Speaking of Dolls: Bru Bebe ‘Cadillac’ of antique dolls | Antique Trader

Speaking of Dolls: Bru Bebe ‘Cadillac’ of antique dolls | Antique Trader: The Bru doll, made by Bru & Cie, was the Cadillac of antique dolls. The dolls reached their heyday during the 1880s, the Gilded Age of the Victorian Era.

Ryan's World

Things we Love and Taylor Swift ❤️

Swift's music video for her album Lover features a giant dollhouse. Who knew?!

Also, fans if Huguette Clark, note Theriaults will be auctioning most of her dolls in the near future.

Below are pics and comments of things we love, some illustrating Baten's doll motif.

Catch Johnny Carson's tonight show for mane doll, toy references.
On Antenna TV.

Remember to register for the January 2020 Virtual Doll Conve

ntion, virtualdollconvention.com.  best $25 yoully spend!

A Plea for Dolls no one seems to Want

A Plea for Dolls no one seems to Want

As with everything else, doll collecting follows trends.  During the thirties and forties, Parian dolls, French bisque, and later, Kimport dolls, were popular.  When author and artist Helen Young was writing, half dolls and metal dolls were called “secondaries.”

Modern dolls were looked down upon, especially plastic and vinyl, until Pat Smith began her Modern Collectors’ Dolls Series in several volumes and Johanna Gast Anderton wrote her Twentieth Century Dolls books.

Doll Snobbery was not that obvious at early doll shows, and there were not too many doll divas, whatever they seem to be.  I take it to mean collectors who love to bring high drama and super high doll prices to the hobby.  Define it for yourselves.

During the late 80s and 90s, lots of reproduction dolls spilled onto the doll scene. Also, toys of all types joined dolls at the shows.   Collectors soon grew tired of reproductions and toys at their shows, it seems, and they were more or less banned.

Also during this time, dolls made just to be collected were being created by Ashton Drake, Hamilton Mint, Franklin Mint, and other companies.   Mass produced porcelain dolls began with Walda, and appeared at grocery stores, dollar stores, big box stores, literally everywhere. They remind me of gas station dolls and the teen supermarket dolls that were popular during the fifties and early sixties.

Some dolls once not so popular have soared in popularity today.  Blythe is a doll from my childhood.  I love her and always have.  It wasn’t till about 15 years ago that she became a much imitated cult doll figure.

Barbie Clones like Maddy Mod and others sold in baggies were ignored.  Now, there are collectors of non-Barbie teen dolls, and they can be pricey.

Plastic toy soldiers were once not taken seriously, but they now have their own collectors’ Facebook groups and clubs.

Today, collectors seem to disdain these modern porcelains, and they appear in thrift shops and junk stores for a couple dollars.  Here are some dolls that are ignored, or even ridiculed, by some collectors.  Me, I like variety, and my dolls range from the sublime to the ridiculous. 

Precious Moments dolls and figurines.  They still have their own club and blog, found here: https://www.preciousmoments.com/collectors-club-information.  Yet, they, and other collectible figures seem to end up at thrift shops.  Perhaps it’s because no one has time to dust or arrange such things in today’s phone driven fast-paced society.  I still think they are cute; when I find a doll or figure I like, I buy it.

Beanie Babies:  John Lithgow even devoted an episode of Third Rock from the Sun to them.  They seem to have fallen out of favor, yet I notice many YouTube collectors and others are rethinking them, and a few are soaring in price.  If you don’t have any, now may be a good time to grab some new ones, or find vintage ones.

Modern porcelain dolls from Asia, Walda’s cousins. Walda has her own following on YouTube and Face Book.  I see many from Gold Key, Dynasty, Franklin Mint, Paradise Galleries, etc., online and in stores.  I buy them if I like them and their dresses, which are often lovely.  Resist turning them into monster dolls, or scavenging their clothes.  Try sewing for them, using them in doll scenes, inspiring a young collector.  They aren’t really made anymore, and are now Vintage.  They won’t be around forever, and are part of doll history.  They seem to do very well on Amazon.

Reproductions of antique dolls:  They can be quite pricey, and some artists like Branka Scharli and Connie Zink are still making top quality examples.  Other artists recreate 18^th century wooden dolls  and Leo Moss dolls.  They are worth a look or two for the quality.  Earlier examples are now over 70 years old in the case of Emma Clear dolls and others.  They are becoming antiques and collectibles in their own right.  Interesting molds, especially of china heads, are great additions to fill in a collection of molded hair dolls.

Vinyl dolls from the 90s, usually play dolls like Citti Toy. In good shape, they can be lovely.  Berenguer dolls were once ignored from this era, but now, they have followers, too.   Dolls like this with the Toys R Us mark/brand are collectible because of the demise of the toy shop giant.

Magic Skin dolls from the fifties, with either hard plastic or composition heads. I have one in mint condition, but the dolls bodies deteriorate.  They can be repaired, or put on a different body.

Undressed Barbies and similar dolls from the 90s on.  Some collectors now prefer these, as discussed in the book Forever Barbie.  Inventors, film makers, and costumers are interested in them, too.

So called tourist dolls or souvenir dolls; my collection began with two Greek dolls.  My grandmother had dolls from all over that she and her children brought from their travels.  Such dolls are often the last artifact of cultures now gone from Earth.  I don’t get the snobbery, or why people don’t like them.  They show us how small the world can be, and build bridges.  Sam Pryor, once VP of Pan Am, had a huge collection, and it inspired Disney’s It’s a Small World.

Hummels and Hummel dolls :  They also have their followers, and R. John Wright has reproduced some in felt.  I don’t get why anyone would not like Hummels.  I treasure mine, the dolls, my other Goebel items, and the memories they bring.

Gas station dolls, usually 7.5 inches, and dressed as story book characters or in international costumes. I love these; I have many dolls from many companies dressed in assorted outfits.  I loved getting gas and finding these as a premium.  They were fun, and fun never hurt anybody.  Carlson dolls used them to create historic costume dolls from American History.

Madame Alexanders post 1990, out of the box. I’ll take opinions on this.  I don’t get it at all.  New dolls in the box are still lovely, but pricey.  

Many of the above unloved dolls still appear in collections and disappear from thrift stores and antique shops. 

RIP Toni Morrison

The world of earthly literature just got smaller again.  I remember Toni Morrison for Song of Solomon, Beloved, and The Bluest Eye.  The latter talked about a doll, and earned Morrison a place in my Bibliography of Doll and Toy Sources.

She was lyrical and ethereal, and reading her was to be transported into another world through her language.  She seemed timeless to me, and I will miss her.  I remember her through the words o Maxine Hong Kingston, whom I had pleasure to here when I taught at dinky little school on the banks of a great river.  May she rest in peace, may her books live on.

August Skyward by Dr. David Levy

Skyward

August 2019

A Dog star

There are so many good reasons for acquiring an interest in the night sky.  Mine wasn’t one of them.  It turns out that I was extraordinarily shy as a child and had few friends.  One July evening, at Twin lake Camp in Vermont while walking with my bunkmates from a July 4th celebration, I happened to be looking up at the night sky when I saw a shooting star.  It was not particularly bright but it did capture my attention as it raced from the head of Draco, the Dragon, towards the bright star Vega.  Right away, I noticed that the stars could be friends.  Stars are people too.

Our Childhood Beagle, Clipper; photo taken when he was an older dog.

       Around the same time our family got a beagle dog we named Clipper.  I spent much time with him as I was growing up, taking him for walks and generally sharing my adventures with him.  He was even the subject of my first book, written when I was in the fourth grade.  The adventures of Clipper was not a good book, except that I had a wonderful time writing it.  Were I to write it today, I would take Clipper and his owner on many astronomical adventures aboard his rocket ship.  The dog would wander past the Moon, sniffing about the site where Armstrong and Aldrin took their first small steps fifty years ago.  He would lead on to Mars, whose two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos, were discovered by Asaph Hall not long after his work was interrupted by a visit from the then-President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Clipper the beagle would cruise past Jupiter, skate along the exquisite rings of Saturn, and travel onwards through the outer solar system.  He would then roam past the real dog star, Sirius, one of the closest stars to Earth.  It might make a better book now than it did in 1956, when one paragraph merely said “Clipper Clipper Clipper.”

Comet Tempel with Metor

       There is one real-life story that never made it to the original book.  On a cloudy Friday evening, December 17, 1965, I was walking Clipper toward the summit of a hill near our childhood home.    As we walked, the sky began to clear. Clipper did not want to turn back and return home but after a short tug of war, where Clipper pulled in one direction and I pulled the leash in the opposite direction, I won out.  When I arrived home my telescope was waiting for me as more clouds were gathering in the west.  Around midnight, I began my search for comets, a journey that has so far resulted in the discoveries of 23 comets.  It is a project that has given me unparalleled joy and which continues to this day.  And as I look towards Jupiter, I might even detect Clipper’s beagle howl as we both recall the collision, a quarter century ago, of  of one of my comets,  Shoemaker-Levy, 9 with that giant and thrilling world.