u/willowwing

I’ve just discovered that another online thrift purchase is a rare version of a popular Pedigree line of baby dolls. Since it’s rare anyway to find an English doll here in the U.S. (unless it’s a Scottish souvenier), I’m pretty excited! Also, for me, “rare” just means really interesting and fun!

This is a Pedigree Baby Delite, from the late 1940s, when hard plastic was brand new. She is an unusual large size at 16” and what makes her even more uncommon is that she has painted eyes. They’re known to exist, but no photos of a similar doll can be found online. I even checked inside her head when I restrung her, to be sure someone hadn’t created artifical painted eyes somehow!😂.

She’s very heavy and her torso has damage from having been strung way too tightly. I’m fairly certain she has repaint, but she also has permanent grunge that I won’t try to clean off beyond the gentle wash she had. However, the paint on early hard plastic was almost as heavy as that on composition, at first. She is marked Pedigree / England.

She came wearing a slightly faded, but otherwise intact outfit, knitted from a pattern similar to what Pedigree issued for Baby Delite. It includes a detailed bonnet and coat over a diaper cover and includes booties, too. I added a favorite vintage dress no one else happened to be wearing. It’s large on her and was probably knitted for an actual baby.

TL;DR Now have a rare Pedigree Baby Delite made in England of early hard plastic with painted eyes.

This composition Alexander Dionne Quintuplet doll caught my eye in an estate auction. She looked like she was in good condition, with her “Annette” pin and tagged dress. I just love her molded curls. I noticed she was larger than other Alexander quints I have seen and measured her once I had her at home. She is 16” tall.

I have found exactly one other doll like her (in pink…altho that doll’s pin says Emilie, so maybe the dress was once lavender) in my online searches and haven’t found the 16” dolls even mentioned in my books. There are lots of photos of the babies and 14” toddlers, but their molded bangs are straight, or they have wigs.

I’m starting to think maybe little miss Annette Dionne is one of a rare group of these popular dolls from the 1930s and 40s, but I know it’s actually unlikely. Anyone seen these 16” dolls or dolls dressed in dotted swiss? I learned the dolls were also sold separately, so she may have always been on her own.

Thanks for any help! I’m including a lot of photos of her hair patterns.

Newly arrived dolls are so much fun. I always feel like I’m getting acquainted with them the first few weeks😁

Mine is an 8” all-bisque character baby with an 816 mold # on his torso, arms and legs. I somehow had this christening dress made from a larger dress that fits nicely.

A pair of dolls I won at auction 3 or so weeks back arrived yesterday. I took a bunch of photos of my very first wax-over-papier-mache doll, who is a dainty 12” tall and appears to be all-original, with beautifully done repairs to her red wool dress, her curls and (I think) to her wax.

I have named her Lavinia for Lavinia Warren. I took even more photos than I am attaching! She’s photogenic.

I saw this doll listed as, “Bergmann blue porcelain” (not even “doll!”). Even though the photo was awful, I couldn’t resist the $15 Buy It Now. She arrived today and I’m really thrilled with how pretty she is! I included the auction photo, so you can see why the synthetic wig she was wearing had to go😂.

I’m going to try and do something with the dress, which seems to have been homemade in the 1960s or 1970s. She has pierced ears and really has that Simon & Halbig look, to me.

Is late better than never? I’ve had a family health crisis this week and, while I am almost always a bit scattered, I completely forgot that today is Friday!

I nabbed this (potentially 32”) Bergmann-marked doll online for the brief time it was listed 😁. I’m thinking she might need a bit of TLC! She should arrive home early next week. This is the only available photo—think she’ll need a visit to the dolly spa?!

Yes. Yes, I believe they do!

Please post a doll, any doll you like. It’s Friday!

The American 4th of July holiday is celebrated with a federal holiday today. I decided to pick a doll made in America and wearing red, white and blue. My Horsman JoJo doll was one of the first antique dolls I bought and remains a favorite. She’s all-composition from the 1930s.

I thought this was worth passing along. It’s that time of year!

…packed in a box where they’d been for about 4 years. I have a small collection of German marbles and had searched for these two all over. They’re in poor condition, but still beautiful.

Post any old doll you want and say why!

I was lucky to find this Kestner via Marketplace a few weeks back, for only $20, which enabled me to justify buying her this antique dress, which cost twice what she did😁. It needs a bit of attention, but I’m so thrilled with the color and how well it fits—only a bit too big. I love green!

I have named my doll Ida, pronounced as the German, “Eeda”. (The pronunciation is obviously very important!)

Happy Weekend, from Ida modeling her new dress!💚

This is Ruth! She is special!💕

Looking back, my maternal grandmother, Ruth, curated my childhood toys, because she had the resources and the interest. Not only did my grandparents provide me with many dolls and doll accessories over the years, I was the oldest grandchild, and Grandma had carefully saved my mother’s dolls. I always remember opening the little suitcase they were in for the first time, when I was 9 years old. I remained engaged with dolls several years after most of my friends had lost interest in theirs and was sometimes teased for it. Grandma would say that when I grew up I would become a doll collector, like her next-door neighbor, Belle!

Ever since I realized there were antique dolls label-named Ruth, I’ve wanted one in honor of my grandmother. But none were ever right. Then, a couple weeks ago, I found this little all-bisque doll (made by Limbach) with Ruth on her back! Grandma was Swedish, so the bright blue eyes and blonde hair are right as well. I had an antique slip that is just a bit long on her and then added the little blue dress. It came from a 1960s doll like one my grandmother gave me called Suzy Cute. I finally have my Ruth doll!

I hadn’t seen this many different items marketed together in an advertisement and thought it was interesting.

*notice Claxton’s Ear-Cap!

I collect old dolls and I thought I’d post examples of the kinds of dolls we hear of in the books.

First is a homemade rag doll, made around the time Charlotte would have been.

Second is a poured wax doll of the kind Nellie Olson showed off. These were typically made in England.

Third is a china head doll from the 1880s, with shiny black curls. This head was made by Alt, Beck & Gottschalck in Germany and was of a style a child could dress as a boy or a girl, a child or a lady.

I bought this doll, virtually sight unseen, because I could tell she had flirty eyes under her partially closed lids and I thought I saw the Kammer & Reinhardt star.

I am curious what you make of her? She seems to be made of some kind of early plastic, probably celluloid. The wig appears to be nylon/synthetic and original?

I’m attempting to determine her date! It seems like she would be post WW2.

I saw this exact 50s squeaky toy here and went and found one because it was so cute. Have you ever done that?

Post a photo of any doll you want, for any reason you want!

This is not my doll, just one I’d like to have! She is named and marked Gladdie and was designed by Helen Jensen for George Borgfeldt. The version in this photo is made of “biscaloid” which was a form of composition made to look like bisque. She was also made with a bisque head. She was introduced in the late 1920s.

A happy doll for a happy Friday to you all!

I picked up this 25” antique doll from Marketplace last week. I thought she might be a Kestner from her photo and when I had her in hand found her to be marked 171, the mold that was known as Daisy in the 18” size. Her head, body and shoes are all marked with a 5, so would seem to be original. Her handmade human hair wig is more of a mystery, as it doesn’t appear to have ever been glued and was tacked on with wax. It had a crumbling tag with an antique staple in it that fell off—I took a photo of it! The amazing thing to me is that her original plaster pate is marked 171 along with its size number. I’d never seen that before and wanted to share it. I’m excited to have found her for $20! Now she needs a dress and a stand that fit her.

We are stopping Daily Dolls posts for the summer, but plan to keep Freeplay Fridays popping up.

I remembered when u/KewpieCutie97 posted a series of outdoor photos she took with one of her dolls and went looking for it. It seemed like the perfect image!