Modern Porcelain Dolls from Asia and Waldas; 10 Good Things

 

 

Can

you spot some modern porcelains in this photo of some

museum dolls that I assembled for this post?

Certainly, I don’t want to give the wrong idea with this post.  My specialty areas are antique doll, emphasis French bisque and metal, international dolls, emphasis African, Greek, Spanish, with many amazing old and vintage examples in between.  I could fill my 5000 sq. foot building with nothing but antiques and vintage dolls.  Yet, if dolls are humanities historians, then we need to study all dolls, and at the very least to comment on them.  Among the most ignored and vilified dolls today are the modern porcelain dolls made in Asia over the last 40 years.

 

Two examples with fancy dresses.

They were all the rage from about 1970 to 2005.  Some were very expensive, and others appeared in Dollar stores, even supermarkets like Aldi.   K-Mart featured very large, beautiful examples, Hallmark made a few, including its tiny Diana ornament.  High End department stores carried them in their gift sections, and some furniture stores featured dolls of the month. Geppetto made lovely examples and clothes in all price ranges.  They usually sold at mall kiosks during the holiday season.  Their name, of course, alludes to Pinocchio.

 

A rough looking little doll in the brown dress made her debut in magazine ads in around 1979.  She was dubbed Walda and appeared in variations including clown and Pierrot outfits, different dresses, with sleep eyes (Toys R Us), etc.

 

More expressive example.

Two typical modern porcelain dolls of the late 90s.

Then, like Hummels, Precious Moments, Beanie Babies, Lladro, and other collectibles, they fell out of favor, were ridiculed, and became yard sale items. Entire collections, in the box, ended up at thrift stores.  Others were dubbed “creepy” and were turned into monster dolls or showed up as haunted house props.   One woman in San Clemente had a terrible epiphany when she left her daughter’s dolls on neighbor’s porches for their daughters.    Inside Edition actually contacted me about it, and I wrote an article for Doll Collecting at About.com.  The police “took the dolls” into custody because they were “creepy”, and some feared a pedophile in their midst.  Really?   I hope the officers remembered to read the dolls their rights. LOL!

 

These dolls, varied, and made by m companies, are usually mass produced, but hand finished.  Most come from China, or other parts of Asia.  Known companies include Gold Key, Brass Key, Catherine Collection Cathay House, Paradise Galleries, Duck House, Heritage Mint, William Tung, Marian Yu Designs, and more.  A few were also made in vinyl made to look like porcelain.

 

They are not like the Shackman reproduction dolls made in Japan during the mid 20^th century, nor are they, for the most part, antique reproductions.  So, Mark Farmer, Emma Clear, Polly Mann, and the like are not in the running, though another post will address these reproductions, many now over 70 years old and vintage.

 

Doll on left is a late French Bisque, "cold" painted.  On the right

is a modern porcelain with a character face, probably Duck House.

Here are some good reasons for collecting these dolls.  Remember a few years ago Barbie clones like Maddie Mod were ignored, too.  Now, people specialize in them and books have been written about them.   Just a few years ago, sixties vinyl dolls and other modern dolls were ignored by serious collectors, really by any collectors. They had a surge in popularity and price after Pat Smith wrote her Modern Collectors dolls, took a dive when online sales burgeoned, but still have a strong following now.  Now is the time to buy modern porcelain dolls.  They deserve to be curated, and are part of doll history.

 

Reasons to appreciate and collect modern porcelain dolls from Asia and elsewhere:

 

1. Their costumes are often beautiful
2. Waldas have their own following, and their own Facebook page and YouTube videos
3. They are good starter dolls for young collectors
4. Some use antique doll molds, like the Marque or Bru Juneau
5. They can start a good discussion about history of porcelain dolls and antique dolls made of porcelain
6. They are good dolls for large scale doll houses
7. They are good models for doll seamstresses; fun to create their wardrobe
8. They are mostly still inexpensive
9. They are a good doll club favor
10. They have some provenance as movie props or TV Props; Ellen Foster, Interview with the Vampire, Search for Tomorrow, Days of our Lives,  The Doll on Prime Video, Little House, Richard Chamberlain series, etc.
11. Look nice displayed in a case when clothes are washed and dolls are clean
12. I’ve seen then in museums all over the world, several in Canada during early 1990
13. They come in all sizes
14. Some artists dabbled in them, e.g., Louis Nichole, Victoria Ashlea, Seymour Mann, Marian Yu Designs
15.  They teach new collectors how to care for fragile dolls.

16. Small examples make great Christmas ornaments.

17. They are part of doll history and are no longer made.  They deserve to be saved.

Antique Dressel Character from our collection, here for

comparison

Happy Halloween!