Museo de la muñeca del Dr. E: Marin 1928-2014 y la fábrica Museo de muñecas Mari...

Museo de la muñeca del Dr. E: Marin 1928-2014 y la fábrica Museo de muñecas Mari...: Original Marin 1928-2014 y la fábrica Museo de muñecas Marin Muñecas por José Marín Verdugo fueron iconos en cualquier lugar...

Museo de la muñeca del Dr. E: Meet Thomas Edison's phonograph doll - Antique Tra...

Museo de la muñeca del Dr. E: Meet Thomas Edison's phonograph doll - Antique Tra...: Meet Thomas Edison's phonograph doll - Antique Trader : Introduced in 1890, Thomas Edison's phonograph doll is a rarity sought out b...

Essay Contest: Holocaust Education Committee

Barbie's 60th, Dolls and Microsurgery and More

For Barbie's 60th, I bought the pilot Barbie; I just took a round-trip jaunt cross country, not for fun, for family business.  It seemed appropriate.  I brought family dolls, plush, and souvenirs for my aunt home.   I bought the MEGO Samantha and a tiny,3 inch Kachina to add to my collection.  One was from Target on a quick run for another suitcase.  The other came from the Southwest store at O'Hare.

In the last week I've been home, I made up for the lack of doll places I wasn't able to visit here, at Salvation Army, Goodwill, a couple thrift stores and yard sales. 

The Ultimate Teddy; Bass Pro Shops

Mermaid, doll utensil door handle, Bass Pro Shops

One Fairy Garden ready

Bitty Babies and Star Wars finds

German bisque baby head

Small antiques peek from their case

Besides the 60th Barbie, I found a Star Wars Hot Wheels robot car.  Also, a large terracotta statue made in Mexico and an Ashanti doll of wood from Ghana.   A large German bisque baby head and several International dolls, two German bisque came home, also several boxes of vintage 40s and 50s paper dolls.  At one yard sale, I found Victorian German bisque figures, and a Lefton Madonna and Child.  A live sized Pekingese named Mickey came with, and a life-sized PM statue of a collie named, of course, Lassie.

Some gorgeous modern bisques arrived, and a little boy, an artists doll, kneeling in a tiny suit with short pants.  Adorable. 

Three Madame Alexander portraits came home, along with a lovely Supermarket bride complete with earrings and heels.  A deer friend left me an action figures and three movies channeling my Countess.

So, the museum rolls on.

A friend told me his son was doing microsurgery for voles as part of his vet studies.  He learned the precision by paining eyes on mini plastic soldiers. Play with dolls and toys has inspired scientific discoveries and all kidns of other inventions.  Get out that toybox!

I see lots of doll references to teddies, Barbie and Chatty Cathy on The Nanny, and references to 80s toys on The Goldbergs.  New toys will be out soon for fall; check out the shelves.  I noticed Barbie fishing gear at Bass Pro Shops this weekend, and a line of dolls with accessories that the shops put out.

My big find was two AG Bitty Babies for $2.50 each at a yard sale, and box of Star Wars figures and a Millennium Falcon for $5.  Not bad.

So, look for the Virtual Doll Convention if you haven't signed up yet; June 19-23.  My book, Thinking Outside the Doll House; A Memoir, will be out soon. 

We move forward, even as life and fate drag us backward.

Lassie

One of our new Gene additions

Wearing a vintage dress, a Dollikins style doll ponders the state of the doll house

Great Big, Beautiful Dolls

Great Big, Beautiful Dolls

Dolls, no matter their height, are the companions of childhood. Nothing less, certainly.  I have dolls that are microscopic, smaller than a grain of rice, and others that are life-sized, five, six, even 8 feet high. A great article in the May/June Doll Castle News on Patti Playpal dolls and friends piqued my interest in “big dolls” yet again.  The article is “Playroom Companions, Patti Playpal and Friends” by Mary Berry.

An assortment of large bisque dolls and plush

Patti Playpal

Large Quincenera Doll an AT artist Replica, each about 27 inches

My Size Barbie and Friends illustrate how big dolls can fit in a corner

A few years ago, I wrote an article on Patti Playpal for About.com Doll collecting.  I wrote in response to a reader’s request.  She shared lovely photos of Patti and friends gathered around their own Christmas tree, glowing in the light of the twinkling ornaments. 

Big dolls have inspired their own books and have a certain allure.  Restaurants in California often had a big antique doll posed in their window.  The Canal House, an old restaurant in Sterling, IL, had a large A&E companion doll  that was dressed and posed for different seasons. In similar fashion, the local Bishop’s Buffet dressed a Mrs. Claus mechanical doll, over two feet tall, in holiday outfits.

My first grade teacher, Mrs. Evelyn McCallister, had four big dolls that represented Dick, Jane, and Sally.  There were two Sallys, and one was an A&E companion doll with platinum curls.  Dick, Jane, and the other Sally were cloth, soft sculpted dolls, life-sized with embroidered features and yarn hair.  I got to take Jane home for the summer.  The other dolls visited me at home, too.  I was thrilled one night after open house when my parents came home holding the vinyl Sally; she got to have a slumber party with me that lasted the weekend.  I wish I knew where these dolls were now!

My Size Barbie Ready for a Run

Great Bisque Head Artist Doll, about the size of a two yera old

36 inch Buddha

Grants had a huge assortment of dolls, including a large group of the A&E dolls.  I got my wish when I turned six and my Uncle Tom brought me one with red curls.  To this day, she wears my dresses and some that my grandmother made.  In Home Ec, I sewed her a companion, a life sized cloth Betsy McCall; she helped me get an A+ on my report card.  Later, I found a large Amish doll of the same size.

When I was nine and we went to Europe, my godmother gave me an Italian hard plastic doll with an organdy dress that had lights all over it.  My parents bought me a newer version at the airport on the way home.   In a doll shop near the Trevi Fountain, there were 36 inch Furga Dolls; I was entranced.  From Spain came a 1904 Bullfighter that walks.  From Germany came a large Minerva, celluloid head Scots boy, nearly three feet high and very rare.

Renaissance cage doll, nearly three feet high.

My Bru lady mannequin artists doll was once in the festival of trees.  She graced the sleigh at the German American Heritage Center one Christmas with a large Mrs. Claus.  Her bisque head comes off; I had to remove it to bring her home.  She sat headless in the passenger seat of my car.  Lucky no one stopped me!  I also have a life-sized Harold Gale Santa, posed to peak around the door.

Antique dolls were often made in large sizes to serve as mannequins; Bru, FG, and Kathe Kruse all created life-sized dolls. King Tut had his own mannequin, featured in the traveling exhibition of his treasure and in Mary Hillier’s Dolls and Doll Makers.

Life Sized European Baby Doll modeling a Kilt, Celtic Games, 2016

Very large vrown eyed china head with corkscrew curls

Companion doll at Skellington Manor

1920s Comp baby with her Jar Jar Binks toy

Sasha Morgenthaler made big dolls for exhibitions as have other artists.

French and German doll makers made gorgeous 31 inch and bigger play examples, and there are Play Pal Shirley Temples, remade by other companies during the early 2000s.  One lovely pink tint Rohmer is the grand dame of her doll family at 29, all original inches.

Shirley Temple had a five foot Japanese doll in her collection that arrived by coffin!  I was lucky enough to have Uncle Tom take my photo next to that doll.  It sold in January 2014 for over $13,000 at the Shirley Temple Auction by Theriault’s.

Large dolls preside at Thanksgiving 2016

About 29 inches tall, this cloth doll wears real accessories and is part of a set of dolls in various outfits made in Galva, IL,
over forty years ago.  She and her five companions were found at Spoon River Scenic Drive.

German bisque big girl, Bussey Museum, photo by author

Two large brides, German bisque and hard plastic. Bussey Collection, photo by author

This large inflatable Santa and his friends are taller than the house they decorate during Christmas

Life sized guard, MacNider Museum, Mason City, by the late Duane Hanson.

Shirley Temple's Japanese Doll with the Author.  Photo by Tom Fanakos.

Gigantic Wooden Bunny, jointed like a doll.  I rescued him from a bonfire

Many large companion dolls appear at our friends Terror at Skellington Manor.  They also feature great animatronics and figures that are life-sized.

Artists Lay Figure, Public Domain

Madame Tarnowska, an animated doll customized by the girls
at Abernathy's

Four foot Nutcracker Prince and Friends

Ophelia, our Skeleton Bride sings "Fright Wedding" to the tune of "White Wedding."  She loves her holiday sweaters and guards our downstairs.

Three foot papier mache doll from Mexico; traditional folk doll in a rare size

Magnificent, all original 29 Inch Rohmer

Scarecrow at Spoon River Days

Tiffany

Large bisque doll tops a Xmas tree at The Festival of Trees

Zelda, six foot witch by Gathered Traditions.  She guards the upstairs of our doll house

You can always find room for a big doll in the corner; Barbie  the size of a three year old child fits well in any vignette, as do the large Frozen dolls, Darth Vaders,  John Cena’s, Giant Plush and other big dolls and friends.  Our 48 inch Nutcracker Prince is a hit wherever he goes, and our three foot mechanical skeleton Ophelia has traveled to various programs and exhibits along with her automaton friends from Marshall Fields.

There was a magnificent doll museum in Marengo, IL many years ago, I think called the Time Was Museum, that featured big antique dolls dressed in lavish costumes by their owner.  The gowns were to die for beaded silks and velvets/

So, enjoy the pictures, and make room for that dolly in the corner, big and beautiful as she might be!

American Doll and Toy Museum: Skyward Trinity May 2019

American Doll and Toy Museum: Skyward Trinity May 2019: We are honored to have once again Dr. David Levy as guest blogger to our blogs. Skyward Trinity May 2019 As the world prepared...

The Future of Dolls

From Carl Fox:  "And what of the future, when dolls as we have known them will be joined with the newest technology and ultimately result int he nondoll, the nonhuman, the nonrepresentational, amorphous, nontoxic cloud?  It has its advantages.  In a world hard pressed for space there will no longer be a need for storage.   Collecting will have either vanished form the earth or become a frenzied scene of hands clutching even at straws "(39). 

This was written in 1970.  I'm sure he know of Bradbury and Fahrenheit 451. I'm glad to see that nearly 50 years later, people still collect, even in an era of downsizing, where a lifetime of hard work and achievement is forced to end in a tiny room in some nondescript nursing home.