A Shattered Gift

Donated Black Americana salt and pepper shakers and dolls

By email, in early December 2022, I was offered two dolls and two pairs of  Black Americana salt and pepper shakers. The dolls interested me the most, so I accepted the entire lot. The generous donor sent the dolls; however, one of the tissue-paper-only-wrapped dolls (the one I wanted the most) had a shattered face upon arrival. 

Most people probably would have tossed the doll, but because all the pieces were there initially and most were large, I wanted to save her. I wrote the sender to inform them about the arrival of the package, the broken doll, and my plan to repair it. She thanked me.

The face of a 14-inch reproduction doll that uses a Magge Head Kane mold arrived shattered into several pieces as shown above.

All the pieces were there initially. After the pieces sat on my desk for a few days, having been moved from one location to another more than once, the circled piece was missing when I began the repair.

Repair Steps

I used my go-to Aleene's Tacky glue to put the porcelain facial pieces back together, one piece at a time, allowing each piece to dry before gluing the next piece.

In the above photo, the combined head and forehead piece was glued to the intact portion of the doll's head and allowed to dry before moving on to the next piece.

The top of the head/forehead area is photographed here. Glue residue was visible until I painted all the reglued seams.

Another view of the face after the head/forehead piece was glued on illustrates a mark my husband placed on the side to help me line up the matching piece. He also placed a corresponding mark on the matching piece.

The next matching piece, the top of the face underneath the forehead, is glued on in this picture. 

In this picture, polyfill is stuffed inside the head to lend support to a piece missing from the side that I had to recreate.

All pieces except for one missing side piece are glued in place.

This photo illustrates the triangular area of the lost piece that required fabrication.

This is another photo with all available pieces in place.

To fill in the missing area, I used Quick Steel (which is an epoxy putty that hardens like steel designed for car repair).

After measuring the size needed, Quick Steel was inserted into the area of the missing piece. It was also used in other areas to seal the seams.

Below is a quick video of the doll after the face was reconstructed. 

The final steps involved painting the head and face and sealing the paint with a satin finish varnish. I used black acrylic paint for the head and a mixture of purple velvet, black, and burnt umber to paint the face.

Repaired!

The repaired face is seen in a closeup.

Here is another quick video after the face was painted.

Magge Head Kane (whose first name is often misspelled Maggie) was a 1963 co-founder of the National Institute of American Doll Artists (NIADA), an association of original doll artists. As an independent doll artist, Kane began making character dolls in the late 1950s. She also taught mold- and doll-making, and sold her molds to other doll artists. Her Black dolls usually depict maids, butlers, and others in positions of servitude. Kane's dolls can be marked M. Head, Magge Head, or Magge Head Kane for those sculpted after her marriage. 

Dolls made by other artists that use Kane's molds should bear Kane's marks along with the name or mark of the artist who made the doll. In the case of my unmarked doll, which was clearly made from a Magge Head Kane sculpt referred to as "Old Lady," some dolls that use Kane sculpts are unmarked.  However, like my doll, unmarked dolls' distinct facial features are readily identifiable as Kane sculpts by those familiar with the artist's work. Kane's doll-making continued well into the 1980s.

"Old Lady"

A black and white image of a doll that uses the same sculpt that my doll uses is included on page 316 of Black Dolls 1820 to 1991 an Identification and Value Guide by Myla Perkins. The doll in the book, named, "Old Lady," was created by an artist who incised the initials and punctuation T.T A within a circle in the back of the doll's shoulder plate

Pictures of the other dolls and Black Americana items that were sent with "Old Lady" are shown next.

Circa 1940s Black Mammy and Chef Salt & Pepper Shakers

Circa 1950s Black Mammy and Chef Salt & Pepper Shakers

Other Dolls

10-1/2 inch reproduction German character baby with porcelain head, hands, and feet has a stuffed cloth white body, arms, and legs; painted black eyes, and a closed mouth.

The reproduction baby shown above has a gold foot tag that reads, Made in Taiwan / Republic of China, which dates the doll back to the 1980s. Initially, I thought this was a repro Bye-Lo baby, but its characteristics are more like Armand-Marseille doll molds. The hair is painted.

Also in the shipping box (as a surprise) were a 1940s jointed 3-1/2-inch Black baby marked MADE IN / JAPAN (on the back) and an unmarked 2-1/2-inch bisque baby that is missing its limbs. These were not included in the original photos that the donor sent when I was asked if I would accept the other items.

Thank you, MM of NY, for your generous gifts! The once-shattered doll gave me a goal-oriented task to complete, the results of which I am pleased.

©Black Doll Collecting/dbg

There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.

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