My Long Tall Sally

Pat, a cloth doll by Patricia Glasco

Along with porcelain dolls, cloth dolls are a minority in my collection. There are very few cloth dolls that warm my heart enough to allow their entrance. My latest doll acquisition is, however, an exception to my closed door policy to cloth dolls.

Pat was made about 20 years ago. According to her artist, Patricia Glasco, the doll took about 20 hours to complete. Described as a “long tall Sally,” due to her slender, yet mature frame, Pat measures 29 inches in length. She has a beautiful hand-painted face and black curly hair.  She has needle-stitched fingers, some of which are separate, and needle-stitched toes.  Gold tone earrings and several necklaces accent her handmade-to-fit, two-piece multicolored dress. When I saw the group photograph Glasco shared in a Facebook group that included Pat and several other boudoir dolls, my interest was immediately piqued. After viewing the doll’s close-up photograph, I had to know more about her.

The photograph had been “liked” by one of my Facebook friends, which is how it appeared in my Facebook news feed. Not a member of that group at the time, I joined this particular Facebook group, where doll makers share dolls and accessories for sale.  After joining, I was able to in-box the artist who shared additional photographs.

After we communicated back and forth, the details of the sale were finalized. Within a few days, Pat arrived with a letter from the artist and a certificate that certifies “the ‘Patsy’ doll named ‘Pat’ is an original one-of-a-kind doll created, solely, in 1990 by artist, Patricia West Glasco.” The certificate is dated and signed.

During our Facebook in-boxing and later email communication, Glasco shared that she is a retired artist and interestingly does not consider herself a doll artist. She is no longer able to make dolls and is now seeking new loving homes for them. “I want someone to love them as I do,” she wrote. Each of her dolls is a one of a kind that she designed completely without the use of patterns. “Each one has its own personality which is part of my soul,” Glasco wrote.

Before Pat arrived, I inquired if she had already been named. Glasco answered, “I used to try to name my dolls with first names Patsy, such as Patsy Sue, Patsy Jane, etc. but I did not think it was really necessary because people like to name their own sometime. I think what she relays to the owner will be the name she should have as we all look at them in different ways. She confided:  "I was called 'Patsy' when I was a little girl."

Because of her elegance, I thought she looked like a Patricia or Patrice, but I have officially shortened her name to “Pat.”  I love my long tall Sally (a title of a Little Richard song first released in March 1956). She is one elegant, beautiful doll in a class all her own.

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With Glasco’s permission, I am sharing the following images of other dolls she has posted for sale that I have seen thus far on Facebook.

 This is the group photograph I saw on Facebook of Pat and the other “Pasty” boudoir dolls. 

This doll with needle-sculpted face has so-much-character!

Full-length view of needle-sculpted doll

Sutie is a smaller “Little Patsy” doll. Her photograph was shared along with photographs of several other smaller dolls.

Here is another “Little Patsy” doll described as measuring 8 or 9 inches. 

If interested in providing a new home for these or other dolls the artist has available, please contact her directly by email: Patricia Glasco. (But remember, the long tall Sally is mine.)

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