-year doll-design career, Elizabeth Cooper has unfailingly relied on the same successful formula. First comes inspiration, followed by motivation, perspiration, and when necessary, innovation.
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Q: I won this stunning 21-inch composition Margaret O’Brien doll by Madame Alexander at an auction. The original owner had purchased the doll new in the original box with the clover wrist tag that said Margaret O’Brien. For some reason, the previous owner discarded the box and the wrist tag but kept the doll in a glass cabinet. Her son had put the doll up for auction. She is flawless, and the dress is tagged Margaret O’Brien. I also have a Margaret O’Brien Madame Alexander doll in hard plastic, and I was wondering when the change from composition to hard plastic occurred?
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Before she became a full-time doll artist, Cindee Moyer was a human resources manager for a manufacturing company in Iowa for 15 years. One of her accomplishments she’s most proud of was integrating refugees into the company’s workforce. At the time, Iowa was processing large numbers of refugees from Bosnia, Vietnam, and Sudan. “Our company was expanding rapidly, so working with the Bureau of Refugee Services, I was able to hire 30 refugees in the first month — and that was just the beginning,” Moyer said.
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The early 1960s were a time of rapid change in the toy world, particularly when it comes to dolls. The doll market included toys designed for children as young as 3 years old up to 14 years, from baby dolls and toddlers — some made to be life-sized, like Ideal’s 42-inch Daddy’s Girl — to adult-figured fashion dolls. But the whole market was in the midst of a shakeup.
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The doll world is a little sadder with the recent passing of beloved doll artist Shirley Peck. Her doll company, American Beauty Dolls, made highly collectable porcelain dolls early in her career.
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Q: My grandmother left this little doll. We would like to know something about it. I was told to look on the back of the head for information. It is incised with a “K” and “R” on each side of a six-pointed star, the letters “S&H,” and the number 23. Can you tell me anything about her? Does she have any value?
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Let’s explore Famous Queens and Martha Washington, a complete boxed set of early portrait paper dolls created by Canadian artist Elizabeth S. Tucker with soft-toned watercolors. In 1895, Frederick A. Stokes and Company in New York used the chromolithography process to print them. Seven women comprise the set: Queen Marie Antoinette from France, Queen Isabella I from Spain, Queen Elizabeth I of England, Queen Louise from Prussia, Queen Victoria from England, Queen Margherita from Italy, and Martha Washington.
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Q: A longtime friend of mine recently went through the dolls that her mother left her some time ago. My friend is basically a Madame Alexander collector. She found and gave me this Shirley Temple doll that is dressed in what I presume is the sailor suit from Shirley’s movie Captain January. The doll is about 12 inches tall. She is all vinyl, with rooted hair and sleep eyes, and has her original box as well. I was aware of this fashion being all white and have never seen it in blue, but this one is tagged and obviously is original. What can you tell me?
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Julia Kristal has always loved dolls and collected them into adulthood. In college, while she was focused on music and education, she also began learning to draw and loved using colored pencils to draw realistic portraits. She also learned to knit and crochet, and she began making dolls using yarn. When she finally stumbled across reborn dollmaking and sculpting, she had found her niche. Since her love of dolls had never ended, it probably was inevitable that she would eventually become a doll artist.
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Q: I have fallen in love with Bye-Lo Babies and plan to buy one as my first antique doll purchase. Can you tell me what specifics I should look for? I don’t want to make any mistakes.
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A catastrophic illness — one that kept her in a medical facility on a respirator for four months — changed Esther Manso’s life and career path in 2010. At the time, she was married, raising a large family, and had been working as a comptroller for a large Miami car dealership — a job she described as rewarding but stressful. Her 30-year career came to an end with her illness.
“It is hard to believe that because of that, I am now able to enjoy my later years in complete happiness and bliss, doing what I was meant to do and what I love the most,” Manso said. “When I became disabled, I taught myself how to sew and make cloth dolls, until I found polymer clay and fell in love. I love how the clay allows me to express myself easier.”
I could not resist buying this reproduction bubble-cut Barbie wearing this amazing outfit that I remember my older sister having. As I recall it was one of the expensive outfits. Perhaps you have more information about this lovely doll and fashion?
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Over the past few years, I’ve had the great pleasure and privilege of being able to travel from Australia to some very interesting places. Nearly everywhere I went I found dolls — unusual dolls, second-hand Barbies and terrible copies, dolls in churches dressed in exquisitely embroidered silks, and modern fashion dolls in one of the oldest cities on the Silk Road. Looking back on these wonderful times, I have been surprised and intrigued by all the different dolls I’ve encountered on the way.
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Marianna Nardin creates themed dolls that follow major holidays like Christmas, Easter, and, she said, “my favorite holiday, Halloween, as you probably could guess from the spooky nature of my characters. The walls in my studio are decorated with a Halloween theme all year round!”
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My grandmother had a large doll collection with many antiques. She left me this doll. She told me about it, but I have forgotten over the years as I didn’t write it down. Could you give me some information about it? I am passing it down to my daughter and want to include its history.
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The idea of Enchanted Kreature Kits (EKK) started at the very beginning of my reborning days. I started reborning in March 2011 under the name Enchanted Moments Nursery. As a “noob,” I had no idea where to find blank doll kits. I didn’t know that there were reborn doll supplies and kit dealers out there, so I found everything I started with on eBay. I was so excited to buy a lot of reborn dollmaking supplies for a hefty (to me) $100. It included three blank kits, a set of used paints, and a Bountiful Baby DVD tutorial on how to reborn. I watched the video three times before I was brave enough to paint my first one. My first attempt was on a Berenger play doll, and my son instantly fell in love with him.
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When German-born artist Silke Sordyl created her first needle-felted doll in 2014, she was also building a fantasy world for her gnome characters to inhabit. “In my imagination there is a special happy nation of gnomes living in the Earth’s interior. I named them Gieblinge, a German fantasy word that just came up in my mind, and it means to me little people who live in the forest under a big tree with many chambers and hallways inside.
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Q: I bought this adorable set of matching Madame Alexander 8-inch hard-plastic dolls mint in box at an auction recently. I thought they were older dolls at the time, because they had the bent-knee feature, which I hadn’t seen on the 8-inch dolls in decades. I paid $150 for them and was surprised when I got home to notice the year on the tag was 1999! Did I make a bad mistake?
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Somewhere between 1912 and 1925, the Simon & Halbig company produced a 14.5-inch lady doll. She had a small number of head variations but was always on the same body, which was unusual for the period and a small sign of the changing times. This was basically a high-end play doll for children whose dolls usually consisted of babies, toddlers, and young children.
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