Simon, Hersey, and Carl Fox: Thinking outside the Doll House

In The Doll, Carl Fox, a museum curator by trade, describes two remarkable doll collections in magical words that still mesmerize.  Fox wrote the book during the late 60s, and it was published in 1970 and it was featured on Christopher Glenn’s “In the News” on CBS.   H. Landshoff too the magnificent photographs for the book. Fox was the former director of Museum shops for the Smithsonian Institution ad the Brooklyn Museum.

L, India, Center, Vietnam, R, Taiwan. Via the Author

 

Fox gives two tantalizing descriptions of dolls and related objects in the collections of Louis F. Simon and Marcia & Irwin Hersey.

 

Irwin Hersey was a remarkable man; I’ve excerpted and credited his obituary below.  While in Japan, according to Fox, Hersey began collecting Japanese prints and later other works of art  Soon, he ventured forth in to masks, sculpture, and other dolls.  He has written books on Indonesian art and other Southeast Asian primitive art.  The Herseys lived in a four room apartment off Central Park and Fox described the interior as “a truly splendid profusion of sculptures, masks, and paintings”(22) many small I scale I scale and very “touchable.”  This “mad” disarray fell into “place” Fox observes because the Herseys chose objects for their beauty ad because they liked them.  Monetary value was not a factor in their collection.  In fact, Hersey later wrote, “For the first time . . . the field [of African Art Collecting] is being invaded by investors who are more interested in appreciation of the value of the objects than in appreciation of its beauty” (Hersey: 1979, 1 emphasis added) quoted in African Art in Transit by Christopher B. Steiner.  The same observation can be applied to doll collecting, indeed, any collecting, where money is the prime reason for acquisition, not the objects intrinsic value or meaning.

 

Among the dolls both Herseys collected were African and Japanese dolls. The first doll Mrs. Hersey bought was an Ashanti doll.  These were hard to find; I actually found my first Ashanti doll around the same time as Mrs. Hersey.  Mine came from a Gallery in Sausalito, CA.  Now, they are easier to find and even in 1970, Fox writes that the Ashanti doll “has become almost a commonplace in the world of primitive art as Raggedy Ann” (24).

 

Irwin Hersey and his wife gifted many of their beloved objects to museums and galleries in later years. They sold their collection before his death in 2010 because their house needed painting and they couldn’t bear to move and pack the collection.  From Obituary from Legacy.com: “HERSEY--Irwin. Born Irwin Herskowitz, editor and nationally known authority on tribal art died in Manhattan April 2 at age 89. Born September 15, 1920, Mr. Hersey was a graduate of City College and received his masters degree from Columbia University. In World War II he was commissioned and trained as a Japanese linguist and served in Tokyo on General MacArthur's staff. He was recalled to active duty in Korea. He left the army a captain and worked as a business editor for Fairchild and Hearst Publications. In 1957 he became editor of the Journal of the Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics and director of publications of the American Rocket Society. Later he became a consultant to cities wanting to expand business meetings and conventions, worldwide. His knowledge and expertise of African tribal art led to his work as an appraiser and was among the first to try to provide professional standards to the field. From 1978 to 1983 he founded and edited the Primitive Art Newsletter. Objects from his collection are represented in major U.S. museums.” Published in The New York Times on Apr. 6, 2010

 

Simon was a famous musician who loved art and dolls as much as his violin. He also loved exotic animals and had a pet anteater. He was the same type of collector, it seems, as the father of Maria von Trapp, who collected musical instruments and kept an indoor aviary of rare birds.

 

Fox’s description of the Simon collection is nothing less than fantastic.  For that alone, you have to buy his book! He sets the scene with a description of the Simon home, which looks from the “outside like every other middle class home in the suburbs “(21).   Fox foreshadow and picks up the pace, creating even more suspense with “After climbing the steps, one is uncertain of the similarity.  A large, unpainted carrousel horse of about 1900 gallops noiselessly across the porch . . “ (21). Then, he cuts to the most dramatic scenario of all:

 

Beyond the glass doors, a large hallway leads to a wide, winding staircase  the walls on either side of the hallway are lined with cases filled with artifacts and small sculptures; above them and along the staircase hangs a collection of masks from Africa, New Ireland, and New Guinea. I counted twenty.  A scant dozen old Kachinas stand colorfully along the top of a far case.  We may describe this as the Simon introduction; the allegro follows, with the music room of the hallway on the right containing several cases of Oriental dolls.  Musical instruments and Indonesian puppets decorate the walls.. The living room opposite is host to a very large collection of  Pre-Columbian, Asiatic, ad Oceanic sculpture. There are Korean and Japanese chests, Empire furniture, and one concession to contemporary lighting—a floor to ceiling paper lamp designed by the sculptor Noguchi.  There are more cases and oriental dolls in the dining room and Oriental dolls in cases, drawers, and closets in the bedrooms. It was in the attic that I found the English puppet . .. What I saw in the collection as a portrait of a serious musician who has long enjoyed the virtues of discipline and training . .. (22).

 

Simon died in 2003, still relatively young:  “Louis F. Simon, 75, a Yonkers resident, died September 3, 2003. Louis was born Lajos Ferencz Simon on January 8, 1928 in Budapest, Hungary to the late Charles and Margaret Fuchs Simon and emigrated to the US in 1939 to escape the Nazis. Louis was a virtuoso violinist, a Professor of Music in the City University system, and an orchestra conductor, both in Westchester and Rockland Counties and around the world. Louis was the conductor for, among others, the Hudson Valley Symphony Orchestra and the Fine Arts Symphony Orchestra. Most recently, Louis was a violinist with the "New York Pops." In addition to his music career, Louis was the founder of Simon World Arts, acquiring and selling fine art- for which he traveled the globe. Louis is a former President of the Cactus and Succulent Club at the New York Botanical Garden.”  https://obits.lohud.com/obituaries/lohud/obituary.aspx?n=louis-f-simon&pid=149180171

 

These two men are examples of collectors thinking outside the doll box.  The objects they loved are all part of what Lea Baten calls “the doll motif.”  They redefine who doll collectors are, and they enhance the description.  It was Eleanor St. George who wrote in The Dolls of Yesterday that doll collectors are not single-minded people.   Louis Simon and Irwin Hersey have more than proved this is true.