This is what was left of my Blue Willow doll’s tea set after an unfortunate accident. It was around 1942 and my friend Patsy and I were going to have a doll’s tea party. It is marked, TRANSON WARE JAPAN. At that time I wore a silver ID tag around my neck because it was wartime and we lived in Washington, DC.
doll’s tea set
In the early 1950’s I was in high school, not thinking about dolls anymore. A few more years brought graduation from college, marriage, three sons and a daughter. It was 1964 and I had only bought one doll, a 12 in. plastic GI Joe with life like hair. He has been gently played with and I still have the box. Selecting gifts for my daughter, Elaine, started me thinking about dolls again and collecting resumed.
1964 GI Joe
When mother bought me a Madame Alexander Little Genius cloth and composition baby doll I had a feeling that, at age 12, I was getting too old to play with dolls. So she was never played with and remains in perfect shape.
My Dad made me a Craftsman style cabinet for the doll collection. He had already made a long drawer to fit under my doll crib, needed for supplies when I gave Magic Skin Baby a bath. Although the bodies of the first 1940’s Magic Skin dolls were of natural rubber, with the advent of WWII restrictions they turned to synthetic rubber. This was a thin skin of rubber stuffed with cotton or other materials to provide a soft-to-the-touch life-like feel. But with time, the pinkish skin color darkened or mottled, as it did with mine. The heads were usually hard plastic or composition. The body of my Magic Skin Baby was much like this one.
My mother with my Shirley doll and me with my Topsy-Turvy doll . This was a double-ended cloth folk doll featuring a white girl and a black girl joined at the hips that I really loved but I no longer have her. One of my favorite early books was Topsy-Turvy’s Pigtails which I still have.
Near the end of World War II, I received another doll from the Raggedy book series called Beloved Belindy. I enjoyed reading the monthly magazines Children’s Playmate and Child Life, as well books about children from foreign lands. There was a feeling of relief and celebration with the end of the war and my brother coming home.
At Christmas circa 1943 I received Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls as well as books about their adventures. These were 19 in. cloth dolls and their clothes were held together in the back by small safety pins. These dolls were made at that time mainly by Georgene but there is no identification. Mine are in near mint condition.
During WWII girls my age played with dolls and visited each other’s houses when we could walk there. Use of a car was restricted because 
gasoline and tires were severely rationed.
My friend Jean’s family took in a friendly easy-going cat. When it came to choosing a name for him there was a bit of a controversy, then a compromise. They were going to call him Tom but the name finally chosen was Thomas J. Jefferson Spot Watkins-Suddath Cat. I won’t bore you with the reasoning.
Patsy was another friend, shown here with my sister when we were infants. Remarkably, when she accidentally broke all but 
two pieces of my Blue Willow tea set, we remained friends. Her family had a gold star in the window, indicating that a family member had been killed in the war.
My friend Kitty and I cut out and played with military and movie star paper dolls, easily found at the five-and-ten cent store. For clothing we all liked wearing red, white, and blue.
The only doll left to me when my sisters left home was a 4 in. HEbee-SHEbee, all bisque, made in Germany, 1925-1927. It has a label on its foot with the name of the famous artist/illustrator, Charles Twelvetree. The chubby-cheeked doll is reminiscent of his work. I added the bow.
As a child I received early Madame Alexander composition dolls as gifts at Christmas or birthdays. Sometimes I had a special doll request. There was a summer shop at Rocky Neck, Gloucester, MA. It smelled of rose potpourri inside and there was a special room with dolls for sale. Mrs. Parker, the owner, handmade all the Dream Baby christening outfits. These dolls had German bisque heads with sleep eyes, celluloid hands, and stuffed cloth bodies. The heads are marked AM (i.e. Armand Marseille) Germany. These heads were made from 1926 to 1930+. I chose one of the Dream Babies for my birthday when visiting the shop in July. When I came back in September for my birthday doll, I was disappointed to find that my first choice had been sold. But I soon found another that I loved just as much. Mrs. Parker’s embroidery is an inspiration.
