Happy birthday, Sydney Doll Hospital!

I came across this article and just had to share it. While I lived in the Sydney area for ten years, I never did have to take any of my dolls in for repair, mainly because I was just brave enough to do a lot of things myself - however, there are some things I would never try myself and these are the people to send your doll to when you have just about given up hope for one of your "babies". They must be doing a lot of things right because the Sydney Doll Hospital is celebrating 100 years of doll repair and restoration.

Whether your doll is hard plastic, vinyl, composition, wood, or celluloid, the Sydney Doll Hospital has repaired them all. I was fortunate enough to see a repaired Polish celluloid doll that was someone's childhood treasure. This lady is nearly 80 years old and has held onto her childhood doll for her entire life. By the time she reached 80, you can imagine how faded this doll appeared. She needed a new wig and new clothes. One trip to the doll hospital later, and her doll looked as if  it had just been purchased  yesterday! They did a brilliant job of removing scratches, repainting her, and fixing her wig. She was just stunning! If I could start my own business, I'd have to open my own doll hospital. I bet there are a thousand things I could learn from the Chapman family.

Read more about the Sydney Doll Hospital.

Doll Land Update

Hello fellow vintage doll lovers!

I have to apologize for not adding another doll to this blog in a while, as I certainly do have more to write about. You see, I've been on a bit of an adventure these past several months.

I have been back in the USA, looking for a good job so that I can sponsor my husband to move here, but so far, no luck. I may wind up back in Australia before too long - and that's where my doll collection currently resides. As soon as I know where I can hang my hat on a more permanent basis, I will be sure to share more about my dolls, their history, and what they mean to me.

In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying this blog as a reference for your own collection. Be sure to check back or subscribe to this blog so that you get my next updates.

And may we all have a happy 2013!

Jointed Fashion Dolls - Cindy and Dollikin

With the popularity of Madame Alexander's Cissy doll, there came the inevitable competition by other doll manufacturers. Little girls now wanted large fashion dolls with bendable joints so that they could be posed in any number of ways. To meet the demand, in the late 1950s, Uneeda gave us Dollikin, and Horsman gave us Cindy.

Both dolls in my collection are approximately 19 inches tall, athough there is an 11 inch Dollikin doll, and smaller versions of Cindy. Dollikin has a jointed neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees and ankles. Her knees, elbows, hands and feet joints use a swivel type of fastener (pin) mechanism, and Cindy's upper body joints are held with elastic. Cindy's body and legs are one piece of soft bendy vinyl with wire inside to hold a pose. Cindy does not have the wrist or waist joints that Dollikin has.

Dollikin's body is made completely of hard plastic but her head is made from vinyl, and Cindy is made of vinyl. Both dolls have high heel feet and sleep eyes with brush lashes. Cindy is marked HORSMAN on the back of her neck, and Dollikin is marked UNEEDA 2 S on the back of hers. Of course, no fashion doll would be complete without a great fashion wardrobe.  My Cindy is dressed in her original bride's costume. Her hair is perfectly coiffed in its original setting and she wears pearl earrings in her pierced ears. She wears grown-up nude stockings on her feet and carries a bouquet of fabric flowers. More fabric flowers adorn her veil.

Dollikin came to me needing a bit of work. Someone had tried to re-root her hair, but patches were bare and thin. I spent some time filling in the bare spots with Katsilk doll hair (highly recommended,) and dressed her in a spare doll dress I had. To me, there's nothing sadder than a fashion doll without clothes. I purchased her fancy stockings and shoes and hope to get a vintage fashion outfit for her at some point. Her arm joints are rather loose, so I will have to do some investigating on how to tighten them back up. I'd love for her to return to her original posable glory.

Both dolls have beautiful faces and make a great addition to my collection. You're never too old to play with dolls!

Celluloid dolls

Doll manufacturers are always open to using the latest materials in the construction of their dolls, and, in the early age of plastics, celluloid was no exception.

Celluloid is a plastic-like compound made from nitrocellulose and camphor. It's the earliest known plastic compound, invented in 1855. It did not gain widespread use, however, until the 1860s and one of its first uses was in the manufacture of billiard balls. It was often used to replace ivory in the manufacture of hair combs, buttons, buckles, men's collars, jewelry and other household items. It's most popular use was in the creation of photographic film. Of course, it was eventually used to make dolls.

Up until the time celluloid was used to make dolls, they were more frequently made of bisque, wood, glazed china, kid leather, composition, or fabric.  In the 1860s, the first celluloid dolls were made by the Hyatt Brothers of New Jersey using a blow mold process.

Celluloid dolls found most often nowadays were made from the 1930s to the early 1960s, as celluloid is highly flammable and deteriorates quickly. It's rare for a celluloid doll made in the 1870s  to have survived to our modern era, but what a fantastic find if you have one!

I have two celluloid dolls in my collection. The first is a 6-inch Petitcollin doll in her French regional costume. For such a small doll, great care has been given to her face paint. She has delicately painted eyes and lips, and the eyes are dotted with red dots. The red dots painted on dolls' eyes help to prevent them from looking "cross eyed" from a distance. (This trick has also been used by myself and others in stage makeup.) She is stamped Made in France on her leg, and on the inside of her skirt, she has a tag marked Kimport Dolls, Independence, MO.  Mademoiselle Petitcollin is quite light and fragile and she was most likely made in the 1950s. At one time she had a head scarf and carried a basket of flowers.

My other celluloid doll is a 17-inch German turtle mark doll. The turtle insignia is the mark of the Schildkröt (Rheinische Gummi und Celluloid Fabrik Co) company, which was in operation for over 100 years. She is a strung, socket head doll with an open pate and glass eyes, and I believe she dates from the 1950s (she may be older than that.)  She is not without her "issues." She is missing most of her eyelashes and she has one lazy eye, but in spite of her flaws, she is an adorable girl. She has the turtle mark on her back with the number T44.  She's on my list of dolls next to be repaired and restored. Her wig and clothes do not appear to be original to her, although they fit her well, and her cryer no longer works, but I find her to be a charming example of a celluloid doll.


At one time, celluloid dolls were considered to be "cheap." They were mass-produced and are susceptible to going up in flames if not treated properly. Carnival dolls were often made of celluloid and these can be found in abundance on auction sites, but some celluloid dolls are valuable due to the quality of their design and manufacture.

As a side note, if you collect celluloid dolls, be sure to store them properly. Keep them out of direct sunlight and in a dry area. Do not expose them to water. They also dent easily due to the delicate nature of celluloid, so treat them with care.

Pigtail Sally

In 1935, right around the time that Ideal was producing their Shirley Temple doll, Pigtail Sally was introduced to the American market. Pigtail Sally is another composition doll produced by Ideal, and like many Shirley Temple dolls, she has flirty eyes and a dimple in her chin. Unlike the Shirley Temple doll, Ideal did not have to pay royalties to Shirley Temple to manufacture her.

Pigtail Sally is also known by other names: Cinderella, Little Princess, Mary Jane, Betty Jane and Miss America. All of them use the same face mold and can range in size from 13 inches to 20 inches tall. She is jointed at the neck, shoulders and hips and is a strung doll.

My Pigtail Sally is 16 inches tall and wears a factory-made starched dress and pinafore that looks original to her. She also wears rayon socks and oilcloth shoes that look original. Her composition and face paint is immaculate, but her eyes were crazed and someone attempted to enhance them. Pigtail Sally (or Pigtails, as she is sometimes known), is a wigged doll. She is marked on her back, U.S.A. 16. I love her flirty eyes which still work. She has a little felt tongue and four teeth.

Ideal's Ginger often gets mistaken for Pigtail Sally.  Ginger uses the Shirley Temple face mold and wears her hair in pigtails. As you can see from these photos, Pigtail Sally's face is slightly different to Shirley Temple's.

Pigtail Sally is a charming addition to my composition dolls collection. For whatever reason, Pigtail Sally seems to be hard to find, so if you come across her, you might want to giver her a home.

Video update

I've gone ahead and put almost all of my dolls into a video log. I thought you'd enjoy seeing all of these dolls in one place. There are a few I have yet to write about, and there are even a few that didn't make this video (next time!)

I hope you enjoy it.

Celebrity dolls: Franklin Mint Gone With the Wind collection

 

In 1986, the film Gone With the Wind was closing in on its 50th anniversary, and to commemorate this epic milestone of an epic film, Franklin Mint released porcelain dolls that have been sculpted to look like the stars that made these characters famous on screen. All of the main characters were available for collectors: Scarlett, Rhett, Melanie, Ashley, Aunt Pitty, Mrs. O'Hara, Belle Watling, Bonnie Blue, Prissy and Mammy. Of these characters, I own the four protagonists.


There were 10 Scarletts created for the series, but I have the Scarlett in White Ruffles doll. This is Scarlett O'Hara in her White Ruffle Prayer Dress from the opening scene of the movie. Scarlett wears delicate red bows in her hair. When I purchased her, she came with her own stand and a second dress - the green BBQ at Twelve Oaks dress and hat which you see her wearing here.

Next to Scarlett stands Melanie Wilkes as portrayed by Olivia de Havilland. She is dressed in the pale blue silk gown she wore to Scarlett's wedding to Charles.

Rhett Butler wears the attire he wore when he first laid eyes on Scarlett at the Twelve Oaks Plantation BBQ. He wears a tailored navy blue frock coat and grey trousers with a waistcoat. Rhett stands taller than Scarlett and Melanie. He is 22 inches tall.

Ashley Wilkes looks dashing in his Confederate uniform. He wears the yellow sash favour that Scarlett made for him and gave to him at Tara. He also stands 22 inches tall.

All of these Franklin Mint dolls have porcelain heads, arms and hands, and feet. They have soft cloth stuffed bodies with armatures that make them somewhat posable. They all have their own stands made specifically for that doll and come with a numbered Certificate of Authenticity. Their face sculptures are remarkable and resemble closely the actors that portrayed them on screen: Vivian Leigh, Olivia de Havilland, Clark Gable, and Leslie Howard.

If you're a Gone With the Wind fan or just have a fascination for the period of the United States' Civil War, then you might want to collect these beautiful dolls. Dolls can fetch from $100 and up, depending on their number, rarity, condition, and whether or not they have been removed from their box.

Doll Land update: Toni has new stockings

Poor Toni - imagine how she has felt all these years, having to wear her roller skates with her feet bare.  Recently, eBay has come to the rescue and I found a seller who makes stockings that have the right amount of stretch for the older hard plastic dolls.

In the past, I suffered the frustration of stockings that just had a bit of elastic at the top (like a garter.) They are fine for vinyl legs, but not so for hard plastic, which has a much more slick surface. I finally figured out I had to search for stockings made for Cissy or Miss Revlon.

Voila stretchy stockings! Toni finally looks complete.