New Year 2019

Happy New Year to all!  May your doll dreams come true, and may we all have peace in 2019.  Out of the dark winter night, a light will shine and lead the way!

Electicism in Dolls

Electicism, Perhaps I've Made up a Word!

 

My friend, noted author and doll artist R. Lane Herron writes a series of articles for Doll Castle News called The Elite World of Dolls.  He has traced the history of modern doll collecting from roughly the 20s to 80s in great detail by spotlighting renowned collectors and their treasures.

 

He notes, as I do, that we don’t collect the same way we did when the UFDC was created over 50 years ago.    During the days Max von Boehn, Alice Trimpey, Eleanor St. George, Janet Pagter Johl, Faith Eaton, Mary Hillier, Dr. Manfred Bachmann, Carl Fox,  Genevieve Angione, Pat Smith, Helen Young, John Noble, and others wrote, few collectors specialized.  There were many revered doll and antique dealers, and some of these authors also made or sold dolls.  While it’s true we know more than ever about dolls and marks, it is also true that the doll is more than the sum of her attributes and the dollar amount listed in price guides.

 

Melinda, an A&M painted German Bisque; she was my first
German Bisque Doll.

Antique Mignonette

Vintage Christmas Figures

Pat Thompson Vlasta Dolls

These early author/collectors were pioneers in early material culture studies, the predecessors of writers like Susan Pearce, Kenneth Gross, and Marilyn Gelfman Karp. Early collectors had eclectic collections, and Ruby Short McKim of Kimport and others like her helped them build unusual and varied displays of dolls. 

 

Personally, I love reading these book and seeing just how far the definition of doll could go.  I loved the doll motif concept of Lea Baten, who defines dolls also by how they pop up in related disciplines, like graphic art, sculpture, folk art, utilitarian crafts, and more.  I loved how Max von Boehn, a museum curator, and Laura Starr, a teacher, explored the importance of dolls to many cultures, some  lost today, and the uses of doll like objects, from bee hives to figurines. G. Stanley Hall and Caswell Ellis studied the psychological and sociological importance of dolls, and stressed their educational value in “A Study of Dolls.”

Vintage Closed Mouth Bisque Doll

Vintage Artist Bru Teteur

Three Artist Bisque Dolls, 70s vintage, Gibson Girl is Center

Primitive Black Doll Lower Left, Lower right, Vintage European Vinyl, above counter clockwise Bratz, Cener
Carlson Dolls Cow Girl, Upper Left, Cloth artist Mrs. Claus

Antique German Bisque with Chatty Cathy Looking over her Shoulder

 

Kimport’s Doll Talk newsletters had articles and also sold everything from antiques to dressed fleas from Mexico!  If anyone out there has a set, I want one!   Hillier talked of clock figures and ancient idols, even gingerbread men. Young discussed ancient paddle dolls and crèche figures.

 

Max von Boehn and Bachmann talked of prehistoric goddess figures, idols, Santos, and Fox included masks and fetishes.  All are dolls.

 

None of these writers sneered at tourist dolls or international costume dolls; Luella Hart even wrote her own books on these as well as antique dolls.  St. George included contemporary dolls like Patsy and Shirley Temple in her books, so did young.  Fox and Starr discussed folk dolls at length.

Parian Statue, 19th century

Wax over Doll from Germany

Variety of Dolls, including a Kachina, Lower Right

Storyteller; this concept was created by Helen Cordero

Mask, with Modern Plush Upper Left

 

Early writers acknowledged price; early collectors coveted china heads and Parians, and later automatons, which Lindbergh favored, and French fashions ruled the doll world. But, investment and price weren’t what mattered most. People didn’t write ten page articles on hang tags and certain marks as they do now.  It was about beauty, the need to curate and preserve, variations on a theme, and love of history, beauty and collecting. 

 

German Papier Mache

Artist Emma Clear's Grape Lady

Food for doll thought, at least.  Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Peace in 2018.

DISH TV Commercial: Dolls- I Hesitate Even to Blog This

DISH has jumped on the creepy doll buggy bandwagon, apparently.  See the video below to view “grandma’s dolls”, which are collectible and vintage dolls.  I see Ling Ling from Dolls by Pauline in the background, and a nice composition doll, etc.

Personally, I think it’s perverse to take dolls, which are icons of Christmas, and Happy Christmas, at that, and put them in media event that makes them “creepy.”  I can laugh at the Halo’s commercial with the sinister sister’s doll collection, and I love the Terror at Skellington Manor doll room, but these are tongue in cheek. Nightmare before Christmas is a classic because of its doll models and characters, and because the toys in it stress the importance of giving.

Christmas with it’s crèche figures, Santas, nutcrackers, dolls, teddies, toy soldier, angels, and more doll motif items is a dolls’ holiday.  “Jolly Old St. Nicholas” and other Christmas songs mention dolls, and they are still OK to sing at Winter Concerts in public schools.

Rudolph features “a dolly for Sue”, and Babes in Toyland is all over the concept.  Antiques and automatons appear in Albert Finney’s Scrooge.  I can go on.

This commercial is as bad as movies that feature Santa as a serial killer.  You look them up; I won’t dignify them with the free publicity at this point.  

The world is grim enough for kids, just think Sandy Hook and so many child abduction tragedies and homicides.  So many wars and natural disasters, it’s the toughest job in the world today to be a child. 

Do we have to take away their toys and confidantes, their dreams and imagination, too?

The Christmas EVE; Eve, a Doll That Comes to Life by Hallmark!

I have been watching lots of Hallmark Christmas movies, and The Christmas Eve is about a doll that comes to life to help her owner, heir to the toy company that made her.


Grace, the owner, has a attitude, but Eve changed that.  There is even a contest to create fashions for Eve that inspire young girls.  Something similar was done for Mel Odom's Gene a few years ago. I loved the movie because it stressed the positive connotations associated with dolls, not the creepy doll crap.


More soon, but Merry Christmas!!


Here is the Hallmark Xmas Movie schedule from TVGuide.com. https://www.tvguide.com/news/2018-hallmark-christmas-movie-schedule/

Turn of The Century Antiques - Antique Doll Dealers, Buy Antique Dolls, Sell Antique Dolls

Turn of The Century Antiques - Antique Doll Dealers, Buy Antique Dolls, Sell Antique Dolls





Click this link for more on our upcoming,fantastic, Virtual Doll Convention! Check out our pins on our new boards,  Virtual Doll Convention on Pinterest and Turn of the Century Antiques, Denver Colorado, on Pinterest. Just in time for the holidays!!

Toy Elephant in Simi Valley Homeless Community Tent City

Toy Elephant in Simi Valley

 

Dolls as important as fossils or other artifacts of the landscape. As Amtrak carries me home to my family in San Jose, I see all kinds of tent cities and make shift homes along the highway.  Some have actual windows, and are bits and pieces of trailers and other small structures.  Others are just tarps over tents.  A few have lawn ornaments, and one had a blow mold snowman as a decoration.

 

The saddest, most poignant were the two with stuffed animals.  I couldn’t get a photo, but one was a toy stuffed elephant once pink, maybe.  It was positioned against the hill, near the top, as if it were climbing. The other was a velveteen Doberman dog, almost life-sized lying on its side next someone’s temporary camp.

 

There was a young girl sitting in front of one of the tent communities, around 30, wearing a parka, and lighting a cigarette.  It had been raining, which is rarer than we might think in California. 

 

How sad it is to see people living this way in a country that wants for nothing, and in communities like Los Angeles, Simi Valley and Santa Barbara, with its neighborhoods full of millionaires.  Yet, fate is what it is sometimes.

 

I guess my point is that while it's true things can be replaced, certain possessions define us and make our lives bearable. They are symbolic, like folk art, fine art, or beloved books are. Like fossils, they tell stories of those who came before us, or maybe like the artifacts archaeologists find, study, rescue and display.  To paraphrase Barbara Pym, even an ordinary persons things are interesting and tell a story.

 

Be well.

First Ever Virtual Doll Convention

 

In the words of our own "Doll Uncles" and Rachel Hoffman, the First ever Virtual Doll Convention is here!   We've proved that once and for all, it is a Small World where dolls are concerned! Take the opportunity to bond and connected with other like minded collectors and enjoy your favorite subject, amazing web fieldtrips, and much more, even if "the weather outside is frightful!!"

 

 

“It’s finally here. A VIRTUAL Doll Convention!

Join Doll and Teddy bear Enthusiast, Collecting Influencer, and Virtual Event Entrepreneur, Rachel Hoffman as she guides you and a group of like-minded individuals through a first-ever Virtual Doll Convention, with a side order of extra self-love and inspiration. With the support of experts across the country, you will enjoy four days of virtual seminars, special exhibits, doll care, and preservation workshops, AND shop a doll and Teddy bear virtual salesroom. We will also take you on two Virtual Museum Tours. On Sunday evening, we will participate in a cook along dinner with David Robinson. You’ll receive the ingredients list ahead of time and can tune in live to cook along with us, right from Michael and David’s home kitchen. Then we will eat together at our own virtual banquet. Your souvenir will consist of a beautiful piece of printable ephemera posted in the convention group each morning. The entire convention will take place in a private group on Facebook, open only to Conventioneers. All of the scheduled events will remain in the group for later viewing for those who can’t catch it live or want to watch it again. The content is created and streamed special for this convention, and will not be shared later. We hope you join us!”

 

Dates are: January 10-13, 2019.  Here is our website where you may sign up; do it soon, and there is a discount.  You could have all of our perks for only $20.00!!

Virtual Doll Convention: https://www.virtualdollconvention.com/

Via Doll Universe Facebook, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Private collection. 
Exhibition Jumeau

Guest Blogger: Dr. David Levy, Skyward

Once again, it is our pleasure to feature Dr. David Levy as our guest blogger.

Skyward

December 2018

 

 Inner Starlight

 

Photo by Dr. David Levy

 In 1994,  Star Trek:  The Next Generation was one of the most popular shows on television.  The episodes were so good that it was easy to tell that the cast was especially enjoying themselves.  One of the episodes that year was “The Inner Light.”  It was a beautiful story in which a strange probe approaches the Enterprise and attaches a beam to Captain Picard, who loses consciousness and has a dream in which he is living on a distant planet.  He enjoys  a full life there, with a wife, two children and a grandson, and he becomes politically active in his community.  He even outlives his wife.  One day his daughter asks him to watch a rocket launch.    He hesitates, but then his deceased wife and best friend appear.  The Captain then exclaims,  “It’s the probe that was sent for me!”

After  enjoying this episode many times, I was reminded of another beautiful story.  Written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1824, it is called The Great Stone Face and concerns a large natural face-like structure hanging near Franconia Notch, across some granite rocks in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.  The site was magnificent, at last until a few years ago when the face fell down in a big heap.  The cliffs are still there, but no more face.

The night sky is much like Star Trek, and much like Hawthorne.  We look at a group of stars, perhaps a constellation or two, and our brains begin to make connections.  On Star Trek we share the idea of travelling through space, even if all we have to warp through space with our two good eyes and a telescope.  Some of us may even remember chapter 12 of Hawthorne’s  masterpiece The Scarlet letter, in which the “A” is likened to a meteor crossing the sky at midnight:  “…before Mr. Dimmesdale had done speaking, a light gleamed far and wide over all the muffled sky. It was doubtless caused by one of those meteors, which the night-watcher may so often observe burning out to waste, in the vacant regions of the atmosphere.  … And there stood the minister, with his hand over his heart; and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter glimmering on her bosom; and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the connecting link between those two.”

       Was the meteor an interpretation of the scarlet A parading across the sky?  The night sky is full of messages, and only some of those messages come from astronomers.  The rest come from people like you and me, people who have innocently stood up a looked at the stars, and who have wondered.  The rest come from Shakespeare, and Tennyson, and perhaps even Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The next time you look at the stars, picture yourself not just watching them but reading them.   Learn the stories they tell, as interpreted by your favorite writers  whether they be Shakespeare, Tennyson,  Hawthorne, or even you.  What sparks your imagination can be something as simple as a story you have heard, seen read, or even written.  Even in our modern age,  the message could indeed be written in the stars.

Holiday Gift Guide for Doll and Teddy Bear Lovers - Ruby Lane Blog

Holiday Gift Guide for Doll and Teddy Bear Lovers - Ruby Lane Blog: The Holidays are here in full swing!  Do you know what to buy your doll and bear aficionado friends? Generally, we aren’t hard to please; most of us never met a doll or bear we didn’t like.  Yet, it can be hard to buy for the collector, or doll, who has everything, so here are... Read more »

What I've Learned from Dolls

Devoting yourself to a hobby helps you learn a whole subset of skills in areas you never thought you'd be good.

It dawned on my that I learned to bargain shop looking for dolls, good dolls that were usually much more expensive.   I carried those skills over to grocery stores and to a new awareness of coupons. After a while, it's second nature to hunt for bargains.


When I was about ten, my family and I used to spend Christmas in California.  We went to after Christmas sales at Pool, Patio, and Things, Sax, Bullock's, Emporium, and Macy's   I couldn't believe what I could find at 50% off.

Soon 75%  and 90% off became available.  Like my mom, I bought gifts for next year at the holiday sales.


If any of those bargains needed painting or sewing, I could easily fix it.  I learned these things and more repair and craft techniques from dolls.

When I taught contract law, I reviewed stories of how the big doll companies were built.  I learned the definition of merchant/expert from Article 2 of the UCC, or Uniform Commercial Code through studying antique stores and dealers.


Of course, I picked up on archaeology, sociology, history, literature, art, and music through dolls.  Even my cultural geography textbooks talked about costume doll and crafts, as well as textiles involving dolls and doll making.

Through dolls, I learned about display, management and organization.  Dolls and collecting earned a few lines in my dissertation, and in the intellectual property courses I taught.


Through the study of dolls, I learned a lot of life skills, but also to appreciate beautiful things, handmade crafts, and human expression.   I learned a lot about research of all types, and used that skill in all my jobs.  I learned social media because of dolls, and learned to observe carefully and to think outside the box.


Having the dolls to study and collect has saved my sanity o ore than one occasion. I suppose we all need a passion what Barbara Pym called something to love, what Woolf referred to as "a room of one's on."  Mine happens to be filled with dolls.

Unpacking the Dolls

As we move closer to getting a building for the American Doll & Toy Museum,  more and more dolls are being packed, unpacked, repacked, and moved.  It is a lot like Christmas everyday, and given the international nature of our mission, it's Christmas around the world.


Spoiler Alert:  If you are neat-freak, clutter phobic, doll phobic, grumpy, a doll snob, a doll diva, or very OCD [which I lean towards] Don't look!!


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Making Space and Making Room; the Doll Trek begins!




Small dolls on vintage acrylic shelves gleaned from our old Younker's Store

The Hills are Alive .. .

Italian porcelain miss dressed for travel.

Waiting their turn, cloth, vintage Halloween, vintage vinyl, bisque, antique and cloth

How will we ever gat packed ?

Tiny treasures wait patiently, if a little apprehensively.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall/ Who's the Fairest Doll of All

Angelic and cabinet sized

Native American Doll by Carlson Dolls, 60s-70s

I wonder if I'll have my own shelf?

Anyone need a ride?

The Storyteller is our bard; she tells of our journey.

Green Army Men, a gift from Marie T.

Family Portrait

So cute . . .

Is formal attire required?

A gift to the museum from Marie T.

And, we're just the drop in the bucket!! Look for more on the progress of our museum.