Children of Japan

Children of Japan
Courtesy, R. John Wright

Hinges and Hearts

Hinges and Hearts
An Exhibit of our Metal Dolls

Tuxedo and Bangles

Tuxedo and Bangles

A History of Metal Dolls

A History of Metal Dolls
Now on Alibris.com and In Print! The First Book of its Kind

Alice, Commemorative Edition

Alice, Commemorative Edition
Courtesy, R. John Wright

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Emma, aka, La Contessa Bathory

Emma, aka, La Contessa Bathory
Her Grace wishes us all a Merry Christmas!

Annabelle

Annabelle

Emma Emmeline

Emma Emmeline
Our New Addition/fond of stuffed toys

Cloth Clown

Cloth Clown

Native American Art

Native American Art

the triplets

the triplets

c. 1969 Greek Plastic Mini Baby

c. 1969 Greek Plastic Mini Baby
Bought Athens on the street

Iron Maiden; Middle Ages

Iron Maiden; Middle Ages

Sand Baby Swirls!

Sand Baby Swirls!
By Glenda Rolle, courtesy, the Artist

Glenda's Logo

Glenda's Logo
Also, a link to her site

Sand Baby Castaway

Sand Baby Castaway
By Glenda Rolle, Courtesy the Artist

A French Friend

A French Friend

Mickey

Mickey
From our friends at The Fennimore Museum

2000+ year old Roman Rag Doll

2000+ year old Roman Rag Doll
British Museum, Child's Tomb

Ancient Egypt Paddle Doll

Ancient Egypt Paddle Doll
Among first "Toys?"

ushabti

ushabti
Egyptian Tomb Doll 18th Dynasty

Ann Parker Doll of Anne Boleyn

Ann Parker Doll of Anne Boleyn

Popular Posts

Tin Head Brother and Sister, a Recent Purchase

Tin Head Brother and Sister, a Recent Purchase
Courtesy, Antique Daughter

Judge Peep

Judge Peep

Hakata Doll Artist at Work

Hakata Doll Artist at Work
From the Museum Collection

Japanese Costume Barbies

Japanese Costume Barbies
Samurai Ken

Etienne

Etienne
A Little Girl

Happy Heart Day

Happy Heart Day

From "Dolls"

From "Dolls"
A Favorite Doll Book

Popular Posts

Jenny Wren

Jenny Wren
Ultimate Doll Restorer

Our Friends at The Fennimore Doll and Toy Museum

Our Friends at The Fennimore Doll and Toy Museum

Baby Boo 1960s

Baby Boo 1960s
Reclaimed and Restored as a childhood Sabrina the Witch with Meow Meow

Dr. E's on Display with sign

Dr. E's on Display with sign

Dolls Restored ad New to the Museum

Dolls Restored ad New to the Museum
L to R: K*R /celluloid head, all bisque Artist Googly, 14 in. vinyl inuit sixties, early celluloid Skookum type.

Two More Rescued Dolls

Two More Rescued Dolls
Late Sixties Vinyl: L to R: Probably Horseman, all vinyl, jointed. New wig. R: Effanbee, probably Muffy, mid sixties. New wig and new clothing on both. About 12 inches high.

Restored Italian Baby Doll

Restored Italian Baby Doll
One of Dr. E's Rescued Residents

Dolls on Display

Dolls on Display
L to R: Nutcrackers, Danish Troll, HItty and her book, Patent Washable, Mechanical Minstrel, Creche figure, M. Alexander Swiss. Center is a German mechanical bear on the piano. Background is a bisque German costume doll.

A Few Friends

A Few Friends
These dolls are Old German and Nutcrackers from Dr. E's Museum. They are on loan to another local museum for the holidays.

Vintage Collage

Vintage Collage
Public Domain Art

The Merry Wanderer

The Merry Wanderer
Courtesy R. John Wright, The Hummel Collection

The Fennimore Doll Museum

The Fennimore Doll Museum

Robert

Robert
A Haunted Doll with a Story

Halloween Dolls Displayed in a Local Library

Halloween Dolls Displayed in a Local Library

The Cody Jumeau

The Cody Jumeau
Long-faced or Jumeau Triste

German Princesses

German Princesses
GAHC 2005

A Little PowerRanger

A Little PowerRanger
Halloween 2004

The Island of the Dolls

The Island of the Dolls
Shrine to Dolls in Mexico

Based on the Nutshell Series of Death

Based on the Nutshell Series of Death
Doll House murder

Popular Posts

Total Pageviews

A lovely dress

A lovely dress

Raggedy Ann

Raggedy Ann
A few friends in cloth!

Fennimore Doll and Toy Museum, WI

Fennimore Doll and Toy Museum, WI
Pixar Animator's Collection

Little PM sisters

Little PM sisters
Recent eBay finds

Dressed Mexican Fleas

Dressed Mexican Fleas

Really old Dolls!

Really old Dolls!

Monday, June 27, 2011

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Miss Charlotte Bronte meets Miss Barbara Pym: The ...

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Miss Charlotte Bronte meets Miss Barbara Pym: The ...: "Miss Charlotte Bronte meets Miss Barbara Pym: The Subversion of Romance in the Novels of Barbara... : 'The Subversion of Romance in the Nove..."

Two New Followers!


The Museum has picked up two new followers! Welcome; we are thrilled to have you. Would you leave us a comment? Thanks; I can't see who you are, for some reason. :)

Doll-Related Collectibles

For those who are looking for doll-related items to add to their collections, here are some ideas:

1. Pez Candy Dispensers; these have character doll heads, even bodies. Some represent dolls like Barbie. Candy containers have a long history with doll collectors; some are indeed dolls that come apart or have hidden compartments where you can hide candy.

2. Other candy containers; ditto. There are all kinds of Valentine's boxes that were topped with dolls or stuffed animals, even small, licensed, PVC figures. Some antique boxes represent women which are half dolls from the waist up, or they have French or German bisque heads. There are some mechanical figures that also contain candy boxes or baskets.

3. Children's clothing and furniture, especially vintage pieces and shoes.

4. Children's books and characterbooks. Old textbooks and school items.

5. Sewing items; many pincushions, scissors, and tape measures are "doll shaped" or figural.

6. Figural household utensils, including toothbrushes, corkskews, scrub brushers, nutcrackers, can openers, bottles and cans, jars, pots and pans, gadgets of all types. Even emory boards and perfume bottles, Soapies and bath bottles, dishes, linens, and plates. These include bandaids of licensed characters.

7. Fashion magazines and craft magazins with patterns.

8. Toys in general.

9. Barbie and Barbie memorabilia.

10. Raggedy Ann and raggedy items and memorabilia.

11. Any famous character and its licensing memorabilia, or Wizard of OZ, GWTH, other films, Twilight series objects, Shirley Temple objects, etc., which all have celebrity dolls and products, as well as articles, books, films, DVDs, movie props, autoggraphs, you name it.

12. Hats.

13. Buttons and jewelry.

14. Old cosmetic items.

15. Figurines like Precious Moments and Hummels.

16. Stuffed animals and toy animals.

17. Doll houses and miniatures.

18. Objects made of shells, wood, macaranoi, paper, bottle caps, metal, etc.

19. Puppets and objects dealing with puppetry.

20. Holiday decorations, especially Christmas and Halloween.

21. Records featuring dolls or topics related to dolls, including, Batman, Mme. Alexander, Concerts in honor of Princess Diana, for those who love Royalty Dolls, Natalie Merchant's "Frozen Charlotte," Albums featuring photos of dolls or the word "doll," eg., Beatles, Dan Fogelberg, GooGoo Dolls,New York Dolls.

22. Book covers that feature photos of dolls and toys, or the word "doll" whether they are about dolls or not.

23. Miniature houses and buildings, bird houses, especially David Winter, Dept. 56.

24. Other models and architecthural models and mock-ups.

25. Mannikins and Fashion memorabilia.

26. Drawings, photos, artwork featuring dolls.

27. Miniature objects of all kinds.

28. Books on dolls.

29. Vintage materials and laces.

These are a few ideas. Prowl museums and art galleries for more themes. For doll-related items discussed in the doll context, review Dolls, aka, Dolls and Puppets, by my favorite doll guru/historian, Max Von Boehn. Remember to think outside the doll box.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Augustana Destroys Ancient Chinese Texts

Rare, Ancient Library Books Destroyed

Updated: June 20, 2011 02:01 PM CDT





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Augustana library staff members made a mistake while doing some spring cleaning, and it ended up being very costly.

They accidentally destroyed a very rare and valuable ancient Chinese book collection.

"Librarians are lovers of books," said VP of Augustana Communications and Marketing, Scott Cason. "They value books greatly. Probably more than most of society. So, they feel very badly about what happened."

None of the books had been checked-out in over a decade, and in an effort to make room in the library, library staff removed and shredded the books. The 18th century collection was purchased for $8,000 roughly twenty years ago by faculty affiliated with Asian Studies.

"It was something very prized by the department," said Cason.

Cason said the library staff must now get approval from the college dean and president before recycling any more books.

Literary Darwinism, and a Darwin Award

Every so often we hear it; the horror story that makes not only our collector’s collective hair stand on end, but everyone else collective general public’s hair stand on end. This week it was the story of the rare, shredded ancient Chinese books. That’s right, mega dittoes to the dumbest thing I’ve heard yet, one of the biggest blows against literacy that hit at an International Level. The worthy librarians of my alma mater, Augustana, not the one in Sioux Falls, who just chaired my wonderful neighbor Prof. Roger Rabbit, shredded a set of ancient Chinese texts,! Probably, they are now in a heap in Prof. Roger Rabbit’s garbage cum compost pile. One of the real professors discovered the sacrilege and went to the media. When the books were first donated to Augie Doggie’s library, they were worth, in the 1990s, $8,000. Now, they were worth around $50,000. Mere change, apparently, in the great non-profit empire. The defense of the loonie librarians; well, one book was missing. Oh, gee, now it’s worth only $30,0000.

And, wait, there’s more! They’ve been doing this all along, because like Margie R., and the rest of the well educated library scienced mavens, they claimed no one had told them not to do it!

Ah books, Ah humanity, Ah, Project Bartleby. Those books, and others, lasted for centuries. The digital e-book kindles, nookie Nooks, etc., can be gone in a flash of lightening, made obsolete in weeks, even days. We really are a throw away society, but then, there were the dark rumors of dumpsters coming in dead of night to BHC to haul away books people had left to The College.

In the good old days, we had book sales, and I used to walk down to the bowels of the old marble library designed once to be a mausoleum, to the basement lair of Mr. Sims, reference librarian and archivist, in his late seventies, widowed, and slightly dapper and English in accent. If he liked you, he sold you books, and gave you books. Whole sets of Hugo, Sherman’s My Life among the Indians, an 1847 Jane Eyre, Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Bronte, a 1749 German Bible, art folios and prints, dozens of museum brochures, fifties novels, G.Wilson Knight on Shakespeare, all mine. Still mine. Treasured, studied, used, these many years.

I wonder if my Augie librarian friends are the descendants of the monks who burned most of The Popol Vuh. May the ghost of Dr. Bergendoff, whose library card was his painting on the wall across from the circulation desk, haunt their dimwitted souls forever. I think of my friend Mary Hillier making a plea for antique dolls and writing about how priceless Queen Anne dolls were used for kindling! And of course, there are the collector police, the anti “hoarders” who never had anything, and don’t want anyone else to have it, either. Well, antiquarian book collectors unite, we have nothing to lose but our acid free paper, and we will lower the temperature from Fahrenheit 451.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

With Love from Tin Lizzie; A History of Metal Dolls, Metal Heads, and Automatons is Going to Print!

My book on metal dolls is going to print by Monday or Tuesday at the latest. We have an ISBN number, and are moving forward. This will be a first edition. My second edition will be heavier on photos, while this text is heavier on history and "words." I will be contacting the doll magazines for this and the other book very quickly. Thanks to all who read my blog. I will have more photos and informaton for you, soon. As far as I know, mine will be the first book on the subject of metal dolls, and the other dolls combined. More than 25 years of work will have reached full-circle!!

Monday, June 13, 2011

Pryor Doll Collection

This is the first piece in a series dedicated to great doll collections and collectors of the past. I would also like to cover in the future my friend, Mary Hillier, John Noble, Aunt Len's Doll Museum, Eleanor St. George and others. I would like to reference for this blog the December 1599 National Geographic which talked about Samuel F. Pryor's noted doll collection. Pryor was the vice president and assistant tohe prsident for Pan Am for some time. He was famous both as a man who collected dolls, and for his large collection of over 2500 dolls from 84 different countries. The article he wrote is classic, and I can't imagine its worth today. He had founded a National Doll Library Foundation, but in the early 80s, the collection was sold by Sotheby's when he died. I think Vogue did a feature story on the sale, and I have the issue in storage. At the end of his life, the colletion grew to 8000 dolls. Readers Digest also wrote aboutt he dolls. There is a good article about him on the site Historically Speaking, www.greenwichlibrary.org/blog/historically-speaking/2010/08/the-pryor-doll-collection.

What fascinates me about this article is the narrative about how we travelled all over the world, sometimes in obscure places, to find dolls. He also notes many other imortant male collectors including Eugene Field, Guy Mollet, former Premier of France, music critic Deems Taylor, a greek Ambassador, and a government scientist. He may have also bought Janet Pagter Johl's collection after her untimely death. Pryor discusses a set of fantastic puppets from the Bangkok's Thieves Market, and a 350 year old doll from Kamakura, Japan. There is a fantastic Samurai doll, complete with uniforms and swords and a descpription of a rare Leopard Man doll, fetish from a secret African society Mr. Pryor's son traded a Swiss knife for. The range of dolls Pryor describes is breathtaking, to say the least. On some occasions, eh let the dolls be exhibited at world fairs and at other museums. He finally retired to Hawaii. At one worlds fair, plans to exhibit the dolls fell through. The correspondence an documenation are online at www.worldsfaircommunity.ort/topic/4656-pryor-doll-collection-the-exhibit-that-wasnt.

Also, Pryor was a good friend of Charles Lindburgh, and they are both buried at the Palapala Ho'omau cemetery. You can see the graves and church at www.pbase.comgosilands/2003_08_30_kipahulu. Pryor's pet gibbons, six of them, are buried there, too. Pryor's son, Sam Pryor III has written a book about his father and his life. It is called Samule F. Pryor and Son. The family was originally from Greenwich, CT, and was known for giving some singular and eccentric Xmas cards, postmarked from places like Santa Claus, OH. Jr. writes that the doll collection came from his dad's love of people, a reason Anne Rice gives for loving dolls in Taltos. It's a good one.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Doll Newsletters on About.com

About Doll Collecting: Paulette Goodreau BJDs; German Kaiser Babies
From: Denise Van Patten - About.com Doll Collecting Guide
newsletters@about.com To: etsag1998
Date: Thu, Jun 9, 2011 1:29 pm

If you can't see this email, click here


Doll Collecting


Doll Collecting
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From Denise Van Patten, your Guide to Doll Collecting
The two dolls I'm focusing on this week are extremely different from each other. One is a lovely, whimsical, ehtereal ball-jointed doll made by Paulette Goodreau, and the othere is a rather, well, ugly antique baby doll nicknamed the "Kaiser Baby," with my apologies to my German readers. Until next week... Denise


Paulette Goodreau Ball-Jointed Dolls Are Customizable Whimsy

It makes me sad that Paulette Goodreau is no longer making her beautiful ball-jointed 17" dolls to focus on OOAK dolls and other projects. Her ball-jointed dolls were good a good value, and they were also beautifully made. Privera ... Read more

Baby Dolls, Just Like Real Babies, Can Sometimes Be Ugly

Good thing that Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany is no longer with us, because I'm about to call him ugly. Well, ugly when he was a baby, at least, as evidenced by the so-called "Kaiser Baby" German antique baby doll. The doll is said to be modeled in the Kaiser's likeness, and the doll is ... Read more

Piano Babies Were Found on Pianos in Well-Heeled Victorian Parlors

Piano Babies are one of those odd dolls that aren't really, technically a doll, yet they are collected by many doll collectors because they fit in well with many... Read more

The Shelter for Misfit Doll and The Little Dead Gyrl

This is a wonderful site for creative, primitive, and remade dolls. It has been cached since 2004, and I've tried to conact The Little Dead Gyrl, who is the host, but the email bounced back. Anyone who loves dolls and a has a sense of humor needs to visit. She was also making and selling dolls, and recreating miniature scenes of Edward Gorey's books with Kelli miniature Barbie's. There were interesting links "linkies" that still work, and some great information on collaborative dolls and artists. The art paper dolls and trading cards were wonderfully clever, and there were lots of ideas for inspiration. I wish I could find her and communicate. Little Dead Gyrl, if you are out there, write a comment! Also, I love the new book with legitimate photos of collectible dolls called, Creepy-Assed Dolls!

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Newsletter

From Denise Van Patten, your Guide to Doll Collecting
For some reason I was trying to redecorate my piano this week, which led me to thoughts of....Piano Babies. Made in Germany during and after the height of German dollmaking in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Piano Babies were popular inhabitants of living rooms for many years, and in the collections of many antique doll collectors today. Until next week...Denise


Piano Babies Were Found on Pianos in Well-Heeled Victorian Parlors

Piano Babies are one of those odd dolls that aren't really, technically a doll, yet they are collected by many doll collectors because they fit in well with many... Read more

Not All Dolls Are Made in China

If you visit the average Toys 'R Us in the United States, you might leave with the impression that all dolls today are made in China. Although due to... Read more

Do You Have Any Fig Newtons In Your Doll Collection?

No, I don't mean the cookies--I mean the dolls! The Fig Newton Doll is a wonderful example of the Advertising Doll genre. Advertising Dolls can be play dolls, or they... Read more

Dolls for Children and Play: Bratz, American Girl, More

Dolls for children and the child in everyone--Barbie dolls for play, American Girl, Bratz, Groovy Girls, baby dolls and others. Play with your dolls, or find play dolls for the children in your life.

Newsletter

From Denise Van Patten, your Guide to Doll Collecting
For some reason I was trying to redecorate my piano this week, which led me to thoughts of....Piano Babies. Made in Germany during and after the height of German dollmaking in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Piano Babies were popular inhabitants of living rooms for many years, and in the collections of many antique doll collectors today. Until next week...Denise


Piano Babies Were Found on Pianos in Well-Heeled Victorian Parlors

Piano Babies are one of those odd dolls that aren't really, technically a doll, yet they are collected by many doll collectors because they fit in well with many... Read more

Not All Dolls Are Made in China

If you visit the average Toys 'R Us in the United States, you might leave with the impression that all dolls today are made in China. Although due to... Read more

Do You Have Any Fig Newtons In Your Doll Collection?

No, I don't mean the cookies--I mean the dolls! The Fig Newton Doll is a wonderful example of the Advertising Doll genre. Advertising Dolls can be play dolls, or they... Read more

Dolls for Children and Play: Bratz, American Girl, More

Dolls for children and the child in everyone--Barbie dolls for play, American Girl, Bratz, Groovy Girls, baby dolls and others. Play with your dolls, or find play dolls for the children in your life.