Ningyo Kuyo - Temples where Dolls are Burned in Japan

This is a festival celebrated September 25th in Japan. Dolls are blessed in Buddhist or Shinto temples; supposedly as worn out objects, but many gorgeous dolls are destroyed as well. I've read articles where the most valuable and lovely dolls are not cremated, but displayed. In keeping with the spirit of the season, I mention them and will post some photos. I knew I was having a bad day on the 25th!

Haunted Doll Musuem

In the Spirit of the Season; here is The Haunted Doll Museum Gallery. http://www.hauntedamericatours.com/museum/hauntedDOLL.htm

Haunted Dolls and Dolls of Horror

Here is a link for an eBay review on buying Haunted Dolls; nope, I'm not kidding. "Tis" the season! There are dolls on eBay and on websites describint them, which are reputed to be haunted and to host paranormal activity. Personall? No, I don't believe it, but I'm interested in dolls in all aspects of peoples' lives. These are certainly intresting histories connected with the items I love to collect. There is also the story of Robert the Doll, which can be googled. Rilke, the great poet, was a little afraid of dolls; they reminded him of corpses, but he also said that to him, they were alive, but also very dead. Freud, that great collector of ancient artifacts, figurines, and yes, a few of them dolls, also felt that dolls were uncanny, and Eva Marie Simms has written a great essay on Freud and the dolls entitled, "Uncanny Dolls." It can be found through google, too.

The creepiest dolls I've seen besides the Halloween figures and animatronics are the custom-made historical figures by Headless Historicals, and a series of altered porcelain vampire dolls that have real, sharpened human dentures fixed into their little bloody doll mouths.

Also, though cached, I love The Shelter for Misfit dolls hosted by The Little Dead Gyrl. I've tried contacting her, but no luck. The site was last updated over six years ago.

Ah well...

I spoke of spooky dolls earlier, and I'm on the hunt for new examples to add to my collection. Halloween Barbies are always favorites, and I love the new Horror High School series, and any of The Universal Studios Monsters. The Twilight and Dr. Who figures are great, especially by Tonner, who also makes the great Goth girls. I've also seen Barbie sized Brides of Dracula, and who can forget Corpse Bride?

Mego and other companies produced wonderful monster dolls that were jointed at then neck, elbows, knees, shoulders, and hips. These were all well-costumed. McFarlane toys makes the terrifc monsters from film as wellas the six faces of madness dolls/figures which include Erzebet Bathory, the Blood Countess. There are lovely pumpkin figures and witches at Tuesday Morning, Marshalls, and TJ MAXX, and terrific Native American figures and pilgrims, some very large, at major department stores including Younkers, Dillards, Von Maur, Macy's, and others. Target always has a nice selection.

More and more places are stocking authentic Day of the Dead figures, and sugar skulls and animals. These are also featured in the animated feature Ray Bradbury's "The Halloween Tree," with Bradbury narrating. There are a lot of Great Pumpkin and Peanuts dolls and figures for this time of year as well. At the museum, we plan galleries of horror dolls and Halloween dolls. I can't wait to display all my witches, vampies, ghouls, monsters and demons together. I'm especially fond of the vampires and of Elvira herself.

We spent time decorating for Halloween today, and my twelve foot, hanging pirate is holding court from his favorite tree. I have a few more scarecrows to put out, but we are nearly through. The lighted figures will go out Halloween night. Let's not forget the carved pumpkins, gourds, figural cookies and Jack O'Lanterns. They, too, though ephemeral, are dolls and relatives of dolls. They play their part in doll and Halloween history well.

As far as really scary dolls, I've been restoring quite a group, which were the kind gift to me from my dear friend Margaret. They were damaged by water, but she did want to toss them. Don't blame her; I never toss a doll, other things, sure, dolls, no. I've truly proved I've never met a doll I didn't like. They looked haunted and creepy, and their little eyes were cloudy and cracked in some cases. I scrubbed and scrubbed with gloves on, using steel wool, windex, Febreze, soap, water, and nail polish remover. I let them dry in the sun, and washed their hair. I'm now finding wigs, clothes, and shoes. Little by little, they are being reclaimed. No, I won't sell them. They are proof that one should never give up. These were dolls from the 40s through 70s. I learned that hard plastic dolls wear better than any, and that expensive vinyl, Vogue, Royal, quality Eegee, suffers far more from damp and is harder to clean. Who knew?

I hope to go on a fall scenic drive or two next week before it is over; I have my favorite doll places there, too. Don't be spooked by your dolls, though I admit my toddler Leatherface from Living Dead Dolls gives me a turn; I prefer him put away in his box, wrapped in a bag, on a high shelf! Sometimes at night, I think I hear the hum of a tiny chainsaw ...

But, Chucky, Freddy, The Cryptkeeper Dracula, these are old friends! My husband will not let me display some of my handcarved masks and animatronics, especially Spasm the Emaciated prisoner. Poor Spasm was given a new wardrobe, complete with hand embroidered sweater, vintage hat and knitted slippers. And, of course, there is my two-headed baby, Frederica the painted skeleton, my Alien queen in a red knitted dress, the dancing maggot, all these have outfits, scarves, and accessories knitted and crocheted by my Mom, whose comment in Marie Leveau's House of Voodoo when I as buying Voodoo dolls was, "Cute." I miss her terribly; she understood. Happy Halloween!

Conclusion to With Love from Tin Lizzie Redux

Here we go again. I lost the first post! I am re-blogging the last chapter of With Love from Tin Lizzie. It is a tribute to my friend Jim, but also a teaser, I hope, and the first step to turning this blog into a web museum. I will be modifying and adding to the book, including new photos of some great new, but antique, additions, and a chapter on dolls made from found metal objects, as discussed in the latest Art Doll Quarterly by Somerset Studios.

Finds for this weekend were a German dollhouse baby with cradle and bunting and a Renwal green and yellow porch swing with baby, all in a dollar bag with other vintage miniatures from Concord, Marx, Renwal, and Shackman. Be sure to read my other blog on Greening tips, for a discussion Reusable Usalbes, a store that recycles in a big, clean, tasteful way. I was able to take away from there gorgeous vintage Christmas ornaments and treetop angels, some very old, and great shells and demitasse cups for my Barbara Pym class.

I also found at a quilt show, sewn parts for rag dolls, sew that my badly distressed Raggedy Ann can now be completed and saved. She was one of the great flood of 2008/2009 disasters. I threw many things, but no dolls, and only one or two books. All else has been scrubbed, aired, baked when needed, fumigated, packed, and repacked. I've been a regular factory of restoration, an in another tribute, I think I became the Shelter for Misfit Dolls, 2! Happy antiquing! The Dr.

Conclusion: What Next?

I love history! Dolls are history. They have had an impact on life throughout time, from emotional youngsters
getting one as a gift to impacting whole economies . . .

Jim and Joan Radke, JnJ Dolls

In an allusion to the legendary statue of Memnon and the theory that Ancient Egyptian statues had souls, Rilke has written that dolls were fed and made alive through children's imagination like the "Ka" of the Egyptians is fed on imaginary food.
Some doll makers, however, were not content with inanimate dolls that only lived through the power of a child's imagination. They strove to make dolls so lifelike that they could actually imitate human movement and sound. Formanek-Brunell and Kuznets would have us believe that there were serious gender differences among doll makers, and that male toy makers saw the dolls they made as extensions of both themselves and the machines that they created. Thus, even female dolls had male anatomy and characteristics, and like their creators, they were made of hard, efficient substances. These tiny human impostors were not meant so much for love, as durability.
In any case, the doll, as cultural artifact, is our "double," the other which both repels and attracts us. It perplexes us that something so "dead," can also be so alive, and that something the modern world has relegated to the toy box can have such a rich and complicated history.
Dolls will continue to be made as long as there are human beings to conceive of new designs for them. They will continue to reign predominantly in the children's realm, though individual adults and museums will still collect them as tangible artifacts of human history, miniature representations of humanity for their respective ages.
Metal dolls, while still not prized in most important collections, may have the richest history of all. From the golden idols of the Inca and Aztecs, to the toy soldiers of lead and silver and the Minerva and Juno heads of the last century, metal dolls could form a fascinating collection in themselves. It is hoped that this book will inspire others to take up the "iron" gauntlet and add to the dialog that I hope this research has created. Until then, to all who are interested in doll history and doll collecting, Happy "Dolling," with love from Tin Lizzie.
November 1999, The Eve of the
Millennium











Illustrations for Chapter 8
112. Facing page. A little girl of the early 1960s holding her doll. The doll is mechanical; when wound, it plays music. The face and hands are vinyl, while the body is stuffed, pink plush. (Author's collection).





















113. Facing page and following: The outline that follows is a brief history of dolls and doll collecting, including a list of famous collectors. Doll collectors are from all walks of life, and dolls have influenced artists, musicians, philosophers, and physicians.






















114. This photo illustrates the variety of dolls available today to collectors. As the Radkes of JnJ dolls have pointed out, collectors have different philosophies about collecting. Mr. Radke, who "caught the collecting bug" from his wife and her mother, prefers antiques, including metal heads, china heads, bisque dolls, and celluloid dolls. He buys with an eye to the doll's history and future value potential. His wife, Joan, likes to collect all types of dolls, regardless of their future value potential. Left to Right: Top Row: Bisque artist doll with hand painted face from an Austrian company, China head said to have survived the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, small sheet metal doll dressed in the style of the 1830s with muslin dress and ball of yarn, vinyl fashion doll by National Institute of American Doll Artists member Suzanne Gibson, 1970s cloth over wire doll from Taiwan. Second Row: Bisque doll by Armand Marseilles of Germany, wig and sleeping eyes; on her back is written a memorial to the little girl who once owned her but died in childhood, small Mexican wax doll, Italian hard plastic mulatto girl, bisque or Parian man with molded collar. Third Row: A modern vinyl representation of Princess Diana, composition man from Saudi Arabia, china headed British soldier from Hong Kong with Asian features, composition Wendy by Madame Alexander, ball-jointed bisque doll by Kestner of Germany, small bisque by Armand Marseilles. First Row: Blown glass Christmas ornament of a snow man, Small bisque head with ball-jointed body dressed in white satin, "nodding" Indian doll of clay and wire, tiny bisque doll house doll, clay miniature figurine of St. Teresa of Avila, Victorian dressed Valentine's Lady by Gorham, tiny clay doll from India, black bottle doll from Peru, American Kachina doll, clay Day of the Dead figures from Mexico, bisque german doll dressed as bride from Bethlehem of the early 20th century, felt over wire warrior chief from South Africa. The tiny bear and witch are clay Halloween figures, while the blue and brown figure is a lathe-turned Kachina of the American Southwest.
(Author's Collection).

Spooky Dolls

Once again, we have studied Halloween, El Dia de Muertos, All Souls and All Saints Day, The Samhain, and Thanksgiving. I always bring a few calaveras, and skeleton dolls, and of course, my "spooky things," the broom, locally made that is the official broom of the Salem Witches, the Living Dead Dolls, also a game, sometimes Erzebet Bathory and her bathtub shadow box, all those good things. I have vampires of all types, from Elvira, to the little holiday candles. My newest candle is a soy candle witch, black as ebony, and well-detailed. She is locally made by a friend of a friend. I bring the Frankenstein's monsters, and lanterns, and Jack o' lanterns, my little man in the Electric chair, the toy guillotine, handmade with a a real blade, the skeleton that walks the gallows and says funny things, the pumpkin that plays the Italian funeral march, all in good fun. We have cornhusk dolls, and corn cob dolls, and corn dollies and wheat dolls, a few of broom straw, and these must surely harken to grim Celtic and Druidic rituals described by Anne Rice and by many, many Celtic scholars.

We always watch The Halloween Tree in these classes, and sometimes I make sugar skulls for them to eat. I actually have a sugar pig, preserved these 23 years, a friend brought from El Dia de Muertos in Mexico. This is a solemn, dark time, but a perfect time to tricksters, for history, for being grateful for the harvest, for full moons, and cool days and nights.

It is now that I feel my childhood, when all the traditions come back, when I feel my mother near. We loved going to the fall dolls shows; my first Schoenhut came from one, and my puppy, Killer, went to a doll show road trip the second day we had him. He was so small, he rode in a shoebox and was nearly blown away at what later became his favorite rest stop on other trips. My mother started me on decorating the windows with Halloween cutouts, and we made many. There is a witch out of construction paper I still have from third grade, and an Anne Boleyn paper doll holding a tray out in front of her, with her head. I made her in the 4th grade. Had I been a better artist, I might have been in serious trouble at school! As it was, I got in trouble in second grade for making a kite with a doll on it that represented a Geisha. The teacher was scandalized. I'm not sure now, as I wasn't then, what she was thinking.

Now is when I want to curl up on the porch, scary book, doll magazine, or needlepoint in hand, hot coffee, or sipping chocolate, at hand, to get lost in my dreams and my memories.

The papers for our Articles of Incorporation are in the hands of my lawyer. Oh, for a builidng! But, the web museum will be next.

New additions to the museum, not too many, but a few choice dolls from the 40s and 50s, some nice penny dolls, a vintage Mme. Alexander, and some other ancient Hungarian and Italian dolls, the latter of carved wood.

More from the metal doll book, soon, and from The History of Dolls.

Happy dolling, and make an apple doll to celebrate the harvest.

Gurley Halloween Candles

See the Link for a great site and web museum of these wonderful candles.

http://www.lostwackys.com/Gurley-Candles/

Welcome

Welcome to Fretta and All That's Vintage; what wonderful blogs and sites. I will follow you, soon, as soon as I catch up with work.