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