Antique DOLL Collector would like to thank Ladenburger Spielzeugauktion for sponsoring this special complimentary digital edition. Please download this edition and be sure to review the catalogs for their Autumn Auction, October 10-11 on the Ladenburger website! https://spielzeugauktion.de
Fortune Teller Dolls
Japanese Dolls in Children’s Books
Boxed Paper Doll Sets by Samy Odin
UFDC Sales Room ...and a pattern
Saturday, OctOber 25th, 2025, 10 aM
dOOrS Open at 8:30 aM, Live & OnLine auctiOn
PREVIEW DATES:
Sunday, October 19TH from Noon — 4 PM
Friday, October 24TH from Noon — 5 PM
Featuring a large collection of desirable dolls & accessories. Featured dolls are: Paper Mache, Steiff, Bisque, China, Wooden, Cloth Composition, Hard Plastic & B.J.D.
Makers include: Greiner, Jumeau, Steiner, Kestner, Simon & Halbig, Käthe Kruse, R. John Wright, Madame Alexander, Ideal & others.
Please check online for catalog listing & photos of each lot!
The auction will be a simultaneous live in-person auction with a professional auctioneer as well as an online auction at LiveAuctioneers.com.
Buyer’s Premium: in-house only, 18%, Online bidding, 23%
6.5” Geobel Googlie w/ molded red bow, sweet face, 5 piece compo body $345.
3.5” 1930’s Wooden Mickey & Minnie Mouse, great characters $99.95
12” German 2/0 Beautiful black girl w/ original wig, unders, shoes & socks, black pupiless eyes, antique clothing, stiff wrist BJ body, pierced ears $395.
$825.
18.5” All original Walt Disney Donald Duck Chief w/ Arrows by Cresba of Florence, Italy, fabulous high coloring, slight soiling $1995.
9” Disney 1940 – 50’s Jiminy Cricket All original w/ umbrella, foot label –Fabrica De Munecos De Pano “Iguazu” Industria Argentina, felt, velvet & oil cloth, great condition $250.
18” Kestner Daisy From Ladies Home Journal in 1911, blue sl eyes, appears all original w/ mohair wig, fabulous clothing, head marked C ½ / Made in Germany / 7 ½ / 171 / 10, Germany 1 ½ stamped on torso, beautiful body $1450.
umbrella & trunk 12 x 7x8 $1150.
12” Toddler K * R 116 A, brown sl eyes, mohair wig, sweet face $45. 5” Steiff Cockie w/ cute face, jointed head $45.
14” Alice by Beatrice Perini of Venice Italy, #8/50, All porcelain, blue glass eyes, HH wig $495.
RJ Wright pieces w/ boxes and tag on items: 8” Raggedy & Andy Forever Friends, great looking set, but some damage on his hat & foot, her legs, box & COA $250. 9” Toodles Bear – tan alpaca, 227/500, beautiful bear, Scouts box $295. 9” LOO Bear – beige Alpaca 333/500, sweet face $350.
13” German Milliners Model w/ snood all original in commercial clothing – pink dress w/blue trim, beautiful condition – has lived in a box, leather body & wooden limbs, Note reads: This doll belonged to Nancy Tom, sister of Frank Tom. She was born c 1862 near Exeter, Ontario Canada $595.
15” Effanbee Black Bubbles all original w/ Effanbee button & Bubbles label on dress - soiled & fragile, brown tin eyes, shoes as is $295. 14.5” Black hard plastic German brown flirty eyed character girl, original wig, rub on nose $245.
19” CM Kestner D 169 8, bl sl eyes, blond mohair wig, beautiful body $1250.
13.5x7x3.25” base, Wonderful All Original wind up Automation w/ 9.5” S &H ? Clown & Donkey (11” L, 6.5” H) that rings the bell when the clown cranks his tail, music plays, great face $995.
Jessica McCutchen Raleigh Dolls c 1916 18” Toddler Raleigh Dolls w/ beautiful molding & painting, blue eyes, O/C mouth w/ teeth, molded hair w/ barrette, some crazing. Lt brown hair – some hair paint wear & split on back of head $450. Dark brown hair – may have had some paint touch up $450.
15.5” German painted bisque baby w/ brown painted eyes, great detailed molded hair, compo body $175. 17.5” German 1920’s Koenig & Wernicke 134 12/0 Toddler w/ flirty eyes, painted bisque, orig wig, sweet expression $275.
13.5” 1915 Charlie Chaplin – World’s Greatest Comedian by Amberg, all original w/ tag on coat sleeve, great personality clothes worn $295.
21” All original German ? 1930’s Flirty eyed Treasure, molded carton head ( pasteboard) $225. 18” Black German Hard Plastic character girl w/ brown flirty eyes, original wig, sweet face $325.
26” S & H 1009 S13H, blue sl eyes, high forehead, beautiful molding & painting $495. 5.25” All original German doll house chauffeur w/ mustache $95.
1. 17” Cruchet fashion with very rare head, almost Bru-like. Fully articulated leather-covered wood body w/ “baggy pants”, bisque lower arms, such as the dolls sold in the Paris Terenne Store. Costume, wig, undergarments, shoes, all antique (one hand repaired). $8,950.
2. 17” Extremely rare Kathe Kruse special cloth model made in coordination w/ the Kammer and Reinhardt factory, in the style of the 101 “Peter” mold. Very special, jointed cloth body and orig. 3-pc. outfit. $4,800.
3. 13” Highly unusual wooden head doll w/ cloth body and wooden arms, classical carving of face, and deeply carved side-ringlet hairdo, with pierced ears and earrings. So special. (fine crazing on the face) $1,995.
Exhibiting: October 5 - Ohio National Doll Show, Newark OH, Cherry Valley Hotel Exhibition Hall
October 25 - Arcadia Doll Market, Arcadia CA, Arcadia Masonic Lodge Hall (Halloween Theme!)
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Spectacular E12J Depose Bébé on eight-ball Jumeau body, pristine bisque and beautiful blue eyes fringed w/ sweeping lashes. Glorious in princess-blue satin w/ classic Ernestine Jumeau touches. A satin chapeau crowns her glorious blonde curls. Bébé’s applied ears are decorated w/ beautiful turquoise earrings & Bébé Jumeau shoes complete her toilette. $13,500
Steiner Bébés -
Left: Phenix Star Bébé is gorgeous and hard to find in this petite cabinet 12” size. Superb antique coral silk costume with matching bonnet, gorgeous bisque. Marked *84. Straight wrists. Excellent. $4400; Right: Adorable 12.5” Mariner styled Steiner Bébé with huge blue enamel eyes and full peachy lips. Excellent bisque marked “Le Petite Parisian”. Straight wrists. Perfect cabinet size! $3400
Earliest Portrait Jumeau and Little Steiner Bébé - Right: Sensational First Series 16” Portrait Jumeau on early ball jointed body with huge dark amber spiral threaded eyes and stellar presence. Clothed in scarlet silk with a coordinated feathered chapeau over a softly curled antique wig, this doll is certain to bring the spotlight to your cabinet. $8,450; Left: Schmitt Bébé with gorgeous features and luminous eyes. Beautiful from head to toe, on marked Schmitt body. Invisible repair offers fabulous opportunity! Please reach out for additional details. $4,800
Rabery & Delphieu and Petite Block Letter FG 3/0 - Right: Captivating 13” Bébé by FG w/ early wide-cut spiral threaded blue eyes on early wood & composition body. Charming dress and matching bonnet. Tender look. Excellent. $5950; Left: Darling 16” RD Bébé in lovely condition. Early antique crème lace frock laced with pale coral silk ribbons, antique leather shoes and charming wire brimmed bonnet. $4600
Rare Fig A, open-closed mouth Steiner - As featured in Dorothy McGonagle’s book “The Dolls of Jules, Nicholas Steiner”. This beautiful 14” Bébé is in section 4 of the book under Rarities, Novelties and Mysteries. Incised A 7 and stamped “Le Parisien/SGDG. Coffee-toned bisque lady of the West Indies w/ unusual open-closed mouth and modeled teeth, detailed on color plate 61 and illustrations 131/132. Printed 1988. The doll is in exactly the same costume and condition. Superb. Accompanied by Dorothy‘s signed book. $4650
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
Dear Readers,
Author Margery Williams Bianco wrote numerous children’s books. Her most famous one was The Velveteen Rabbit which she wrote in 1922. In 1925 Margery wrote Poor Cecco and The Little Wooden Doll—both are charming stories where the protagonists are dolls. Margery’s daughter, Pamela Bianco illustrated the latter. Pamela, a gifted artist, also wrote and illustrated a book of her own called The Doll in the Window in 1953. I have always felt that children’s books, especially doll story books, can enhance one’s doll collection. And the stories and the artfully rendered illustrations can truly be soul enriching.
This month we offer an article by Judy Shoaf which focuses on Japanese dolls in children’s literature. Judy is scheduled to present a zoom program later in October on “The Japanese Doll on the Western Toy Shelf, 1854-1927.” (Refer to www.ufdc.org/calendar/)
Our cover story, penned by Nicki Burley, draws us into autumn and Halloween with the history of fortune teller dolls accompanied by a special pattern.
Samy Odin shares a selection of colorful paper dolls in boxes from his personal collection, and our coverage of this past summer’s UFDC convention continues with more to follow
“Once you are real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always.”
Enjoy the cooler days ahead,
Laurie McGill Editor-in-Chief
LADIES OF FATE by
Nicki Burley
by
Judy Shoaf
A 17-inch porcelain shoulderhead with kid upper torso and arms The cylinder shaped bottom torso encircles by folded leaves of paper upon each being inscribed a different French fortune or omen. Circa 1850, the doll was known as poupée a bonne aventure Original silk gown decorated with black velvet mystical symbols such as owl, stars, hour glass, moon sliver, and snake. Photo courtesy of Theriaults.
Quality Antique Dolls by Mail
Return Privilege • Layaways
Member UFDC & NADDA (212)787-7279 P.O. Box 1410
1) Huge 35” 1907 Jumeau Bebe - mint 20” cir. Head! bl. eyes, Mint Wig, Original Chunky Body & period clothes. Luscious and large $1895
2) 5” Masked Bathing Beauty - Wigged w Grey Stockings & Heels & playing her Lute. So sensuous! Mint & Signed! $1200
4) 5.5” All Bisque Flapper Flirt - Deco slender limb character w rare Yellow High Knee Stockings! Orig. Wig/Dress. $550; 7.5” Kestner Pier Mirror - mint w mirror! $175
5) Sumptuous 27” Gautier Bebe - ‘Block Letter’ face, o.m., Blue PWs & Shaded Lids, top quality w hidden flaw and only $1295
6) Boutique Pair: 13” Deco Art Doll - All Orig. drama, a Silk Velvet & Gold Braided luxury Fop. See #8
7) Very Rare 15” SFBJ ‘257’ Pierrot - Important high Deco French Carton Art Doll novelty never seen in books! In his Orig. Costume. Half price at $750
8) Rare 12” Companion Fop - serenading his love on his porcelain Lute. These very dolls seen in Coleman’s Vol. ll $1495
9) Scarce 24” Pintel et Godchaux Bebe - Big Blue PWs, tiny o.m., creamy bisque& Shaded Lids, orig body, pretty dropwaist Framboise Chemise, Invis. flaw & only $1100
10) Important Celebrity Josephine Baker (att) - A very rare 20” biscaloid portrait caricature of the famed cabaret performer. $750
11) Rare Ron Krohn ‘Gertrude Lawrence’ - one of the rarest of his celebrity dolls in Orig Clothes, ‘Cigarette’ & Earrings! A 24” sgnd. high style flapper of movie fame. $1495
12) Scarce 23” Black August Moeller Flirty - Gl. eyes, Orig Wig/Body. Special $550; MIB 12” Steiff Alfonzo Bearcomplete with I.D., Box & all literature. $395
13) 9” Authentic 1830’s English Peddler Doll - Charles White of Portsmouth, w. complete tray of only and all the intriguing Orig. Wares! No add-ins! $750
14) All Orig. 1840’s Male - brilliant 11” mint Kinderkoph. Leather body, porcelain arms, Leather Shoes. $850; Rare 9” KPM ‘Victoria’ - exposed Ears, Brown Hair, Pink Tint, mended plate, orig. porc. limbs/ clothes, in rare mini size. Just $1595
3) French Red Satin 7-piece Parlour – w Foot Stool. Mint! $595; 7” All Orig. Wigged Lady tin Folding Fan & Gold Slippers! plus Blond All Orig. Man in Brown Suit. Pair $425
15) 21” Kestner ‘171’ Daisy Model - bl sl. eyes, long Blond HH Tresses, mint Sgnd. Body, $375 16) 24” Halbig Flirty w Orig. Lashes - a flawless sly-eye beauty, active eyes & beautiful Antique Lace Dress & Wig! $750
17) Unusual ‘D&A’ Child - Sweet jtd. Mystery Maker,big eyes, Factory Wig/Clothes! $350
18) 24” Important FS & Co ‘1267’ - a very Rare Painted Eye Character w op/clo Crooked Smiling Mouth, dimples & High Knee Toddler body! Not $2100 just $895
19) All Orig. 15” Pre-1900 Handwerck ’79’ - perfect Heirloom jtd. doll in many fine Layers of Lace Finery w Factory Curls Mint. Just $375
20) Scarce 20” Kestner ‘161’ - special face, great bisque, jtd. bjb, plus fine old ensemble. $650
21) 34” Life Size 1899 ‘Tete Jumeau’ -18” cir. head! Red Stamp Tete by SFBJ (making flaw), bl. sl. eyes w. lashes, chunky body (some paint loss) lovely clothes. Only $695!
24) Choice 16” Hilda Baby - Mint & orig. Kestner Body, Pate & his very special Caracul Wig. All of it is so lovely. $1395
25) Dramatic 30” Kestner Letter Series - mint bisque,turned head, perfect gorgeous arms, great wig, and she sits too! $250
26) Cunning 16” KR ‘117n’ Flirty - w the Naughty Eye mechanism as well! Mohair Wig, Orig. Body & pert, period clothes! $895
27) Adorable19” KR ‘127’ Tyke - molded hair character, fully Brush Marked Hair & jtd. body! Cutest Gaberdine Suit! $495
28) Picture Perfect 17” Gaultier Bebe - shelf size Jeune Fille, perfect bisque, jewel blue PWs, tender o.m. orig. Fr. Wig & Body. $1250
29) 24” Kestner ‘214’ Charactermint satin bisque, bl. set eyes, long cheeks, lovely period clothes & wig. Only $395
30) 21” Kestner ‘143’ Fauntleroymint bisque, bl sl. eyes, Kestner pate/wig, darling Edwardian Short Suit. A love. $795
22) Stunning 24” Closed Mouth KR ‘192’ - mint Schmidt-Type Stiff Wrist Body, harmless making flaw, lustrous early bisque, Pre-1900 prize! Not $2500, just $950
23) 27” Mint Schusetzmeister & Quendt - a beautiful 1890 unusual maker, flawless bisque, French brows, Schmidt body! Just $575
31) Choice 13” JDK ‘243’ Asian - Unusual size, lovely quality, tiny rear flaw, Factory Body, Wig & Sleep Eyes. Plus, period silks. Just $1250
32) Sublime 19” Closed Mouth Belton - snow pure 1880’s flawless ‘Moon Face’, feathered brows, skin wig, rich brn PWs, great Stiff Wrist Body plus very fine Period Clothes & Shoes! $2200
33) Piquant 13” Belton Childmint like her mommy! Tender perfect bisque, fine extended brows over br PWs, mohair wig, all wrapped in Raspberry Silk w. Butterfly Bonnet. A Bon-Bon. $1495
34) Closed Mouth 14” Cabinet Tete Jumeau Bebe - fully signed, orig. body, threaded Blue PWs, Buttoned Underset, Silk Dress & Leather Shoes. La Parfait! $3250
35) Luxury Fringed Pink Silk 6-Piece Parlor - settee, 2-armchairs etc. pillows & Marble
Top Table too! Deluxe. $895; 7” DH LadyOrig. Wig & Gown w. Train. $285
38) 35” Life Size Jumeaulovely quality bisque! (See #1) 16” Closed Mouth Bebe Steiner for Au Nain Bleu- cabinet Mint in Aqua Silk and Mohair tresses. $2500
37) Rare 6.5” Sophia Smith China - leather body/wood limbs, period clothes, tiny necklace & great hang curls. Rare china & rare size! $895; 6” Brown Hair Fancy Parian - molded bun/bow, orig. body, w flat sole shoes & Orig. Clothes. $550
36) Elusive 12” Glass Eye Kestner ‘206’ Closed Mouth - a rarely seen luxury Cabinet Gem! Factory Wig/Pate & delicate fine Original Clothes. A mint & special Sweetheart. Not $10,000 just $5200
39) Eiffel Tower mark 23” ‘Paris Bebe’ - Danel 1889 periodHuge Bl. PWs, exquisite quality artwork in creamy satin bisque, Cork Pate/Wig, vintage Mariner Dress & Shoes, Plus her own 8.5” Mariner Belton Child! Just $3800 for the family!
Advanced collectors are especially drawn to paper dolls in a boxed set format. This style of plaything was produced from the very beginning of the nineteenth century onward. Among the myriads of paper dolls of this type, those printed in Europe during the nineteenth century are among the most valuable, for they are scarce and rarely do they appear in their complete form. Several examples from the Odin collection have already been shown in prior issues of this column. This month I will share some unpublished ones from the Second Empire (1850s and 1860s).
“The Little Parisienne” set dates from the early 1850s and represents two 6-inch teenagers with the same body shape yet different heads, a blonde and a brunette. They share a varied wardrobe reflecting the style appropriate for 12–14-year-old well-off girls. It was printed front and back in Germany for an international distribution, in fact the lid of the box bears inscriptions in German, French, Italian and English. Each garment exists in two variants, based on the same design but with different colors. The thirteenth piece of apparel (lower right in the photo) is unique but looks to be printed on a different type of paper. It could be an addition in the right format but possibly belonging to a different doll, which I have not yet identified. (Photo 1)
“The Little Fashionable Lady” is another boxed set from the 1850s that includes two 4½-inch slender adult figures, again a blonde and a brunette, with similar body shapes and different faces. They also share a sixteen-piece wardrobe together with two wooden bases to keep them standing. Both dolls and garments are printed front and back and have retained vivid colors even though they look gently played with. Their box is written in English, French and German and possibly printed in Germany. The style of the wardrobe is quite “posh,” featuring ball gowns, afternoon ensembles, elegant evening coats, classy interior dresses, and fancy hats, reflective of the way upper classes dressed during the mid-nineteenth century. (Photo 2)
Another set from the mid-1850s represents a 5-inch young lady, possibly French, contained in a box with no inscription; the lid is decorated with a print representing a lady sitting at a desk writing a letter. The time frame evoked on the lid looks older than the content of the box, but the ensemble seems original. The garments include simple interior pieces of apparel up to a ball gown and a very elegant wedding ensemble. It also includes pieces for Spring, Summer, and Winter. Alas, no headwear from this set has survived. (Photo 3)
This other small 3½-inch paper doll comes in a box with no inscription. I believe it to be French. It is quite rare to find nineteenth century dolls represented in the nude. The young daring lady represented is gracefully showing off her charms and is surrounded by a luxury wardrobe featuring one piece of underwear, thirteen dresses, one cape and one headwear. I have seen another doll with portions of the same wardrobe, but it is printed with underwear on, so I assume it came in two variants, but I ignore how many pieces were included in each set. Printed back and front, following a high-quality lithography technique, with splendid chromatic details, this paper doll also owns its wooden base. (Photos 4, 4a)
This very elegant 8-inch paper doll was printed in Paris by Brisse et Cie, a lithographer who also printed the
famous Psyché doll. It came as a boxed set with a richly decorated lid bearing one of the fashion lithographs edited, also in Paris, by Delagrave, for the magazine “Modes Vraies–Travail en Famille- Musée des Familles.” Did this magazine, competitor to “La Toilette de Psyché” distribute paper doll sets such as this one? In the issues of this magazine that I studied, I could not find the least mention to a paper doll. The quality of the prints in this set is amazing. The 11-inch figure is very gracious, delicately colored, with vibrant details and preserved in excellent condition. The wardrobe includes six dresses and two pieces of headgear, as well as a round wooden base. Interestingly, a couple of dresses are drawn including pieces of furniture, which is unusual. They clearly appear when looking at the back of the garments. Paper dolls of this importance are a solid source of inspiration for collectors of our days focused on threedimensional dolls, for their wardrobe, clearly shown front
and back, can lead talented seamstresses in re-creating similar outfits for their fashion dolls. (Photos 5, 5a, 5b)
The last paper doll I selected for this column is the most recent and dates from the very end of the 1860s. This 7½-inch beauty has the characteristics of a French production and is contained in a box decorated with a nice lithograph from the same time frame as the paper doll. This figure looks more roughly played with, as the frail neck joint shows, but it is surrounded by a quality wardrobe including six costumes, printed front and back, with matching headgear. This is such an ideal piece to compare to a threedimensional fashion doll of the same era. Bridges…doll collecting gets more exciting when we enjoy making connections between the objects based on a good knowledge of their history, isn’t it? (Photo 6)
All the paper dolls shown here are featured in the author’s collection.
Samy Odin can be reached at galeriesamyodin@gmail.com.
Mary Ann Spinelli Burbank, CA
Cell: 818-738-4591 Tel: 818-562-7839
nellingdolls@gmail.com www.maspinelli.com
Valerie Fogel’s Beautiful Bebes
Selections
Our coverage of the United Federation of Doll Club’s 76th Annual Convention, Dolls and All That Jazz, continues with the Sales Room. Seventy dealers presented their antique, vintage and modern dolls, dollhouses, accessories, costuming supplies, books and all sorts of other doll related items in a beautiful and friendly atmosphere. Congratulations and appreciation to the Sales Room Co-Chairs, Gail Lemmon and Karla Moreland, and to all the dealers who participated.
More Norfolk photos continued on page 45
The Norfolk Doll Dreamer’s Market and more will be featured in our November issue.
By Nicki Burley
Contrary to its reputation for dour conventionality, the nineteenth century was a vibrant and fast-paced era full of change and uncertainty. It was an age of growing cities and empires, factories and fortunes, abuses and reforms. There were a host of new inventions and philosophies, but people’s inner lives did not really change. They loved, lost, and longed to know what the future held, just as they always had.
A surprising number of men and women attended seances, whether for a thrill or the real hope of connecting with the dearly departed; at these events, spirits were thought to communicate by knocking on a table or moving objects in the room. Far more acceptable and lighthearted, however, were the “Gypsy” booths at fairs and carnivals, where for a few pennies, your future was told with a crystal ball, palmistry, or tea leaves. At home, ladies dabbled in this kind of fortune telling with friends over tea, or as a way to raise funds for a favorite cause.
Elaborately costumed bisque doll by Jumeau, circa 1880, completely dressed including a red silk petticoat beneath the paper skirt. She wears a fashionable velvet jacket with beaded sleeves and carries a red silk flag. Courtesy Theriaults.
Tuck comb wooden doll from 1820-30 wearing a lavender silk striped bodice over her paper skirts; the remainder of her costume may have fallen apart. Pinterest.
China head doll with sculpted headscarf and beaded drop earrings, wearing a fancy dress “fortune teller” costume adorned with miniature playing cards. Courtesy Carmel Doll Shop.
Tiny 7-inch early Grodnertal-style peg wooden doll wearing a delightful costume of black silk, netting, paper and glued-on Dresden trim. Courtesy Theriaults.
Bisque head fashion doll circa 1880, wearing an embroidered gold velvet dress adorned with jester points, and mystical symbols such as the triangle. Courtesy Theriaults.
Divination games were considered harmless fun, acceptable even for children. Girls’ activity books such as The Girl’s Own Book by Lydia Marie Child, published in 1833 and 1847 in New York, included directions to make a “Fate Lady” toy. A tiny doll, dressed in Turkish style, stood above a paper disc illustrated with written fortunes. Girls would ask a question and spin the doll, whose wand revealed the answer when she stopped. Since copyrights were not well protected in this era, the same toy with a different illustration appeared in The Girl’s Own Toymaker and Book of Recreations by E. and A. Landell, published in London in 1860.
Most interesting for doll collectors, however, are the ephemeral, imaginative fortune teller dolls with folded paper skirts, made commercially and at home all through the century. They are comparatively rare today, as the paper skirts crumble from use and age. Both ladies and little girls must have made them, as illustrated instructions to costume a china head doll with hand-cut paper skirt leaves appeared in a German children’s activity book called Herzblattchens Zeitvertreib. Queen Victoria had a small china head fortune telling doll despite her strict upbringing, which suggests they were both popular and morally acceptable toys. Commercially made pasteboard and composition fortune telling toys continued to be sold through the 1930s, while the homemade dolls were popular at fundraising fairs, similar to peddler dolls. Truly elaborate dolls were sold in the French toy shops as luxury items.
Fate Ladies, known in French as poupée a bonne aventure , reflect the rise and fall in popularity of doll types all through the nineteenth century. In the earlier years, they were typically made from carved wooden dolls such as the pegged Grodnertal types, with or without tuck combs, or wooden dolls with china heads and limbs. These desirable little dolls may have a clenched right hand with a hole in it. Though frequently found today without clothing, they may originally have been fortune telling dolls holding a pointer or wand. Papier-mâché and china head dolls were used from the mid-century onward, while bisque dolls dominate the scene in later decades. Some dolls spun on their bases, and the pointer would indicate where to open a fortune. On others, the player simply chose a paper at random or by color.
Costuming the dolls must have been a wonderful exercise in creativity, as no two dolls are alike. Some dolls were dressed as fashionable ladies of their day, with full skirts covering a paper “petticoat;” on others, there is a short overskirt, or the papers form the entire skirt. Fate
ladies also appeared as medieval princesses, sorceresses, and gypsies; common elements like a pointed hat, long hanging sleeves, and a pointer or wand gave a sense of the Gothic fantasy novel. Costumes made use of rich materials such as velvets, silk, lace, and brocades. They were embroidered, beaded, and adorned with mystical symbols such as stars, moons, and owls.
The common element that binds them all, however, are the skirts formed of individual folded pieces of paper, each with a handwritten fortune. On some dolls, these number in the hundreds. The paper skirt leaves are generally shaped like a tear-drop, but they vary along the cut edges. To make the skirt, each leaf is folded in half lengthwise, and a fortune is written near the lower edge. That portion is folded horizontally and sometimes again diagonally. The more leaves and folds, the more the flaring skirt can support the weight of the doll without a stand.
Papers are sewn together on heavy threads through two holes along the fold, then tied onto the doll.
In her article, “What is Your Fortune, My Pretty Maid?” Betty Cadbury suggests that the cut papers for the skirts were probably cut by machine and available for sale in shops, as they are so perfectly uniform; this is especially true with dolls assembled commercially for fine toy shops. When placed on the doll, the scalloped edges look like ruffled fabric and would have been difficult to cut precisely by hand. Many surviving dolls also have skirts made with similarly colored papers. The colors may be randomly distributed around the skirt or purposely grouped together to create patterns of stripes.
The fortunes themselves were generally happy ones, with warnings and words of wisdom sprinkled in. Some are rhymes, some are proverbs, but most focus on love, happiness, and good character. One 1880 French bisque lady sold by Theriaults, however, has a sly sense of humor: “Just between us,” the fortune quips, “A man without money is like a big body without movement.” The fortunes found on an early wooden doll held by the New York Historical Society are a little more traditional: “The luck that is ordained for you will be coveted by others,” and “You need not fear, his love is sincere.”
Is there a doll in your collection that would like a new occupation? Try your hand at making a Fate Lady with the instructions included in this issue for a china head doll on a base. If you prefer not to write the fortunes by hand, download a writable PDF for the skirt leaves at www. antiquecollector.com. Simply type, print, and cut to create your doll’s skirt.
Directions for girls to make a “Fate Lady” toy with a tiny doll and a spinner, from The Girls’ Own Book by Lydia Maria Child, published in New York in 1833 and 1847. Google Books.
Illustration for the “Fate Lady” toy. The same text was published in 1860 with a different illustration in the London publication The Girls’ Own Toymaker and Book of Recreations by E. and A. Liddell. Google Books.
Sources:
“Fortune Teller Dolls” by Wendi Dunn, https:// ataleoftwohittys.com/fortune-teller-dolls/
“What is Your Fortune, My Pretty Maid?” Betty Cadbury, Doll Reader Feb/Mar 1981
“Have Your Fortune Told by a Doll!” Evelyn Radler, Doll Reader, Nov 1990
“Fortune-Teller or ‘Fate Lady’ Dolls” Margaret Whitton, Doll Reader, June/July 1980
“Fortunes Told Here” Ruth Dougherty, Doll News, Spring 1981
The Girls’ Own Book, Lydia Maria Child, Clark Austin & Co, 1833 & 1847, Google Books
Pinterest Idea Board https://www.pinterest.com/ rosewrendolls/fortune-teller-dolls/
by Judy Shoaf
TFive dolls from the author’s collection, likely dating from 1880-1920. The large boy, shown here without clothes, is the most elaborately jointed; he is likely similar to the dolls used as models by Shute, Tucker, and Mayer. Dolls like the one in the center were common early on; his kimono has ties rather than a belt (obi). The third boy doll, with painted hair, has spent time in a Japanese family, whether in the United States or in Japan; his lined and padded kimono is correctly made of Japanese fabrics. The two girl dolls are a reminder of what the Marquise Yorisaka (and perhaps Lovi-Dovi) looked like.
he idea of an artificial human image that comes alive is an old one and is of course even more on our minds in the age of AI and robots. In the early nineteenth century, when children might acquire both a collection of anthropomorphic toys (dolls, tin soldiers, mechanical dolls, and stuffed animals) and storybooks, the literary idea of a society of live dolls, interacting with
each other behind the owner’s back, began to develop. E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Nutcracker and Mouse King (1816) depicts a great battle between mice and the united toys, including dolls, led by the Nutcracker; Hans Anderson’s “Steadfast Tin Soldier” (1838) tells of a one-legged toy soldier who falls in love with a paper ballerina doll, and their sad but united fate.
The storybooks featuring Japanese dolls discussed in this article.
In the late nineteenth century, the development of colorful picture books meant to delight children coincided with the arrival in the West of a variety of Japanese dolls: cheap and colorful, appealing to draw, instantly recognizable, probably gendered boys.1 The basic Japanese doll of the 1880s and 1890s had a tonsure hairstyle, with a blob of plaster on top of the head (colored blue to indicate it represented a patch of shaved scalp) holding a fringe of hair
Charles Dater Weldon (1834-1935) probably painted the work on which this engraving is based around 1883, when he produced the large painting “In Dreamland,” showing Japanese dolls and the same blonde doll.
in place.2 Girl dolls appeared later, usually with a longer bob than the boys, topped with a bun of hair that might have a decorative twist of cloth in it.3 English and American artists enjoyed depicting these dolls’ imagined interactions with the other nursery dolls; the pioneer here was probably the American illustrator Charles D. Weldon, who evidently had access in 1883 to a collection of dolls of this type,4 and who saw the possibilities of romance with a blonde doll.
1. See Elizabeth Ann Coleman, “When the Western World Welcomed Japanese Dolls,” Antique Doll Collector July/August 2024, 62-68. This article gives a good political, social, and economic background to the Japanese export of dolls.
2. Dolls made for the Japanese market might have more elaborate representations of a shaved head, with sideburns or other decorative bits of hair inserted in the doll’s scalp, but the cheap export dolls were not so refined.
3. Tucker, in the books under consideration, uses a small boy doll (this is evident from the plaster dome in the hair) to represent a Japanese girl, slightly altering the hairstyle; Mayer, wanting a girl doll heroine, simply presents a boy doll as gendered feminine. Gaskell and Guigambault, writing a little later, have access to Japanese girl dolls.
4. Weldon’s large 1883 painting “In Dreamland” shows a little girl asleep in the corner of a sofa while her blonde dolly stares down a parade of eight curious and kindly but also rather menacing Japanese dolls. An engraving based on this painting was made, and was included in Coleman’s article, cited above, p. 64. The picture here, “Flirtation,” seems to be a related to it; the blonde dolly is identical to the one in Dreamland, though the Japanese doll has a more baby-like proportions. Weldon himself spent about 6 years in Japan in the 1890s.
Shute, Jappie Chappie and How He Loved a Dollie. Here the lovelorn Chappie gazes at the moon. Shute exploits his limber joints for the pose.
Shute. The Chappie is introduced to the Dollie by his friend. In all the images except the moon-gazing one, Shute places the dolls in Japanese settings where they appear to be full-sized humans.
Shute. The Chappie rescues the Dollie. Even though their emotions are stirred, the dolls remain dolls (Chappie’s grasp on the parasol does not seem to affect his naturally open hand).
I want to look here at some lively books which portray Japanese dolls (male and female) as protagonists in their romantic encounters with English, American, or French dolls—or, perhaps, their preference for a fellow Japanese. As we move from the 1880s towards the First World War, we can see the dolls moving from exotic foreigners to potentially problematic immigrants.
The first of these romantic tales is in some ways the most radical. Jappie Chappie and How he Loved a Dollie, written by Edith Shute and published in 1887 by Frederick Warne,5 is set, not in a Western or any other toy room, but in Japan. There are no doll owners, no restrictions mental or physical on the dolls’ feelings and activities; the story could be told about, say, a pair of teenagers. The only evocation of a doll-sized world is the fact that the monster who seizes Dollie in one picture, though blue and horned and bat-eared, is about the size of a puppy with respect to a real doll.6
The characters consist of the Chappie, a Japanese male baby doll, and his friend Chim-pan-zee, a similar doll who is wiser in the ways of the world; the Dollie, a blonde English lady doll visiting Japan; and a monster. The protagonist falls in love at first sight with the Dollie, courts her with poetry (“Star of all Dollies, beautiful Star!”7), but is rejected by her as “slit-eyed, moon-faced, and fat!” He goes away distraught but is persuaded by his friend to take a walk to clear his mind. He sees the monster attack the Dollie and intervenes using his parasol as a club. The rescued Dollie decides he is worth her attention after all: “I’ll marry you to morrow!”
The book is written in rhyming verse, and was illustrated with (at least) nine full-page color illustrations plus back and front covers in color. The text is on intervening pages, which themselves are decorated with line drawings of the Chappie’s activities as well as birds in flight, rabbits and cranes, and “Gloomy Thoughts of Sorrow” represented by grotesque animals. The Japanese setting is conveyed through architecture and landscapes but also satirized to some extent in the Chappie’s poetic moon-gazing and verse-writing, and his friend’s politeness.
The doll-ness of the dolls is maintained in all the color illustrations, and most of the sketched vignettes: the dolls’ eyes, hair, hands and feet remind one continually that these are not children but dolls. Of course,
5. Jappie Chappie and How He Loved a Dollie by Edith L. Shute (London and New York: Frederick Warne, 1887). I have 2 copies of the book, one in a square format with 8 pages, the other a 10-page shape book in “untearable linen.” There are a total of about 10 full-page color illustrations, though each version omits one which the other one includes: A front cover (slight different on the two books) and a back cover (replaced by an advertisement for a boys’ clothier on the square book); a pair of portraits; the Chappie sees Dollie; the Chappie gazes at the moon; the Friend introduces Chappie to Dollie; Dollie rejects Chappie; three young women represent the “good fish in the sea” which the Friend suggests will help Chappie recover from his rejection (shape book only); Chappie beats the monster who holds Dollie in its jaws; Chappie and Dollie walk away, his arm around her waist; three children dance and wave a banner with a line from Chappie’s love poem on it (square book only). The full-page illustrations are cropped in the squarebook version, in one case cropping out most of Dollie herself.
6. This “monster” could represent a blue-glazed “lion-dog” or shi-shi ornament from Japan or China.
7. A parody of “Star of the Evening” by James M. Sayles (1855), which was also parodied by Lewis Carroll in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, in the “Mock Turtle’s Song” (1865).
the dolls go through many emotions—for Dollie, polite interest, alarm and anger, and fear and distress; this is expressed by her posture and, to some extent, the state of her long, loose hair. Chappie’s face lends itself well to a variety of emotions, even though his eyes and mouth remain exactly the same; seen from below, he may seem elated, while seen from above he can express disappointment or fury (when beating the monster). This is a quality of Japanese dolls in general, since the dollmaker’s art is related to that of theatrical mask-makers and puppet-head makers, where the carved, immobile face needs to be able to express a range of emotions by changing the angle.
Edith L. Shute, who wrote this book, was a friend of Charles Lutwidge Dodson, better known as Lewis Carroll; the widow of a friend, she lived in London and would invite him down to sketch hired models.8 Lewis Carroll was famous for the Alice books, and may have helped with the publication of Jappie Chappie, which was a great success and was published in various formats (I own a shape book on “untearable linen” and also a square heavy paper copy). Carroll not only endorsed the book, but he also bought multiple copies to distribute as gifts. The book’s combination of whimsical verse and charming pictures seems right in line with Carroll’s own works for children.
The immensely popular Japanese-themed hit by Gilbert and Sullivan, The Mikado, premiered in 1885, two years before the publication of Jappie Chappie. It seems likely Shute got the idea for a book about her doll from this. She echoes a line from one of the Mikado songs, telling the lovelorn Chappie that there are other “good fish in the sea” (with an illustration of three Japanese women/lady dolls, possibly echoing the play’s “Three little girls from school”). The use of a hyphenated word as the name of Chappie’s friend, Chim-pan-zee, is quite in keeping with the Mikado spirit. For an artist, the chance to try out graceful themes drawn from Japanese art could be combined with a light, absurd depiction of Japanese customs and people—or rather, dolls.
If we move ahead to 1892, we find another romance of sorts between a Japanese boy doll and a blonde Dolly, this time in an American setting: A Cup of Tea: Pictures of Doll Life, by Elizabeth S. Tucker.9 The book alternates two stories: one, printed in color and accompanied by verses, tells how Miss Doll Rosabelle de Sarty invited a Japanese “visitor” to tea, evidently as a gesture of goodwill to the foreign doll. He upsets the rickety teatable, and his hostess too, but is forgiven. This tale is told in five lovely watercolors (there is also a color frontispiece).
8. E. L. S[hute], “Lewis Carroll as Artist and Other Oxford Memories,” Cornhill Magazine (November 1932). He seems to have helped with the publication of his cousin Georgina Allen’s book, The Lost Plum-Cake, by providing a preface and five illustrations by Shute (Letter of July 17, 1896, https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5797375).
9. A Cup of Tea: Pictures from Doll Life by Elizabeth S. Tucker (New York: Worthington, 1892). Hard cover, 12 one-sided pages including frontispiece and title page. Elizabeth S. Tucker worked in illustration in the 1890s; she designed paper-dolls, one of which at least has survived in the Metropolitan Museum of Art collections (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/ collection/search/921212). Her work was published in anthologies alongside such illustration luminaries as Frances Brundage and Maud Humphrey. Of special interest are a small book, A Truly Story of My Dolls (Boston: Prang, 1895 or earlier) which includes a verse and illustration of her Japanese doll among the others, and an illustrated poem entitled “Revenge” in which the Japanese doll is favored by the owner and beaten up by the other dolls (published in Our Little Ones magazine, 1892 or 1893).
The term “Jap” was of course condescending—but, in that, appropriate for a doll, if not for a person. In A Child of Japan: Or, The Story of Yone Santo by Edward H. House (1889), a young American is urged to search his soul and comes up with this reasoning: “Now, everybody out here speaks of these people as ‘Japs,’ and so have I, like the other idiots. I wonder how I should relish hearing myself called a ‘Yank’!” Like “Yank,” the term “Jap” could be dismissive and disrespectful, but it could also be shorthand for a collection of admirable qualities. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, it could have positive connotations, as can be seen in advertising: “Jap Rose Soap” evoked people who were dainty about personal cleanliness and pleasant smells; “Jap-a-Lac” was an enamel paint, available in many colors, for those whose decorative creativity was inspired by the Japanese. The early twentieth century, as the Japanese began to develop their empire, saw “Little Jap” cigarettes with a military motif and an ad for Shredded Wheat proclaiming that the “Little Jap” soldier marched on a diet of grains. By the 1920s, however, as Japanese immigrants began to thrive on the West Coast, the term “Jap” could be tainted with anger, and the Immigration Act of 1924 barred them from naturalization. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, in 1941, the term became full-on hate speech against a ferocious, monstrous enemy (or against JapaneseAmericans, who were placed in concentration camps).
Alternating with these are five sepia pictures, with brief captions. Two of them (“The Introduction” and “Desertion”) feature the Japanese boy doll, who attends a dance with a Japanese girl doll but walks off with a beautifully dressed peg wooden lady, to the Japanese girl’s dismay; two more show a quarrel between Miss Doll and a Chinese boy doll (she begins it by pulling his pigtail);10 the final picture shows the Japanese girl hand-in-hand with two peg wooden dolls. There is also a sepia title page with the blonde doll.
As with Shute’s illustrations, the delight here is the blurring of the dolls’ physical and expressive limitations by their human emotions and (somewhat stiff) gestures. There is no glimpse of humans, beyond the presence on the title page of a teacup half the height of Miss Doll, and no mention of them, though one can easily imagine a little girl lurking in the background, improvising a doll-sized table and “making” Miss Doll cry when the table is upset. The romantic aspect, however, is generated by the pictures themselves, which show the two dolls gazing into each other’s eyes with unspoken interest. Though Miss Doll pours tea, wipes her weeping eyes, and pulls the Chinese doll’s pigtail, her hands seem to retain their half-open position, while the Japanese doll’s more open hand turns at the wrist to express excitement or gentle dismay.
The most beautiful book with a Japanese doll as protagonist must surely be The Adventures of a Japanese Doll by Henry Mayer (1901).11 This 60-page book tells its story in prose, in 30 pages, each containing a chapter and each with a facing-page color illustration. This story includes a romance; the doll Tinga-ling becomes attached early on to a 10. The Chinese doll is correctly represented as wearing closed-toe shoes, a jacket and trousers, and a pigtail. These elements sometimes migrated to Japanese dolls when artists did not have an authentic doll to examine (this happens in Four and Twenty Dollies, discussed below).
“Nodding Mandarin” next to her in the toyshop window and is re-united with him at the end of her world travels. The model for Ting-a-ling was clearly a Japanese boy doll, with shaved hairstyle, but she is presented throughout as a girl. She does not however interact with other dolls, but with children, as their equal.
The first ten chapters take place in Japan, where Tinga-ling is created by a toymaker, dressed by his daughter, and taught how to sing, dance, and think (but never argue, since that would not be properly Japanese) by his other daughter, named Yum-Yum (the name of the heroine from the Mikado). Ting-a-ling meets the well-travelled Mandarin, dreams of climbing to the sun and flying to the moon, and daydreams of other lands. Through a series of accidents, she meets a friendly stork who takes her around the world. Chapters and illustrations depict her in Germany, Egypt, sub-Saharan Africa, the Wild West, Lapland, the Alps, and so on. In the last chapter, the stork brings both her and the Mandarin (whom she finds in the window of a London shop) back to their maker in Japan.
Being a doll imposes no restrictions at all on Ting-aling’s physicality: as she begins her travels with the stork, the knee and wrist joints disappear and she moves like a human child: exuberantly she rides a camel or a horse, plays tennis, climbs mountains, and dances a Highland reel. Her face becomes very expressive, without the tension between emotion and a doll’s imperturbability which one finds in Tucker’s dolls and to some extent in Shute’s. Most of the children she meets treat her as a human girl and, except for her odd hairstyle, she appears to be one. Only in the last chapter does she meet someone for whom she reverts to being a valuable object, the London dealer in whose shop sits the Nodding Mandarin. In the last picture, of her and the Mandarin embracing, she might well be her original doll-self, but there is no pointed reference (such as the depiction of joints and the hands and feet).
Perhaps it was all a dream!
11. The Adventures of a Japanese Doll by Henry Mayer (London: Grant Richards/New York: Dutton, 1901). Hard cover format. 30 full-page color illustrations, each with a facing-page numbered prose “chapter.” Henry Mayer (1856-1954) emigrated from Germany to Paris, then London, then the USA. In the US, he flourished as a brilliant satirical cartoonist and pioneer of animation. In London, though, he illustrated children’s books; in 1900, he published, in a similar format for the same publisher as the 1902 Adventures, a book called A Trip to Toyland, in the background of several of whose pictures is a Japanese doll, less personable than Ting-a-ling. The model for this doll may have inspired him to write a book with a Japanese doll protagonist. He also provided the images for Little People: An Alphabet (the 26 little people being Arab, Boer, Chinese, Dutch, etc.) with verses by T. W. H. Crosland (Grant Richards, 1901; online at Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24336); the Japanese boy depicted looks quite sober and not at all like a doll, much less Ting-a-ling.
Mayer, Adventures of a Japanese Doll. Ting-a-ling sits in the shop window beside her friend the Nodding Mandarin, listening to the Man of Snow. Also in the window are a pair of figurines representing Benten, the deity of music and arts, and Ebisu, the divine fisherman.
Mayer. Ting-a-ling dreams of climbing a sunflower and finding it is the sun itself. A good view of the doll’s construction.
Mayer. During her adventures, Ting-a-ling appears as a real child; she dances in various folk styles.
The next picture-book with a Japanese doll protagonist is Clara Bell Thurston’s The Jingle of a Jap (1906).12 This book was issued in a slipcase with a 4” Japanese doll13 attached to it—obviously intended as a gift. Its first verse announces a moral of sorts: “Every dolly has a heart / Although you may not know it. / So when you pin doll dresses on / Pray try to pin below it!” However, the moral is hardly exemplified by the story, whose overall import seems to be that the Japanese doll is not welcome here.
The story takes place in the United States—implicitly on the California coast, since when the doll decides to go home he is shown on the beach, staring out over the ocean. The owner of the dolls in the story is at one point evoked as “Baby” but does not appear. The protagonist (referred to only as “the Jap doll” or “the Jap”) falls in love with “a lovely big wax doll” with blonde curls, Miss Dolly. When she rejects him because of his poor speaking abilities, he procures a Primer and studies it to remedy this defect. Alas, Miss Dolly only becomes more frank, telling him he is ugly and squinty and dresses like a girl, so she prefers a fine soldier doll. The protagonist weeps in the nursery corner by the Noah’s Ark, not only because his heart is broken but because he does not like being thought ugly. Noah proves helpful in arranging for the doll to go home to fair Japan, where he can be a soldier himself14 and “never think / Of ‘girl dolls’ any more!”
The blonde doll’s face is not shown, but Thurston has fun portraying the Japanese doll. In one of the decorations, he is shown as a cheap little doll, flimsy and awkwardly flopping against a teapot. In the full-page
12. The Jingle of a Jap by Clara Bell Thurston (Boston: H. M. Caldwell, 1906). Hard cover, 32 pages, including 7 different full-page watercolors of the Japanese doll and 8 different page designs (repeated 2-3 times each) to accompany the verse narrative, all in color.
13. Small dolls like this seem to have been used for craft projects in the U.S. I have found them mounted on pieces of cardboard with small calendars or valentine messages.
14. In 1905, the year before the book was published, President Roosevelt convened a meeting in the U.S. to end the Russo-Japanese war, in which the Japanese had won all the battles. So—being a Japanese soldier was not a bad choice.
illustrations, though, he is bright-eyed and rather mischievous looking (as in all the books I am looking at here). Still, he never achieves the robust beauty of the dolls in the books discussed so far. Thurston’s model is a classic cheap Japanese doll; she emphasizes the split between his big toe and the next toe, a feature of many Japanese dolls’ feet, and the awkward blue “shaven” glob of plaster on the top of his head.
The plot here evokes that of Jappie Chappie and How He Loved a Dollie, except that the blonde doll definitively rejects the Japanese boy doll, with no possibility of reunion. The Japanese doll is perceived as ugly and useless and told to go home. Of course, both the Jappie Chappie and Ting-aling end up at home in Japan, but only after having won Western hearts; Thurston’s doll’s heart is, as she tells us, broken. The wax doll in Jingle is shallow; but is she right to prefer the American soldier dolly? It is hard not to want to apply the story to actual immigrants from East Asia.
O’Kissme San: A Doll from Japan by Harvey Gaskell, with pictures by M. E. Thompson and H. M. Pemberton,15 is a small book published in England in 1909. The setting is Betty’s playroom and then a seaside holiday. O’Kissme is depicted in the two artists’ illustrations as a tall doll, representing a young woman in elaborate kimono and hairstyle; Pemberton’s drawings lean towards showing her with many ornamental hairpins (kanzashi) sticking out, which to a Japanese might connote a geisha. Her maid LoviDovi is a smaller version, with a more girlish bun-and-bob hairstyle. O’Kissme hosts a tea-party for the dolls of Betty’s friends, where she attracts the admiration of the male dolls and the suspicion of the girl dolls. After various adventures, O’Kissme and Lovi-Dovi meet Captain Ban and Yo-Hee-Vo of the Japanese navy and depart with them after a double wedding. (Again, the influence of the silly “Japanese” names in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado is evident).
Gaskell makes some attempt to portray his doll heroine as culturally Japanese: she is both gracious and reserved, kneels to sit instead of using a chair and is able to eat icecream with chopsticks. The other dolls make a mess trying to imitate her. She is variously threatened by ducks, a crab, and a rising tide; fortunately she arrived with a trousseau of changes of clothing. However, it is usually difficult or impossible to re-dress a doll of the type depicted in the pictures. It is possible that Gaskell had in mind a child doll with cloth upper arms and legs, like those in the other books, while the illustrators decided on a more elegant, art-deco figure.
O’Kissme
In two of the full-page illustrations, Betty is depicted as a doll-like blonde girl who, sitting on the ground, looks up into tall O’Kissme San’s face. This emphasizes, to my eye at least, the value of the Japanese doll in picture-books: it cannot be mistaken for a Western child. If a little blonde girl hugs a big blonde doll, there is a kind of confusion between them; if she embraces a Japanese doll, her affection and generosity (or condescension) are clear. The two illustrators seem to have decided that O’Kissme should be quite tall, and
15. O’Kissme San: A Doll from Japan by Harvey Gaskell, with pictures by M. E. Thompson and H. M. Pemberton (London: Dean and Son, 1909); published in the US as All About Teeny-Weeny Feet (New York: Cupples and Leon, n.d.). Small format hard cover, 48 numbered pages (including title page and frontispiece, and also some blank pages); 8 full-page color images (by Thompson) and about 27 line drawings on the text pages (verse again), often including plot point illustrations (by Pemberton).
Miomandre/Guignebault, Pierre Pons. Pierre and the Marquise get to know each other.
Miomandre/Guignebault . The Marquise visits a Japanese Porcelain Princess who has joined the household. The doll’s floppiness contrasts with the Princess’s frozen pose, clarifying the difference between a Doll and a Knicknack.
16. The Story of
, by Francis
she is a little bit taller not only than the other dolls at the tea-party but than Captain Ban himself. In the next book under discussion, we will see this trend continue.
The Story of Pierre Pons, by Francis Miomandre, first written in 1912,16 is the most novelistic of these works; the pictures are abundant but always serve the story. The French children who own the dolls do not seem to have a toy-room but leave the dolls lying in the living-room of their apartment when they go to bed. Pierre is the king of the dolls, but in French the category to which his subjects belong is “pantins;” they are mechanical human or animal figures, distinguished from Knicknacks (bibelots), which share the space, by their ability to move and their lively sociability.
Pierre Pons is an English felt soldier doll who belongs to a little boy named Camille. The Japanese doll, Marquise Yorisaka, is a secondary protagonist. She is a rather large girl doll with a bun; this is the only situation in which the Japanese doll is depicted as much larger than the Western doll, and she towers over Pierre. Camille’s sister Helen receives the Marquise on her birthday. Both doll owners are depicted in the illustrations; they are not aware of the dolls’ activities and emotional lives, but react to the displacements, breakages, etc. that result. At one point Pierre is kidnapped by a friend of Camille’s and undergoes heroic trials.
When the Marquise arrives, Pierre is immediately smitten. The Marquise rejects him, since she is engaged to a Japanese officer fighting against Russia.17 She also finds Pierre ugly, but is too polite to say so; this is a reversal of the usual notion that it is the Japanese (male) doll who is ugly. Eventually, however, she falls in love with Pierre, first for his devotion to her, and then for his courage. Her fiancé having died, they marry.
All the toys are depicted, in colored line drawings like comic strip panels, with great realism. Pierre himself has a fixed, stitched smile and closed fists, so he is relatively immobile; Yorisaka, however, bends forward and backwards at the waist, flops around in despair, and turns her head so that, in various positions, it expresses various emotions. This is the only book discussed here in which a Japanese doll is presented as a person with a complicated inner life or is given a Japanese name.
Four and Twenty Dollies, by Leonora Pease, pictures by Ella Dolbear Lee, is an American book originally
pictures by
Guignebault, translated by
Rich
originally published as Histoire de Pierre Pons, pantin de feutre, with the same illustrations and layout (Paris: Arthème Fayard, 1912). Hard cover, 96 numbered pages, with a long prose narrative divided into 10 chapters; the illustrations are of various sizes and even shapes, but are usually distributed 4-6 to a page, giving an effect like a comic book.
17. The original story is set during the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese war. It draws on Claude Farrère’s very popular 1909 novel, La Bataille, which depicts a wartime romance between an English officer and the wife of a Japanese naval officer, the Marquis Yorisaka. Miomandre’s Marquise Yorisaka, like her namesake, is torn between an English soldier doll (Pierre) and her distant fiancé, Viscount Taka, who is fighting with the army at the front. Japan instituted such titles as Count, Marquis, and Viscount after the dissolution of the old feudal system at the end of the 1860s.
assembled in 1914 and reprinted later in various forms.18 As the title promises, there are verses and depictions of twenty-four dolls that might be found in an American child’s collection. Sometimes the pictures will show several dolls, for example set up to be attending school. Thus, a given doll may appear several times outside his or her own set of verses.
A full-page color illustration of “The Little Jap Man” precedes five pages with verses and color illustrations, including two pages on “Miss Antoinette Marie,” a French paper doll who flirts with the Japanese doll. In every other book discussed here, it is evident that the artist was trying to model the doll’s proportions, hairstyle, facial features, and clothing on a particular real Japanese doll. However, in this book the illustrations of the Japanese doll are inconsistent and may include doubtful elements (e.g. wearing closed-toe shoes). The artist includes a kind of “willow-plate” scene of a arched bridge as one of the illustrations of the verse harking back to earlier works (Shute, Thurston) which drew on decorative Japanese elements.
The verses (particularly the one omitted in the shortest published version) are relatively anti-Japanese: the doll is designated, progressively in the five verses, “queer, odd,19 wise, accomplished and deft, fierce,” as he smiles and amuses everyone with his tricks, but secretly plans “to gobble” more than he should. This would evoke, on the one hand, Japanese imperial ambitions in East Asia, and on the other, the distrust of the prosperity of Japanese immigrants on the American West Coast. However, on the last two pages, the Japanese doll seems to have become fixated on the French paper doll, perhaps forgetting his bad intentions. Both aspects of his personality seem designed to appeal to an adult rather than a little girl.
In this quick tour of children’s books which portray Japanese dolls as romantic protagonists, it is evident that this doll was hard to pin down. Is the doll male or female? Different writers seem to have different opinions. Is the Japanese doll a charming foreigner who learns our ways and whose ways are worth learning, like the Marquise Yorisaka? A hero among dolls, like the Chappie? Or, like O’Kissme-San, Ting-a-ling, and the Jingle protagonist, should they stick to their own kind after all? A story about dolls allows authors and illustrators to play with ideas that might be too forceful and political if expressed in terms of human characters; but the Japanese doll is not a stereotype.
18. Four and Twenty Dollies, by Leonora Pease, pictures by Ella Dolbear Lee (Chicago: Hamming, 1914). Hard cover, 94 numbered pages, of which 6 present the Japanese doll; also issued as Play Dollies (Racine: Whitman, 1927), 46 pages, of which only 4 pages on the Japanese doll are included, and Dollies in Happy Land (Racine: Whitman, n.d.), 60 pages, including all 6 pages on the Japanese doll. 19. “Queer” and “odd” are words very commonly used to describe a Japanese doll from a child’s point of view, in the late nineteenth century especially. They suggest curiosity and suspended judgement rather than rejection.
Pease/Lee, Four and Twenty Dollies. This Japanese doll portrait may not be done from a real doll. The kimono looks more like a Western dressing-gown, the hands and feet do not evoke a doll, and the hairstyle is downright shaggy. The fan is inappropriate for a baby doll.
Below: Pease/Lee. Besides flirting with the French paper doll in other verses, the Japanese “man” is friendly here with a Dutch doll , who seems to be eyeing him with interest.
By Nicki Burley
Madame Astra is inspired by an antique China head fortune telling doll which I saw on Pinterest. I loved everything about her mid-century costume: the textures of velvet and silk, use of lace and embroidery, wide hanging sleeves, and the interesting shape of the skirt panels. I even had a small China head doll who would make the perfect model.
However, my poor doll’s original cloth body was held together by old bookbinding tape and her boots were broken. Since she was an inexpensive eBay find, I boldly removed her legs and placed her firmly on a pedestal base—a fearful task which ultimately made her much easier to dress. Directions for the base are included, but you can also make this costume on a complete doll.
For a whole doll, cut the skirt so that the folded leaves are floor-length when worn. Make the skirt very full, and the skirt will support the doll so she stands by herself. Alternately, place the doll on a stand.
Some fortunes are included to get you started, but feel free to add anything else you choose: old or witty sayings, poetry, the ponderous advice of Polonius in Hamlet (“Neither a borrower nor a lender be”), or the book of Proverbs in the Bible (“Look for wisdom as if looking for silver”). What are some things your mother or grandmother used to say? Antique fortunes were typically a combination of encouragement, advice, and warnings. To play with your doll, have guests hold her in their hands while asking a question, then select a skirt leaf to unfold. Whatever is revealed, the Fates have spoken!
Doll, Stand, & Wand Supplies
9-10” china head doll, legs removed
2” wood discs
5” wood disc
⅜” wood dowel
Bamboo skewer
9mm wood bead
Wool felt
Cotton muslin
Wool roving
Small nails
Gold braid & beads
Metallic rainbow floss
Black satin & gold metallic craft paint
Gold paint pen
Craft glue
Skirt Supplies
Colored copy paper
Size 3 crochet cotton & yarn needle
Giftwrap tape
1/16” hole punch
Large paper clips
Bone folder
Costume Supplies
Black taffeta silk ⅛ yd
Burgundy silk velvet ⅛ yd
Linings: black batiste & gold taffeta
Ivory batiste scraps
Buckram 5” square
½” gold lace ½”:42”
¼” cotton lace with woven dots: 75”
(peplum, bodice, sleeves, velvet sleeves)
Metallic gold floss
Hemostats, wax pick-up pencil
Matching threads
5mm star buttons:6
4mm gold beads: 12
6mm gold bells:10
3/16” gold ribbon: 12”
⅛” gold ric rac: 8”
Scrap 1” wide gold lace
Gold nail art stars
1) Drill hole for ⅜” wide dowel in center of 5” wood circle. Check length of dowel needed for doll, allowing about 2” from base of skirts so that fortunes can be unfolded. Sample dowel is cut about 6 ¾” long.
2) Glue dowel into base. Glue and nail the 2” wood disc to the top of the dowel. Alternately, use a mini rotary tool to drill holes into the disc and dowel, then pin them together. When all is dry, paint with several coats of black satin finish craft paint.
3) Paint outer edge of wood disc with metallic gold paint. Glue nail art stars randomly around the base. Cut wool felt to fit and glue to the underside of the base.
4) Ensure that the doll’s torso bottom is sewn closed and is fairly flat. Drive 2 nails into the other 2” wood disc, then apply craft glue thickly across the sewn edge of the torso, then push the torso onto the nails. Press down and allow to dry.
5) Cut a strip of muslin 2 ½” x 6 ¾”. Press one long edge to the wrong side ¼”, then sew a ¼” seam along the short edges, with right sides together. Press seam open. Turn right side out and cut ¼” deep snips into the other long edge.
6) Using a doubled strong thread, sew gathering stitches ⅛” from the pressed edge, leaving a long tail. Slip the tube onto the doll’s torso, with the gathered edge facing up.
7) Apply glue around the underside of the wood disc, then press the snipped edge into the glue. When dry, stuff the tube with wool roving, then pull up the gathering thread firmly around the doll’s waist and secure. Glue the doll onto the pedestal.
Notes:
1) Seams are ⅛” unless otherwise stated; clothing is sewn onto the doll
2) Mimic the gold star taffeta with embroidery, sequins, Hotfix iron-on stars, or glued-on nail charms. Pick up these tiny embellishments with a wax pencil.
3) Download free Cricut files to cut the paper leaves, a supply list with shopping links, and paper fortune telling toys for dolls at our Facebook groups: “The Wren’s Nest” and “DOLLPAPER.”
1) Plan to make 150-160 skirt leaves for this size doll, using paper no heavier than 24lb copy weight. I used a pack of multi-colored parchment from Amazon, fitting 2 leaves per sheet.
2) Copy the pattern onto cardstock and laminate if possible, to make the pattern last longer
3) Fold skirt paper in half and trace the pattern. Apply gift tape where the holes are marked and over the fold. Make holes with 1/16” punch, then cut out the shape.
4) Open the leaf and write a fortune on the lower portion, then fold up. Use a bone folder for crisp, flat folds. Use large paperclips to hold the leaves together in groups of 10.
5) When complete, cut 2 pieces of size 3 crochet cotton, each 24” long. Use the yarn needle to string together the skirt leaf bundles, beginning with the top hole.
6) Pinch the leaves together at the top and put the skirt on the doll, arranging the leaves around her waist with the string ties at the center back. Pull up tightly and tie knot securely–this part is difficult as the paper is heavy and you may need a helper to make the knot.
Begin
end
Below:
7) Remove the paper clips, arrange the skirt again, and tie off the lower skirt string. Aim to have the skirt leaves hanging as straight and evenly spaced as possible.
1) Cut 2 sleeves from 6” x 8” piece of ivory batiste. Press ¼” under at top and bottom edge. Cut a 7” length of ¼” dotted lace, and use the paint pen to mark the dots with gold if desired.
2) Cut lace in half, and whipstich flat to the lower edge of the sleeve.
3) Sew sleeve seam along angled edges; press. Sew tiny gathering stitches along the top and bottom edges.
4) Pull sleeves onto the doll and tightly pull up the gathers about ¼” below the shoulder, then secure the thread.
1) Cut 3 panels from black silk and batiste. Embellish the black silk with stars if desired before sewing together. Sew around the sides, leaving top open. Carefully turn and press, making sharp corners. Overcast the top edge.
2) Sew ½’ gold lace around sides, setting the lace about ⅛” inside the edge.
3) Beginning at center back (the middle of one panel), use long doubled black thread to sew a gathering stitch along the top edges, connecting the panels together. Place on the doll before connecting the last panel, then continue sewing to the center of the first panel. Pull up around the doll, just below the waist line, then secure the thread.
4) Make 3 tassels with gold embroidery floss, using the wide end of a seam gauge to create ⅝” long tassels. It’s helpful to wrap and sew the tassel tops with regular sewing thread in a matching shade, as the metallic floss is slippery. Sew tassels to the bottom point on each panel.
5) Sew a tiny bell to each remaining point on the panels.
1) Cut 4 peplum shapes from silk velvet and black batiste. Pin and baste 1/4” seam with right sides together around 3 sides,, before sewing with ⅛” seam. Leave top edge open.
Below: Inside of bodice, showing batiste and lace insert placement.
2) Sew shoulder seams of silk and lining separately. Press in opposite directions, then place bodices with right sides together. Sew up the center back and around the neckline.
3) Carefully turn and press. Baste all raw edges together.
2) Pull out basting stitches, then turn with hemostats and overcast top edges. Press velvet carefully right side down on a fluffy towel, using a damp press cloth on the wrong side. Hover the iron just over the velvet to avoid crushing the nap.
3) Help the peplum pieces lay flat by sewing a small running stitch with black thread just inside the seam line on the lining side. Catch the seam allowance with your stitches.
4) Mark 28” of ¼” lace with gold dots if desired, then cut into 7” pieces. Whipstitch lace to underside of peplum pieces, on the lining. Gather slightly at corners.
5) Sew 1 tiny star and 2 gold beads to bottom center and corners of each peplum piece, then attach a gold bell just below the star.
6) Follow Underskirt Panels #5 directions to sew the peplum together and attach it to the doll’s waist.
1) Cut bodice from silk and lining. Sew darts in each bodice front, pressing lining and silk in opposite directions. Embellish silk pieces with stars if desired.
4) Cut a scrap of ivory batiste 1 ½” x 3”. Turn the top edge back ¼”, press and sew a small running stitch about ⅛” from the fold. Lay 1” wide gold lace upside down on the batiste, with scalloped edge extending over the fold. Sew together along the straight edge of the lace.
5) Lay bodice over the lace insert, centering on the lace design. Pin in place, then flip the bodice over and sew insert to bodice with small running stitch. Pink the raw edges of the insert if desired.
6) Sew gold ric rac trim around neckline, securing raw ends to the inside of the bodice. Add 3” pieces of ¼” gold dotted lace to each side of neckline, securing raw ends below the insert.
7) Glue a nail art star to the center front of the bodice.
8) Sew side seams, then overcast and press toward the back. Turn up the lower edge ⅛”, press, and hem in place.
9) Put bodice on the doll, adjust over skirt panels and peplum, and hem closed in the back. Blindstitch bodice lower edge to the peplum.
10) Glue nail art charms at each end of a 12” piece of gold braid, then tie around the waist as a belt.
1) Cut sleeves from velvet and gold silk lining. Sew together following instructions for Velvet Peplum #1. After turning right side out, press carefully. Turn velvet top edge 3/16” to wrong side, then hem in place.
2) Trim sleeves with 2 pieces of gold dotted lace, each cut 11”, as in Velvet Peplum #4.
3) Sew 1 star at center corner and 2 gold beads at each remaining corner of sleeves, then add 1 tiny bell just below the stars.
4) Wrap sleeves around the upper arms, and tack together at the upper corners. Set the sleeve onto the bodice with the tacked corners at the deepest part of the front armscye. Blindstitch the sleeves onto the bodice, being sure to cover all raw edges of the armscye.
1) Cut buckram and velvet hat shapes–the velvet covering is larger than the hat form. Roll buckram into a cone and glue together along the tab. Allow to dry.
2) Glue the velvet edge without a tab to the cone. Be sparing with the glue, and spread before applying
the velvet so it doesn’t seep through. Add glue to the tip of the buckram cone and wrap velvet over, holding in place until secure.
3) Continue wrapping and gluing velvet around the cone, leaving last ½” free at tabbed edge.
4) Turn tabbed edge under and blindstitch the folded edge to the velvet, covering the glued raw edge.
5) Cut wedge shaped snips from the velvet at the lower edge of the hat, then add glue to the inside of the cone. Fold velvet to the inside and press in place.
6) Apply nail art stars randomly to the hat, pressing them into the velvet so they appear sewn on. Sew moon charms on each side of the hat to resemble earrings. Glue hat to the doll’s head.
7) Wand is made from a bamboo skewer and wood bead. Paint the skewer and bead gold.. Glue the gold braid to the tip of the skewer, then glue the bead over the braid. Wrap floss close together and glue securely at lower end for a handle. Tie rainbow metallic floss streamers just under the bead at the top, then glue in place. Add gold beads and nail art stars as desired. Sew to the doll’s sleeve, just above the lace edging.
Your hard work and perseverance will be rewarded. Your last dream means you will meet someone new. Take time to play; it’s the fountain of youth! Something you lost will soon be found. Your greatest fortune is a group of good friends. Bear with hope whatever comes your way. You are loved by someone more than you know. Be mischievous, and you will never be lonesome! It takes more than a good memory to have good memories. Your hidden talents will soon be noticed.
To find success, you must take the first step. You will be invited to an exciting event. Do not mistake temptation for opportunity.
Dark days will brighten and fill with sunshine. Many a false step is made by standing still. It is wiser to take advice than give it. Seek a conversation to resolve a conflict. Beauty lasts longest in a gentle soul. Others look to you for leadership. Give less instead of promising much.
Bodice Back
Cut 2 Silk
Cut 2 Lining
Bodice Front
Cut 1 Silk
Cut 1 Lining on Fold
Undersleeve
Cut 2 Batiste
Oversleeve
Cut 2 Velvet
Cut 2 Silk Lining on Fold
Cut 4 Lining – Leave Open –
Cut 4 Velvet
Look for more Norfolk coverage in the November issue, including the 2025 Doll Dreamers Market.
Joyce Kekatos joycedolls@aol.com 917-859-2446
LAYAWAY AVAILABLE • Member UFDC & NADDA www.grandmasatticdolls.com • Look for me on Ruby Lane!
17” SFBJ #252
Pouty Character, “ALL FACTORY ORIGINAL”, perfect pale bisque, orig HH wig, cotton dress w/shear lace overlay, incl. orig shoes & ant lace ruffled bonnet, orig SFBJ fully jointed chunky toddler body w/Paris label, fully marked SFBJ #252 head. I think she is the BEST I have EVER seen. ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE!!! $3550.
16” G H #5636
Character, sparkling sl. eyes, mint pale bisque, Fr. HH wig, ant. wool & lace dress, orig. leather shoes & ant. Fr. Lace hat, orig. GH body, deep modelling w/deep dimples, o/cl mouth w/ molded tongue & 2 lower molded teeth. DARLING!!! $2400.
13” JDK #245
“Hilda” Toddler, blue sl eyes, mint bisque, orig mohair wig & plaster pate, orig dress, ant. hat & orig. undies, great orig JDK fully jointed chunky toddler body w/str. wrists. The BEST!!! $2500.
13” K * R #117
Mein Liebling, sl. eyes w/ painted lashes plus upper mohair lashes, gorgeous creamy bisque, orig. mohair wig, vintage dress, ant. slip & undies, orig. ant. leather shoes & ant. lace hat, on orig. K * R body. DARLING cabinet size. $3475.
Send in your Free Calendar Listing to: Antique DOLL Collector, c/o Calendar, P.O. Box 349, Herndon, Virginia 20172 or events@antiquedollcollector.com If you plan on attending a show, please call the number to verify the date and location as they may change. Auctions in Blue. Many events have additional information online. Check antiquedollcollector.com > events. under, Military Families: FREE. Rowbear Lowman. 831-438-5349. RowbearPresents@ charter.net.
Please check online for Long Term listings.
OCTOBER 2025
3-4 ~ Bridgeton (St. Louis), MO. Dollhouse and Miniature Show. Info/Reg for classes: 314-277-2601 or tdminiatures@gmail.com. MiniatureShows.com.
4 ~ Casper, WY. Casper Doll Show & Sale. Casper Doll Collectors Club. 9 AM-4 PM. Central Wyoming Fairgrounds, Hall of Champions, 1700 Fairgrounds Rd. Kay Schrader, c/t 406-360-7214, schrader1501@blackfoot.net.
4 ~ Des Moines, IA. Doll & Toy Show & Sale. 11 AM - 3 PM (CT). Early bird: 10 AM. Happy Sisters. American Legion Hall #374, 3712 2nd Ave. Admission/door (Cash): Early Bird: 10 AM: $10; 11 AM: $5. Betty Peterson, c/t 515-664-4992. bpcleo@netzero.com.
4 ~ Greenville, SC. Greenville SC Doll, Toy & Miniature Show. 9:30 AM - 3 PM. Southeastern Doll Shows. Greenville Shrine Club & Event Center, 119 Beverly Rd. Admission/door: Adults: $8; Children 12/ under: FREE. Jackie Stone. t. 828-778-4646. jackiestone@charter.net. SoutheasternDollShows.com. 4-5 ~ Newark, OH. Ohio National Doll Show. Lectures/Meals: Sat, 10 AM - 8:30 PM. SHOW: Sun, 10 AM - 4 PM. Cherry Valley Hotel & Event Center. 2299 Cherry Valley Rd. SE. Sun. Show tickets/door: Adults: $10; Children 12/under: FREE; Gail Lemmon. 440-396-5386. ohionationaldollshow@ gmail.com. OhioNationalDollShow.com.
5 ~ Pleasant Hill, CA. 2025 Fall Doll Show. Independent Spirits Doll Club. 10 AM-3 PM. Zio Fraedo’s Italian & Continental Restaurant, 611 Gregory Lane. Nina Lowrey. 707-838-9672. ninalowrey@gmail.com. facebook.com/ events/1465788258126680.
5 ~ Sturbridge, MA. Doll, Bear & Miniature Show & Sale. 10 AM-3 PM. Collins Gifts. Sturbridge Host Hotel, 366 Main St. Admission/ door: Adults: $7; Children 12/under: FREE. Wendy Collins. c/t 603-969-1699. CollinsGifts14@aol.com. 11 ~ Hebron, IN. Charming Treasures Doll & Pony Show. 11 AM-2:30 PM. Dancing Whimsysteria, The Gathering Place, 131 N Main St. (NW IN/ SE Chicago IL). Admission at the door: Early bird (10 AM): $10; Adults (11 AM): $5; Children 12/under w/ adult: FREE. Pamela Johnson. dancingwhimsysteria@ gmail.com. Dancing Whimsy-steria Website.
11 ~ Phoenix, AZ. Valley Of The Sun Doll Club Doll Show & Sale. Sat., 10 AM-3 PM. Phoenix Shrine Auditorium, 552 North 40th St. Info: Rita Bruns. 480-839-4037.
11 ~ San Diego, CA. North Park Doll Collectors Show & Sale. Sat., 10 AM-3 PM. Handlery Resort Hotel - Mission Valley 950 Hotel Circle North. Denise Perkins. 619-282-0796. perkydecor@ gmail.com. Sandy Rice. sandy@sandyrice.net.
11 ~ Spencer, NC. Super Saturdays Monthly Sales. Every 2nd Sat. 10 AM-2 PM. The First Community Center of Spencer, 215 5th St. Free parking & admission! Beth Nance, info@ncmdtm.org, 704-762-9359 (call only), ncmdtm.org/events/.
12 ~ DeWitt (Lansing), MI. Lansing Antique & Collectible Doll Show & Sale. 9:30 AM-3 PM. Banquet & Conf Ctr of DeWitt, 1120 Commerce Park Dr. (off I-69). Admission/Door: Adults: $5; Children under 12: $1. Sandy Johnson Barts. 269-599-1511. SJBbetsys@comcast.net. Lansing Doll Show.com. 12 - Bridgeton (St. Louis), MO. Doll & Bear Show & Sale. The Spirit of St. Louis Doll Club. Machinist Hall, 12365 St. Charles Rock Rd. Admission/Door (Cash only): Early Bird 9 AM: $10; General: $6; 12/under: FREE. Connie Knarr. C/T 314-440-4086. clknarr@aol.com. stlouisdollclub.com. 12 ~ Portland, OR. Portland Doll & Bear Show. 11 AM-4 PM. Embassy Suites-Portland Airport, 7900 NE 82nd Ave. Admission/cash only: $10/adults, $5/children 12/under. Joe Koury. joe@queensofthedollaisle.com. 650-303-4140. queensofthedollaisle.com/.
LAST SHOW! 12 ~ Plymouth, MN. 16th Annual Fall Doll Show & Sale. Dolls & Toys & Bears OH MY! Shows by Bernadette. Crowne Plaza Hotel. 3131 Campus Dr Bernadette Able. 239-2829499. Dolls_Toys_Bears_OhMy@yahoo.com. dollstoysbearsohmy.wixsite.com/classic-layout. 15-18 ~ Houston, TX. Bay Area Doll Club of Texas 2025 International Doll Festival. Houston Marriott South, 9100 Gulf Freeway. Bay Area Doll Club of Texas. Becca Hisle, 281-914-0077. beccasdolls@gmail.com. bayareadollstexas.com. 17-19 ~ Online. Online Sales Event. BearHugs4u.com. info@bearhugs4u.com. bearhugs4u.com.
18 ~ Jonesborough, TN. Doll Show & Sale. 9:30 AM - 3 PM. The Dollhouse. Jonesborough Visitor Center, 117 Boone St. FREE Admission. Ellen Stafford. c/t 423-753-0022. ellen@jonesdollhouse.com.
5 ~ Garden Grove, CA. Rowbear’s CA Collectors Treasure Hunt Event. Rowbear Presents. Embassy Suites Anaheim South, 11767 Harbor Blvd. Adults: $6; Children 12 & Calendar continued on page 48
OCTOBER 2025 CONT’D FROM PAGE47
18 ~ Santa Clara, CA. World Doll Day Show And Sale. 10 AM-3 PM. American Legion Post 419, 958 Homestead Dr. Admission: $10, Children 12/under free. Mary Senko. 425330-1770. mary.senko@worlddolldayshows.com or mary.
senko@comcast.net. WorldDollDayShows.com.
19 ~ Cheektowaga (Buffalo), NY. Niagara Frontier Doll Club’s 38th Annual Doll Show. Buffalo Airport Hotel, 4600 Genesee Street Cheektowaga. Sam Pressing. 716-208-6395. smaiarana@gmail.com. facebook.com/NFDCAnnualDollShow.
Absentee Auctions On-Line Only
Thur.-Thur., Sep. 25-Oct. 2, 2025
Shelley Smith Country Antiques of Bethlehem, CT. Thur.-Thur., Oct. 16-23, 2025
The Treasures of Childhood, Pt. 3 - Shelley’s Collections 603.478.3232 | withington@conknet.com www.withingtonauction.com
Alderfer Auction
Tue.-Wed., Sep. 30-Oct. 1, 2025, 10 AM ET Online Auction Catalog of Antique and Other Fine Dolls 501 Fairgrounds Road, Hatfield, PA 19440 215.393.3000 | www.alderferauction.com
Theriault’s
Fri., Oct. 3, 2025, Preview 9 AM, Auction 10 AM ET Ten2Go IN PERSON Auction at The Crowne Plaza
Wed., Oct. 8, 2025 , Live Auction 7 PM ET Rendezvous: Antique Dolls and Playthings
Fri., Oct. 10, 2025, Oct 1-10, Timed Auction 7 PM ET
50Forward: American Composition Celebrity Dolls Fri., Oct. 17, 2025, Online Timed Auction, Oct 7- 17
50Forward: Rare Wayang Kulit Theater Dolls Fri., Oct. 24, 2025, Auction 7 PM ET
Online Timed Auction, Oct. 14-24
50Forward: Antique Dolls, Toys and Ephemera Theriaults Gallery | 410.224.3655 info@theriaults.com | www.theriaults.com
Fri.-Sat., Oct. 10-11, 2025
Autumn Auction
Sat., Nov. 8, 2025
Steiff special auction 0049 (0) 6203 13014 | mail@spielzeugauktion.de www.spielzeugauktion.de
Sat., Oct. 25, 2025
Doll & Toy Auction
Crescent Shrine, 700 Highland Drive, Westampton, NJ 410.275.2213 | sweetbriar@live.com | sweetbriarauctions.com
Sat., Nov. 15, 2025
(free shuttle between K.C. International Airport, Hotel & Expo Center) KCI Expo Center & Holiday Inn Hotel, 11730 NW Ambassador Dr., Kansas City, MO 2323 S Mecklin Sch. Rd. | Oak Grove, MO 64075 816-625-3786 | frasher@aol.com | frashersdollauction.com
25 ~ Rossford (Toledo), OH. Toledo Doll Show. 9:30 AM-3 PM, TOCA Toledo Sports, 10020 S Compass Dr. Admission/Door: Early Bird $20 (8 AM), Adults: $8; Children 12 & under: FREE; Karen Kosies. toledo@dollshows.net. C/T 520-270-0179 (AZ). ToledoDollShow.NET.
25 ~ Salisbury, NC. Annual Miniature Luncheon. 9:30 AM-3 PM. NC Museum of Dolls, Toys & Miniatures. Trinity Oaks, 728 Klumac Rd. Admission: $85 per person; Members: $80: Register Online. Beth Nance, 704-762-9359, info@ncmdtm.org. ncmdtm.org/ event/annual-miniature-luncheon/
25 ~ Shreveport, LA. North Louisiana Antique Doll & Toy Club annual luncheon, sale and show. 10 AM-3 PM, $55, First Baptist Church, 543 Ockley. Public free 1-3 PM. Robin Grubbs. weebeetoys@bellsouth.net. 318-780-8864.
25 ~ Tucker (Atlanta), GA. Atlanta Doll Collectors Show & Sale. Doubletree by Hilton, 4156 LaVista Rd. Admission/Door (Cash only): $5; under 6: FREE. Vickey Harris, c/t 404-543-8866, vickeydharris@aol.com.
26 ~ Brookline, NH. Doll, Bear & Toy Show and Sale. Rainbow Bazaar Gifts. 9:30 AM-2 PM. Brookline Event Center, 32 Proctor Hill Rd. Admission/Door (Cash Only): $4; under 12: FREE. Cindy Amburgey, c/t 978-857-9576, rainbowbaz@aol.com.
26 ~ Southbury, CT. 35th Annual Antique, Vintage & Collectible Doll, Bear & Toy Show. Jenny Lind Doll Club. 10 AM-3 PM. Southbury Fire Station, 461 Main St. S. Admission: $7 Adults, $1 Children 13 -18, Children 12/under FREE). 203-240-6832. jennylinddollclub@gmail.com.
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Mail To: Antique DOLL Collector, P.O. Box 349, Herndon, VA 20172 Online: www.antiquedollcollector.com/special.html OR Call: 631-261-4100 (U.S. or International)
NOV 15 ~ Kinston, NC. In Person Only Doll Auction. Auction 11 AM; Preview 10 AM. Antique to Modern. Vintage, Barbies, doll accessories and costumes, toys, and collectables. Webb Chapel, United Methodist Church, 4478 NC Highway 55West (Sandy Bottom Area). Auctioneer: Nancy Farley. Contact: Van Davis, 252-268-6948, VODavis59@gmail.com.
Ph. 732‑536‑4101
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