On Selling, Shipping, and saying Goodbye

If you are a follower of this blog, you'll know that I  haven't posted in a while. In 2016, I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. I have the second worse kind of Parkinson's (the first being 
lewy body dementia.) In three months, I lost 25 pounds without trying. My form of the disease has progressed fairly  rapidly, and now, two and a half years later, here I am in stage 3-4 . My mobility is severely restricted, I have almost no sense of balance and I fall - a lot.

I have discovered that there are a lot of things I need to curtail. I've given up hope of ever having a clean house This blog and the accompanying adwords is getting to be a chore. I'm battle-fatigued and worm out. So now, I worry about you, my readers, and of course, the dolls. Will they ever be looked.at agan? Do l  think children  will ever imagine ice skating with Sonja Henie or playing with Deanna Durbin and Judy Garland again? Not unless they are the stars of  a new high definition in-tense stereo video game!

OR,...no  -  you who love and appreciate these babies will take up the torch  and pass your appreciation on to other generations. To this end: I am announcing that I am selling off my dolls, with a few exceptions. Unfortunately, I can only ship to U.S. addresses  because I haven't been able to find a shipping company with reasonably priced offshore tracking. If you are outside the United States  and are willing to pay upwards of $200 for  tracking, let me know.  We'll  talk! How it works is this:
1. Send me a Private message and tell me which doll(s)  you are interested in. You MUST have a Paypal account.
2.  Make an offer on the doll (s.)
3.  If  the offer is  accepted, I will send you  an invoice via Paypal. If your offer is too low, or if someone has made a better offer than you, I will let you know and you will have the opportunity to revise your offer. 
4  .All payments must be made in U.S.A. dollars.within a week of you being notified of your win.
5.  Shipments go out on Saturdays.
6.  I'm sorry, I don't do  returns. These dolls are ''One size fits all."

 I invite you to peruse this catalog,of sorts, and make a reasonable offer.

Yours sincerely
Melle O.

The dolls have landed!

After four years in storage, I am keeping my fingers crossed that my girls and boys are still in good shape, but the good news is that they are now in the country and will be arriving home soon! I just have to find a good way to display them. I'm so happy to be getting them back! :)

Another update

At long last, my doll collection is being shipped out to me from Australia! It will be exciting to have my boys and girls with me once again, and I'm going to go through them all to see who still hasn't been written up in this blog. I also think we will be overdue for a new video. :)

They will take a few months to get to me, and then comes the fun part - figuring out where and how I will display these cuties. Please feel free to share your doll displays here. Just email me a photo (see my profile for the address) and I'll put it up with this post.

Thank you for sticking with me during years of transition as I changed countries!

All the best,
Melanie O. 

Another update

I bought a house! And I hope to get all of my dolls sent out from Australia in the coming months. I miss them and I can't wait to write more about the other girls in my collection. I hope to go on the road at some point and exhibit them - they're just so much fun and such a part of history.  Anyone know of any doll shows in their town?

I'm still here and will answer questions as I can, so feel free to write! - Melanie O.

Another Doll Land update

Well, the past couple of years have been quite an adventure!  I moved back from Australia, thinking that I'd land a job right away, get a nice place to live, and send for all of my dolls. Well - time certainly popped that balloon! It took me eight months to land a contractor's job, and over a year after that to finally get a good permanent full time job. So, the next thing on the list will be to find a house and after that, I can send for my dolls!

I miss having my dolls around me. Each once is so unique and has her own story to tell.  As they all come from many different decades, you can almost trace the changes in fashion and technology. Each doll is a snapshot of a moment in time.

If you're reading this blog, I would love to hear about your favorite dolls. What do you like most about them? And what makes your doll a "favorite?" I'd love to read about some of your doll memories.

In the meantime, I'm going through my doll photos and found a few I still need to share with you! Coming soon...

Feel free to comment

The recent blog template upgrade meant that my comment box has disappeared! I am going to dig into my archives to see if I can retrieve all of that information, but in the meantime, if you have questions or comments about any of the dolls, or dolls in general, please comment in any of the posts in my blog. I will be notified and will respond as soon as I can. - Melanie O.

Another Doll Land update:

Well, I am employed! It took eight months, but I did manage to land a good job. It's a contract role, however, so I'm holding my breath that they like me well enough to bring me on full time. Then I'll be able to sponsor my husband and write more about my dolls. I still have quite a few to cover, including my Lenci dolls, a Civil War era China head doll, Native American dolls, Coco Chanel doll, Madame Alexander Jacqueline and many more.

This move has taken a lot longer than I anticipated and I miss having my dolls around me, so, what did I do when my husband came to visit me and we took a trip to Savannah? Of course, I had to purchase a porcelain Southern Belle with fixed glass eyes. She's made by Golden Keepsakes of Ontario, CA.  She's not vintage, but it feels more like home when there's a doll in it.

This doll has a soft stuffed body and porcelain head, forearms and hands, and lower legs and boots. She is constructed on an armature so that she can be posed, and has her own stand.

In my travels, I have always tried to pick up dolls in native dress as souvenirs. Whenever I see them, I am flooded with great memories. Am I the only one who thinks that dolls make great souvenirs?

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.

American Character Sweet Sue

Sweet Sue is one of the few hard plastic dolls in my collection. She was made by American Character from 1948 to 1961. Sweet Sues range in size from 14 to 25 inches tall (depending on which Sweet Sue model you own.) The Life Size Sweet Sue is 31 inches tall.

Sweet Sue was another teen doll aimed towards older girls who had outgrown the baby doll stage. She came with beautiful dresses, some with special embroidery. Every outfit in Sweet Sue's wardrobe included a slip or petticoat, nylon stockings, and panties.In 1953, McCall issued a series of dress patterns especially for Sweet Sue.

There was a special bridal Sweet Sue (with a matching groom who wore a lamb's wool wig), but Sweet Sue in general, came with lots of beautiful clothing and accessories for little girls to play with. There was no particular novelty to the hard plastic Sweet Sue. She is a sturdy doll with a pretty face sculpture, blue sleep eyes, brush lashes, single stroke eyebrows and a synthetic or mohair wig. She is jointed at the arms, legs and neck and is a strung doll.

Later versions of Sweet Sue were made of vinyl. Vinyl opened up other possibilities for Sweet Sue, and she was given a flexible foot and ankle, neck and waist, which allowed her to wear high heels or flats as her "mommy" decided, and pose as a ballerina or sophisticated glamour queen.


For one year, 1957, a Sweet Sue Sophisticate was manufactured. This version of Sweet Sue was made of vinyl and had flange joints in her arms and legs, which meant that her arms and legs could not be posed away from her body. She was given a more mature figure, and could bend and twist at the neck and waist. Sweet Sue Sophisticates have rooted hair and are more valuable than then standard Sweet Sue, as she was manufactured for only one year. Sweet Sue Sophisticate also had a variety of outfits complete with a bra, panties, and stockings.

My Sweet Sue is an 18 inch hard plastic doll with strung joints and a synthetic wig, which makes her one of the earlier versions of the doll. She is wearing an original factory-made dress and replacement stockings and shoes. Her face paint is all original. She is unmarked (many Sweet Sues of all sizes are unmarked), but some are marked American Character Doll, Am. Char. Doll, Amer Char., A.C.  Sweet Sue is a great addition to your vintage American doll collection. Many are still in great condition and can be purchased for a reasonable price.

Doll Land update

My husband and I attended a local doll show yesterday. Yes, believe it or not, he likes going to them as much as I do because doll shows are more than just about dolls. There were teddy bears, tin toys, and old pedal cars. Attending a doll show is like a step back into your childhood, and we had lots of fun.

While there, I picked up a hand sewn dress for my Rosebud doll, as well as some shoes. She was never dressed in her original costume, so I figured that she may as well be dressed in something pretty. So, here she is, all decked out in a new red gingham dress and red patent shoes. She wears her original rayon socks and underwear, but now looks as if she's ready for a Sunday morning go-to-meeting.

I've also added another Monica Studio doll to my collection. This doll is smaller than the others. She stands 18 inches tall, but like her sisters, she is also made of composition, putty, and has rooted human hair. Sadly for this doll, most of her hair has broken off, so I purchased a human hair doll wig that pretty much is the same style that she had originally. Her dress and hat appear to be original to her and are made of taffeta. She has lovely violet eyes that remind me of the late Elizabeth Taylor. If you look at all of my Monica Studio dolls, you'll see that their faces are all slightly different. Aren't they gorgeous, though?

Click on photos to enlarge.

Helen Kish doll: Spring

In my collection of dolls, my Helen Kish Spring doll is the youngster of the bunch. Helen Kish, her designer, has been creating beautiful dolls for the past thirty years. She started out making porcelain dolls and worked as a freelance designer for such companies as The Franklin Mint and the Danbury Mint until she decided to start her own company in 1991. In addition to dolls, Helen Kish designs jewelry and sculptures.



Helen Kish dolls are remarkable for their charming faces that include large painted eyes and pouty, well-defined lips. Dolls range in size from 5 inches to 28 inches tall and are balanced well enough to stand on their own. My Spring is jointed at the neck, shoulders and hips, but there are Kish dolls, such as Sheherazade, who are also jointed at the elbows, wrists, and knees. Spring's head and body are made of hard vinyl, and she is strung the same as vintage dolls.

Spring, from the 1997 Four Seasons collection, is 16 inches tall and has beautiful soft blonde rooted hair. You see her here, also wearing Autumn's dress, but Spring typically wears a fresh green dress made from ribbon-embroidered felt and fine netting. She wears pink flowers in her hair, and pink lace up ballet shoes. Spring and her sisters, were made in Valencia, Spain by White Balloon, who made exclusive dolls by world-renowned designers.

Helen Kish dolls are highly collectable, due to their finely sculpted features, beautiful costumes, and perfect balance.

Lenci dolls

I have three Lenci dolls in my collection. They all date from the 1980s.


The Lenci doll manufacturing company began as a workshop 1919 and was the brainchild of Madame Lenci (a shortened form of Elena Konig Scavini's nickname of Helenchen.)  Lenci is famous for the use of felt to create soft and almost animated faces. Oil paints were used to create the distinctive side glancing eyes and pouty lips. While the name Lenci is most often associated with Turin, Italy, dolls made in the 1930s were often made in Madame Lenci's German workshop.  Lenci dolls made before 1940 are the most valuable of the Lenci collection as their production was presided over by Madame Lenci herself and have the best craftsmanship.

From the 1950s until the 1970s, Lenci produced porcelain and celluloid dolls and sold old felt stock with new costumes. New felt dolls were produced in the 1970s. For more about the history of Lenci, I recommend the book Lenci: The History and the Dolls by Nancy Lazenby.

In my Lenci collection are the "twins" Aurelia and Bettina. Both dolls are about 13 inches tall and both wear felt dresses with pockets in which they have placed a soft toy "pet."  Aurelia's is a goose, and Bettina's is a rabbit. Bettina wears a blue dress, and Aurelia's is pink. They both have blonde, curly hair made of a soft man-made fibre and can stand independently.

My other Lenci doll is a bride doll named Bibija. She is a large example of a Lenci doll, being 24 inches tall. She is number 433 of 499 dolls made. She, too, is made of felt and has beautiful soft blonde hair made of an amazing manmade fibre. Bibija is a boudoir-style doll, that is, she can't stand on her own. Her legs are quite soft and she's more suited to being placed on a chair or on a bed.

Sadly, after World War 2, quality and production went into decline and the Lenci workshop closed in 2002. Still, a doll made in the 1970s or 1980s will make a fine addition to your doll collection, especially if you have a "soft spot" for cloth dolls.

Snow White and Rosebud

Do you remember the story of Snow White and Rose Red from Grimm's Fairy Tales? Well, I've got Snow White and Rosebud dolls.

Snow White dolls became popular in the late 1930s after the release of Snow White by Walt Disney. Not everyone manufacturing a Snow White doll was licensed like Madame Alexander and Ideal, so to get around this, one company made a Snow White doll with blonde hair.

This composition doll stands 13.5 inches tall and sports a blue bow in her hair.  She has side-glancing painted eyes. She is unmarked, but she is unmistakably designed to look like the Disney Snow White. Sadly, I have never seen this doll offered for sale with her original outfit, and indeed, my Snow White is wearing a satin underdress and robe that, while old, is obviously a replacement.  She is wearing her original oilcloth shoes and rayon socks, however.

Snow White can stand independently. Her joints are held tightly with springs instead of elastic, which was a wonderful improvement over other methods. I'm not sure why this didn't catch on with other manufacturers, although I suppose cost is always a consideration. Her neck is not jointed - it is molded with the body.

Snow White's companion is Rosebud. Rosebud is a composition baby doll made in England. She is marked ROSEBUD on the back of her neck. Rosebud has orange sleep eyes and brush lashes, a painted closed mouth, and has five  joints (neck, arms and legs.) Rosebud was manufactured in the 1940s and her composition is in fantastic shape. She also stands about 13.5 inches tall. Her hair is painted, but later Rosebud dolls made in the 1950s, were made from hard plastic and were wigged.

Rosebud looks very much like a composition Pedigree doll, but was made by a Pedigree competitor. Horsman also made a Rosebud doll, but that doll is a little girl and is marked E. I. H. CO. INC.  Rosebud's rayon dress is old but not original, and her shoes are long gone.

Both dolls make a sweet addition to my collection.