Dolls throughout history have evolved in appearance and composition to reflect the trends of the day. Earlier this year, collectors had an opportunity to share photos of their vintage and antique dolls, and they demonstrate a small fraction of the variety that exists.
Jan Smith said, “Pleasant Company/American Girl doll Molly McIntire on the left is my daughter’s beloved childhood doll, and on the right is her grandmother’s unbranded composition doll from her own 1940s childhood. Molly is wearing her best friend Emily’s Meet dress, and the 1940s composition doll is wearing Molly’s PC/AG Victory Garden dress. Both dolls represent the 1940s WWII era, and both found a home in my daughter’s family heirloom collection.”
Lynn Burns said, “These dolls are my vintage Penny Playpal dolls. Three of them were manufactured by Ideal in the ’60s. The fourth was manufactured by Ashton-Drake Galleries in the ’80s. They are wearing vintage children’s clothing appropriate for the era of the doll. They are in our home modeling their new bumblebee outfits.”
“Ken and Barbie are getting ready for a fun date in,” Maria Knepel said. “The blond reproduction Enchanted Evening Ponytail Barbie from Mattel (1995) is re-dressed in the gold and white brocade slim dress from Evening Splendor. The painted-hair 1962 Ken is wearing a homemade shirt and slacks. They are having their date in, in the 1963 Barbie’s New Dream House living room. The dream house structure was given to me by a gal I met through Facebook’s marketplace. It needed some TLC but is a wonderful setting to display dolls. The dolls were lucky finds at secondhand stores and required a cleaning and clothes.”
Pamela Berg said, “These two dolls are called Twinky dollhouse dolls. They were designed and painted by Ethel Strong from Lynnfield, Massachusetts, in 1946-1953 and are made of plastic. These two are dressed to depict a Girl Scout and a Brownie! This was a cottage industry. Dolls were sold out of Ethel’s home and the doll outfits were made by neighborhood women, as a way to bring extra income into their households. Other dolls included historical figures as well as homemakers, maids, and military men.” “Martha Wellington made this baby in the 1880s,” Jeanne DeLarm-Neri said. “She wears a gown, pink knit sweater, and lacy bonnet that have been with the doll possibly from the start. I bought her from the descendants of the original owner. Her name is Madge.” “This little 12-inch antique bisque doll is a Kestner mold #152,” Sally Young said. “She still has her original old factory outfit and mohair wig, circa 1895. She’s giving her artist-made wool-felted teddy bear a bath!” While living in Sweden, May Griffith purchased this doll with a china head. She said, “What was intriguing was the homemade body that was most likely made by an imaginative Swedish child so many years ago. After unwrapping the layers of hand-sewn clothing that were obviously sewn by a child, I found that the body was made from a forked tree branch that was wrapped with several layers of fabric. The main branch was shoved into the china head to hold it in place, while the forked branches served as legs. The arms were added. My daughter was 9 years old when she was taught how to backstitch at school in Sweden and had done blanket stitches, braiding, and weaving two years ago. From the sewing, I am guessing that the ingenious doll body was made by an enterprising child of about 10 years old. The various fabric layers appear to be from the late 1800s/early 1900s.” Named for the woman Angelina Temple purchased her from, Susan is a 26-inch Götz doll, #255/500, dated 2002. Temple said, “My doll Susan is joyfully sitting on the rocking chair holding her 14-inch antique German Minerva tin head doll, whom she’s named Klara. Susan’s gorgeous full-skirted dress was a gift from a friend, while Klara came to me wearing her vintage cotton floral dress and slip.”
Cheryl Potance said, “I have three favorite small, vintage play dolls. The larger one is a pre-Ginny composite Toddles from the 1940s, marked Vogue. The blue-haired one is a Virga Lollipop doll from the 1950s. The last one I believe is an early, unmarked Muffie doll, probably made by Nancy Ann. She is from the early 1950s. All three dolls are wearing unmarked vintage dresses. This particular scene is the Winter Ice Maids display. I like to purchase vintage or appropriate handmade clothes for them for my various seasonal displays.” Kelly, a 1958 Madame Alexander doll, belongs to Sophie Delnaud, who said the 16-inch doll is wearing her original outfit: a wool coat and a nylon dress. Delnaud added that she is pleased to have Kelly in her collection because she matches the description on page 86 of the yellow Madame Alexander Collector’s Dolls: Second Series book. Ralph Gilson said, “These are vintage Bild Lilli dolls with their original outfits. Bild Lilli dolls were the predecessors of Barbie as well as Ruth Handler’s inspiration, and you can clearly see the similarities. These dolls were produced from 1955 to 1964. In 1964, Mattel bought the rights to Bild Lilli and the rest, as they say, is history.” Linda Ann Brandt said, “I enjoy novelty dolls. Someone has cleverly placed tiny 2.5-inch bisque Hertwig babies (circa 1920s) on a custom embroidered heart placed inside of an old Russell Stover Valentine’s Day candy box. Each baby is marked only Germany. I purchased this set just as shown at the 2021 UFDC convention in Baltimore.” Elizabeth Wadsworth’s vintage Mattel Francie with a short brunette flip hairdo is wearing the Hill Riders outfit.
This photo shows two of Mary Mattis’ favorite 1930s composition Shirley Temple dolls. One is 27 inches tall and the other is 22 inches.
