All posts by Nancy

The Tea Party

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

doll’s tea set

1964 GI Joe

1964 GI Joe

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

1964 GI Joe

1940s Magic Skin Baby

Magic Skin BabyMy 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.

Topsy Turvy Doll

compositeTopsyTurvy

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.

Raggedy Ann and Andy

Raggedy Ann and Andy

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.

War World II Paper Dolls

World War II Paper Dolls

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 Friend, Nancy, Catgasoline 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 Muriel, Nancy, Patsytwo 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.

dream babies doll

Dream Babies Doll

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.

Dream Babies Doll