Antique DOLL Collector July 2015 Vol. 18, No. 6
The Complete Guide to Antique, Vintage and Collectible Dolls
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AMONG FRIENDS...THERIAULT’S PRESENTS THE WELKER COLLECTION JULY 15 IN KANSAS CITY, MO
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BLEUETTE DURING WWI by Samy Odin Bleuette becomes an all French-made doll.
July 2015 Volume 18, Number 6
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NÉNETTE & RINTINTIN: POULBOT’S CHILDREN AND LAZARSKA’S FETISHES by Dominique Pennegues Why were these good luck charms named after Poulbot’s dolls?
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A VISIT WITH CYNTHIA AND GEORGE ORGERON by Donna Kaonis This Louisiana couple run a bed and breakfast geared to doll collectors.
About The Cover Our cover doll is definitely not lacking in character! This amazing bisque doll, part of the Billie and Paige Welker Collection, will be sold by Theriault’s in Kansas City, MO on Wednesday, July 15. German and French bisque dolls, as well as rare cloth dolls, promise a well-rounded and fascinating selection for collectors. The prior day is the amazing sale of Shirley Temple memorabilia, items lovingly preserved by this iconic child star during her lifetime.
12 News 20 Auction Gallery 50 Emporium
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LOVE, SHIRLEY TEMPLE THERIAULT’S JULY 14 IN KANSAS CITY, MO
63 Mystery 69 Calendar 71 Classified
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COBURGER PUPPENMUSEUM THE 2015 TLC GRAND TOUR
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FRIVOLITIES & WHIMSICALITIES FROM CHIFFONNETTE’S TROUSSEAU
THE NORTHERN OHIO DOLL & BEAR SHOW
Reported by Gail Lemmon
by Sylvia Mac Neil 6
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THE SUNDAY DOLL by Lois Cohorst
(212) 787-7279 P.O. Box 1410 NY, NY 10023
Quality Antique Dolls by Mail Return Privilege • Layaways Member UFDC & NADDA
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1. ‘Adelina’ with her Sunday Doll - unusually sweet 27” all original 1850’s Papier Mache young lady, no craze or repaint! Orig. cloth body and mint feminine clothes, all so elegant with her jewelry and laced up slippers! Plus the Milliners Model she is holding! $1495
4. 21” Glass Eyed Wigged China Fashion - Like Rohmer or Huret, this rare poupée style china is all about fashion with her lady like high cheek bones, and slender face, earliest cobalt eyes with tiny dotted lashes all around, long mint tresses, original body & silk gown, plus her UFDC Blue Ribbon! That special! $4000
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3. 27” Closed Mouth Bebe Jumeau - high style grandeur abounds in the gorgeous 1880’s model with finest quality bisque, glowing paperweight eyes, truly invisible hidden flaw, mint french human hair corkscrew curls, orig. body & coil, stunning chapeau to crown her glory. Magnificent! If you only want one this is it! All just $3500
matrixbymail@gmail.com
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2. Rare Lambert ‘Negre Frappeur’ from the prestigious and award winning line of Leopold Lambert’s ‘Jouet Automatique’ comes this important ‘attention getting’ automaton... still All Original in a spectacular blend of the elegant and the exotic! With his Exuberant Ethnic Modelling, monsieur Le Frappeur sports with incredible panache his brilliant formal attire very possibly designed and executed by Lambert’s own wife Eugenie Maria Bourgeois. A commanding figure,now he can be the attention getter of all your Bebes! 28” overall and fantastic! $7500
5. Factory Perfect Mint 16” Jules Steiner - has it all! Closed Mouth with huge blue paperweight eyes, shaded lids, rose petal perfect bisque with dewey sheen, mint & signed stiff wrist body with Factory Chemise, wig, earrings & shoes beneath her high style couture. What an elegant confection for only $4200
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6. Rare Kestner All Bisques - both at once!! 5.5” and 7” long, sleep eyes, original wigs & clothes, even signed bodies! The smaller one has a torso reglue under the clothes. Super rare! $1200, larger one $1800. 7
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7. Extremely Rare ‘Solid Crown ‘J.D.K. Asian Baby - Museum class 16” rarity, all mint with the signed amber tint original Kestner body, probably original clothes too, exquisite modeling features the rare molded hair with articulated comb marks and brush stroke bangs and tender blushed cheeks! Jewel of the Orient $7500
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8. All original 9.5” Kestner Gibson with Wardrobe Unpacked after 25 years in storage, this all original trousseau doll with plaster pate & wig has 4 extra outfits, fancy cream organza, pale blue linen seaside, black satin formal, 2-tone day dress & chenille jacket,plus 3 hats all in original trunk! True Edwardiania at its best! $2500
Among Friends...Theriault’s presents the
A dainty 12” bebe by Leon Casimir Bru with two faces is offered, as is the rare two-faced Bru poupee and other rare two-faced character models.
The Father of Our Country was perfectly captured by Martha Chase in this distinguished 25” portrait doll, with original costume.
An entrancing 17” brown-eyed French bebe by Halopeau is among the dolls at the “Among Friends” Theriault auction. 22
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The multi-facets of character are captured in the 21” multi-head character doll from Leon Casimir Bru, a very rare model.
Welker Collection July 15 in Kansas City, MO
5. The enigmatic beauty of Jumeau’s portrait bebes is ever entrancing, especially in a 21” size.
No other examples are known to exist of this hollow-leather-bodied bebe by Clement of France.
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mong Friends…an auction title aptly chosen for Theriault’s annual July auction. And apt, too, for the presentation of The Billie and Paige Welker Collection of Rare Antique Dolls for it was at annual UFDC conventions that many of their dolls won the coveted blue ribbon awards they still bear today. And apt, also, for a notice of these dolls to appear in this magazine, where, in past years some have appeared as cover girls and feature dolls. The gracious Southern couple, Billie and Paige Welker, collected dolls for many years, with a particular love for American folk dolls from their own Southern roots such as the cloth dolls made by Maggie and Bessie Pfohl in the Moravian community of Salem, North Carolina, the distinctive black sculpted paper mache dolls of Leo Moss, of which their collection owns wonderful rare examples, and Ella Smith’s Alabama Baby. The interest in regional folk art led them further afoot, too, as their collection includes a superb ringlet-curled Izannah
Leo Moss tearful character with superb sculpting and finish, 24”. Standing haughtily at 22”, the character expression of the rare doll is perfectly exemplified. ANTIQUE DOLL COLLECTOR
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Nénette & Rintintin: Poulbot’s Children and Lazarska’s Fetishes by Dominique Pennegues
Front cover French magazine “La Baionnette” July 1918. Illustration by Francisque Poulbot showing three children playing with their Rintintin, Nénette and Petit Lardon (baby) as woolen puppets. The title says “Nénette et Rintintin ou les fetiches” (Nénette and Rintintin or the fetishes).
Nénette and Rintintin bisque dolls produced by SFBJ for Christmas 1913. “Rintintin et Nénette Nouveauté artistique. Bébés humoristiques modelés par Poulbot.” 36 cm. Note: the dolls could be bought separately or sold together as a couple in a box.
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Back cover “La Baïonnette.” Illustration by Georges Delaw showing Nénette and Rintintin as yarn dolls, dancing together and singing “Flocons de laine!… Pirouette!… Pichnette!… Fétiches de Paris, pour narguer le Gotha, Vous qui faîtes la nique à la Super Bertha, Nénette et Rintinti!... Rintintin et Nénette!... Fils d’un bon humoriste et d’une midinette, Vous êtes notre esprit un courage léger… Notre âme qui se cambre à l’heure du danger… Le rire qui fleurit à notre Baïonnette!“ (summary: Nénette and Rintintin as rag dolls, dancing and singing a song to their glory as good luck fetishes.) 28
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énette and Rintintin are the names that the French illustrator Francisque Poulbot gave to two “artist dolls” produced by SFBJ in 1913 under the mold number 239, in one size of 36 cm (approximately 14 inches). Those humorous bisque dolls were first introduced for Christmas 1913 but do not seem to have met with much success – their prices were high and their flat faces with tiny eyes did not attract young children. Production was soon stopped after WWI started in August 1914. The girl’s name was “Nénette” and the boy’s “Rintintin”, even though Francisque Poulbot in his 1918 booklet “Encore des gosses” (More Kids) presents the girl as Rintintin and the boy as Nénette, the nicknames used by him and his wife. In 1918, during the night of the 30/31st January, for the first time since WWI began, new German bombers “Gotha” dropped many shells on Paris, so that in a half an hour 259 civilians were killed. Furthermore, on the 23rd of March, a large German cannon, nicknamed “Grosse Bertha” (big Bertha), installed 120 km from Paris, fired at 42 meters above sea level, killing Parisian civilians, women and children. The bombing of the city continued until the 16th of September. The bombing demoralized the Parisian population, as it was no longer only soldiers who were in danger, but entire families, with fathers on the front and the rest of the family suffering German bombing. During those terrible months, Parisians took refuge in basements and prayed for survival. It was during this period that Parisian women began to make Nénette and Rintintin as good luck woolen dolls (fetishes), to pass
time during the long alerts. They were offered to their loved ones as protection from being injured or killed. The oldest documentation I have found about those good luck yarn dolls is a small article dated from May 22, 1918 from an unknown author. From this article, we know that Nénette and Rintintin Fetishes already existed in May, and had become the rage at the time. It also mentioned that the good luck charms were made of wool by Parisian midinettes (seamstresses), but could also be found in silver or even gold, ornamented with precious stones. However, the author was warning his female readers: Madame, do not buy the metal charms because only those handmade woolen Nénette and Rintintin dolls can ward off bad luck. The author also told an interesting story about the little woolen couple and the baby, explaining that the names they were given were in fact those of some little children who came from the devastated north of France at the beginning of the war. But he does not say from whom he had received this explanation, and we remain perplexed about the real origin of those yarn dolls and their nicknames.
Postal card from 1918 showing Nénette, Rintintin and baby Dadou (also named Petit Lardon). “Fetiche Porte Bonheur. Avec eux plus de danger, Vous voilà en sûreté, Vous ne craindrez plus rien, Avec Nénette et Rintintin. “ Les anti Bertha Gothiques.” Nota : coucher avec eux 9 jours et les envoyer à la personne à protéger. (summary: you no longer fear anything with Nénette and Rintintin. Sleep with them nine days and send them to the person to be protected).
Postal card representing Nénette, Rintintin and baby Radadou, sent on the 10th of September, 1918 to a French aviator by his young niece. She is asking her uncle to take the good luck card with him when he gets into his plane to fly.
Photo of soldier with his good luck yarn couple, from “Popular Mechanics Magazine”, Volume 30 from 1918. Above, vintage photo of Nénette and Rintintin published in a 1918 Belgium newspaper. Photos published by foreign press show the international renown of the woolen fetishes during WWI.
“Waltz Mascotte” to the glory of Nénette and Rintintin by A. Joly. 1918. ANTIQUE DOLL COLLECTOR
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hen a couple share their passion for collecting it is a sure fire recipe for a happy and fulfilling life together. Cynthia and George Orgeron, high school sweethearts, married nearly fifty years ago, are a testament to this philosophy. Residents of Ponchatoula, Louisiana they have spent their entire lives in this wondrous state, home of the Mardi Gras, Cajuns and in this writer’s opinion, the best food in the country. Cynthia was a young mother when she used her sewing skills to dress hard plastic dolls as a fundraiser for her Catholic Church. At the suggestion of a friend, she brought nineteen of her dressed dolls to the French Quarter and quickly sold seventeen. Already collecting inexpensive dolls intended for her daughter, as her interest grew and after joining a doll club, she soon became hooked, her focus shifting from her daughter to her own personal tastes. Learning of an antique doll being offered for sale in an exclusive gated area of the garden district, she and George visited the owner, only to discover that she was taking bids for the doll and had received an offer for $100. Raising three young children there was little money for such luxuries and they left broken-hearted. “Knowing how much I wanted the doll, a Simon Halbig
A Visit with Cynthia and George Orgeron by Donna Kaonis
shoulder head, George said he could cash a $50 savings bond. I called the seller and told her how badly I wanted the doll and that we could raise $50. A kind woman, she was delighted, saying if I wanted it that badly it was ours.” Thirty-four years ago, they moved from New Orleans to Ponchatoula and bought a rambling 1904 Victorian-style house with a large wrap around porch, an idyllic setting for relaxing on a summer’s Above: A magnificent portrait wooden, 16th century, with carton moulé clothing overlaid with paper and silk. Her skirt is hinged and opens. Left: 18th century Creche figure dressed as a 19th century young woman on the day she received her orders. She holds a glass-eyed wax infant Jesus doll. The ivory scepter may have been an actual souvenir of a young woman’s right of passage as the holy picture decoration is signed on the back: Sister Mary Joseph, born 1810 to Don Miguel Hernandez & Anna Ditciaro. Received her orders; united with Jesus 1830 36
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Vargas Wax dolls. Vargas was an itinerate artist that migrated from Mexico into the United States. He settled in New Orleans for a while then traveled to New York where he gained acclaim for his wax figures. At that time his artistry resembled Neapolitan Creche figures. He later returned to New Orleans where he and his family began making souvenir type dolls such as these. Some of his family settled in New Mexico, where they made similar Mexican figures.
Queen Ann, all original. An ornament at her waist opens to reveal a tiny bird or chicken carved of ivory or bone.
evening. After renovating, they opened a bed and breakfast which caters to doll collectors! In the front, a shop is open by appointment, but for those who come to stay at “La Maison Verte” they get the full treatment… the couple’s amazing collection can be enjoyed at leisure. Cynthia tailors three-day or longer stays for doll collectors with visits to the Cajun country including one of the most extensive and finest presepio collections on exhibit at St. John’s Cathedral in Lafayette, the Rural Life Museum in Baton Rouge, which houses what must surely be the world’s largest collection of Vargas figures, the Beauregard-Keyes house in New Orleans, once home to Confederate General Pierre Beauregard and later the popular writer Frances Parkinson Keyes. Restored to its Victorian grandeur, tours include the garden and an important antique doll collection. Coming to their central LA location, many visitors naturally have special requests, some want to see the damage that Katrina left behind which still visible on the south side of Lake Pontchartrain where many people left their homes uninhabitable and moved away; others want to visit the many wonderful antique shops in the area, or
Hilda by Kestner, sitting in a place of pride in the couple’s bedroom.
George’s favorite doll, at least for now, is this lovely Kestner made for the French market. ANTIQUE DOLL COLLECTOR
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