Christmas in May with Tuesday

A recently received gift-wrapped package with Christmas card attached from Jo Maeder is shown above.

On Saturday, May 5, 2018, the Gladys MacDowell Doll Study Club celebrated its 50th anniversary with a "Gladys is Golden" luncheon.  The luncheon was held in the Washington, D.C. area in honor of Gladys MacDowell.  A renowned wax doll maker, MacDowell made dolls from the 1940s through the 1970s.

In a Facebook Live presentation, Jo Maeder*, great-niece of the woman for whom the club was named, gave a lovely presentation.  The week of the presentation, Jo queried me about my Tuesday doll trio that her great-aunt made during the 1950s and their brother (attributed to doll artist I. V. Roberts).  I answered her questions and gave her permission to use photos of my Tuesday triplets and Cal, their brother.

I was a virtual attendee of the presentation and enjoyed learning additional information about Mrs. MacDowell and Tuesday.  Some of what I learned (and some information I already knew) is, "Tuesday was conceived by Gladys MacDowell on a Tuesday, hence her name. The lore is that she only made ten. I know of seven. Gladys briefly lived with her family in the Canal Zone in the late 1940s. The Tuesday doll was inspired by her visit to the Panamanian Carnival in Panama City and the Cuna India fiesta on San Blas Island in 1947."  During the presentation, Jo also discussed dolls made by other family members. The presentation can be viewed at the link provided at the end of this post (the lighting and volume were unfortunately low.)

The week following the presentation, I received a package in the mail from Jo which contained the above-gift-wrapped box with Santa Christmas card attached.  Photos of the card and the unwrapped gift are shown next:

The inside greeting wishes me "Merry feelings, favorite traditions, peace and joy at Christmas" ("and anytime," Jo added).

The top of the unwrapped gift box is see-through plastic which has a Gladys MacDowell Doll Study Club (GMDSC) 50th Anniversary sticker on the lower right corner.  Visible through the box top is a souvenir postcard with images of one of MacDowell's Tuesday dolls dressed in a red floral-print dress along with front and back images of a Tuesday souvenir paper doll designed by paper doll artist and GMDSC member, Victoria Christopherson.

Did you guess what was wrapped in red tissue paper inside the box?  It was one of the Tuesday souvenir paper doll ornaments that each "Gladys is Golden" luncheon attendee received!  The paper doll artist is also a member of the GMDSC, which is a UFDC-affiliated club.

Made of heavy card stock, the Tuesday paper doll stands 8-1/2 inches.  Like the Tuesday dolls, she has multiple braids which are further illustrated in the following posterior view.

Tuesday's red floral-print dress replicates the dresses worn by some Tuesday dolls (all my  Tuesdays wear light blue dresses of floral or tropical-fruit-print).  Does this mean I will have to find a fourth Tuesday wearing red?  The bodice of the paper doll's dress is card stock.  The skirt is fabric with white rick-rack trim at hem. White rick-rack and a red satin ribbon were used at the neck and waist of the dress, respectively.  Ivory eyelet trims the hemline of the card stock white underskirt.

As Jo noted during the presentation, the paper doll's right foot turns inward like the Tuesday dolls.

I am still excited about owning the Tuesday paper doll and remain grateful to Jo for sending one to me.

Photos from the luncheon, which include additional photographs of Tuesday ornaments, can be viewed on Facebook here.  Watch the "Gladys MacDowell:  A Family Tradition of Dollmaking" Facebook Live presentation here.

Thank you, again, Jo, for my Christmas in May surprise.

*Jo Maeder is the author of When I Married My Mother, Opposites Attack, and Naked DJ.


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Third Tuesday

Tuesday is a 16-inch wax doll with brown cloth body by Gladys MacDowell shown in an auction-photo screen snapshot.

I was on eBay searching for something else when I stumbled upon a thumbnail photo of the above doll.  I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw yet another Tuesday by the late Gladys MacDowell, who was a National Institute of American Doll Artists (NIADA) member.

MacDowell began making the 16-to-17-inch wax girl dolls that she named Tuesday during the 1950s.  The story about how I discovered these dolls, believing initially there was only one, is included in my post about the first Tuesday made by MacDowell.  A link to that post is included at the end of this post.

According to MacDowell's son, he believes his mother made about 10 Tuesdays in total.  I now own three of those 10 and know of at least three more owned by others.  See them here, here (in red dress), and here (most probably redressed).

In February of this year, Tuesday #3 was in a buy it now or make offer auction.  I made approximately three separate offers which were countered by the seller.  With my final offer, I included a message to the seller.  In response, the seller asked me if I was "Debbie Garrett."  After reading the signature in her reply, I then knew who she was.  We settled on a price that worked well for both of us and now Tuesday is here with her siblings.

Tuesday's golden brown human hair is styled in six braids with yellow ribbons tied into bows at the ends. She has brown stationary eyes that glance to her left.

Tuesday posed for individual and group photos as shown immediately above and below.

Tuesday's head, arms, and legs are made of wax.  She also has a wax shoulder plate.  Her body is firmly-stuffed brown cloth.  Unlike my two other Tuesdays, Tuesday #3 is unsigned, but there is no mistaking her for an original Gladys MacDowell.  (Some Tuesdays were given paper labels, like my #2 Tuesday; it is possible that Third Tuesday's label fell off her shoulder plate.)

The palms of Tuesdays hands and the soles of her feet are painted a lighter color.

Tuesday #3 poses with her sisters.  Tuesday #1, on the left, arrived in 2014.  The second Tuesday, on the right, arrived in 2016.  Do you see a pattern here?  The dolls have arrived two years apart.

Full view photo of the girls shows that Tuesday #3 and #2 are slightly shorter than Tuesday #1. Number 3 is the shortest.   Fabric used for the dresses for Tuesday #3 and #2 is an identical tropical fruit print.  Tuesday #3 wears a yellow underdress that has bell sleeves that hang beneath the dress sleeves.  I am uncertain if the underdress is original to the doll.  She also wears a yellow undergarment as do #1 and #3.  Each girl has six sectioned-off plaits with yellow fabric (#'s 1 and 2) stitched or ribbons tied at the ends.

As illustrated in the photos of the girls, Tuesday #3 has lighter colored hair with a few bangs.  The other two do not have bangs.  Because they were handmade, each doll's face was painted differently giving each a unique "personality."  Of the three, I think Tuesday #3 is the cutest, but I'll always treasure Tuesday #1, which as indicated, is actually the first Tuesday MacDowell made.

The girls pose with their brother, who arrived with Tuesday #1 in 2014.  I named him Cal.  According to MacDowell's son, he believes Cal was made by I. V. Roberts, another NIADA artist, and friend of MacDowell.

I am so happy to have stumbled upon Tuesday #3 in the eBay shop of Rachel Hoffman, who is central operations manager for Turn of the Century Antiques, a brick and mortar shop in Denver, Colorado, which also has a Ruby Lane shop.

Three is said to be a charm.  Even if other Tuesdays are located by happenstance, I will refrain from buying, at least that's the plan.

Read about my initial discovery of MacDowell's Tuesday dolls here.
My second Tuesday was written about here.


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Tuesday, Joey, and Amanda

During the last week of September of this year, I was contacted by an antiques dealer, David, who wanted to share photos of a portion of a collection of black dolls his shop had recently acquired. The dolls had been part of an eclectic collection of thousands, representing a variety of ethnicities, formerly owned by a doll lover who had the means to purchase most any doll she desired.  Wouldn't we all, (we as in doll lovers), love to be able to buy all the dolls we wanted and have the room to properly display our three-dimensional inanimate objects of obsession? I know I would.  

Most of the black dolls in the photos I viewed were made of cloth with many falling into the Black Americana category.  I do not actively collect cloth dolls or Black Americana relics, but there were a couple that I did find fascinating.


 

The large Heubach Koppelsdorf  #399 bisque doll with original grass skirt and necklace was one of the dolls that caught my eye initially.  I have a smaller version, so I decided to pass on this one.  However, had the space been available, he would be here!  In the second photo above, the pair of cloth male dolls with interesting embroidered facial features were almost a must have for me.  I probably will regret not adding them to my collection, but I decided to pass.  Below are two additional photos of this pair that I found quite intriguing.

19-inch cloth twins, circa late 1800s-early 1900s, wear wool suits with faces (and possibly bodies) of black silk

After salivating over the photos, reality set in forcing me to choose only three dolls made of mediums and in sizes that I enjoy collecting.

Tuesday by Gladys MacDowell

One of the three chosen dolls is a duplicate of one already owned, but hey... I waited a long time before finding the first Tuesday, which happens to be the #1 doll in a series of approximately 10 by Gladys MacDowell, so I wasn't going to pass up her twin.  As I noted in my post about my original Tuesday, the dolls were made of wax with cloth bodies during the 1950s.  Each one was handmade with hand painted facial features.  They stand approximately 15-/12 inches.  First and second Tuesdays are shown below.

  

Tuesday #1, shown on the left, wears an ID bracelet that spells her name.  Tuesday #2 has a whistle necklace.  Her eyes and eyebrows are more heavily painted than Tuesday #1's.  The second doll, although younger than the first, seems more mature, more "protective" of her older sister.  While their dresses have the same color theme, the print differs.

Joey by F. C. Baker, circa 1980s

The second doll I purchased, based on the seller's photos, which are shown above and below this paragraph, is a 5-inch polymer clay boy named Joey by F. C. Baker.   His height includes the top of his permanently attached hat.  Just look at his adorable face!

Joey wears a long-sleeved white shirt with Peter Pan collar, navy blue neck tie, navy blue wool short pants, and straw hat. In his left hand he holds his black shoes that have black socks tucked inside.   His left back pocket holds his slingshot. It appears Joey used to hold something in his right hand where there remains a white piece of foam in his palm.  David referred to this as a shoeshine brush, but I'm not sure that's what it represents.

Joey's handmade doll stand has a leather-covered base with his name, the artist's name, and original circa 1980s selling price handwritten on an attached adhesive label. 

I was not familiar with a doll artist named F. C. Baker.  Searching the Internet for additional dolls by this artist did not generate results.  After Tuesday and Joey arrived (and some other non-doll things purchased from David, which will be shared in a a separate post), David recontacted me asking if "Portrait doll of Amanda by Faye C. Baker" interested me.  It was not until then that I knew Joey's artist's first name was Faye, and yes, Amanda did, in fact interest me.

Portrait doll of Amanda by Faye Corcoran Baker is signed and dated on her lower back 1/23/83.

Another Internet search did not result in any information about Joey and Amanda's artist using her full name, Faye Corcoran Baker.  Online photos may be absent for a number of reasons:  she no longer makes dolls or stopped making them several years prior to the Internet's popularity, or she quite possibly is no longer living.

As shown above, Amanda is taller than Joey.  She measures 7-1/2 inches tall.  Like, Joey, she is also made of polymer clay and both dolls have a wired armature in their arms.  She also has painted features with hand-applied synthetic hair styled in two side braids.  One of her tiny blue hair ribbons is missing.  Her feet are bare.  Both dolls are one of a kind.

As indicated on her lower back, she is a portrait of someone named Amanda. 

  

If you collect antique black cloth dolls or if you found any of the dolls in David's group photos interesting, you may contact him for additional information through his website.


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Cal's New Wig

I created a stocking cap for Cal soon after his arrival a year ago to conceal his unsightly hair loss.

Because his original human hair wig has several missing hair plugs, making a wig for Cal has been on my to-do list since his arrival with his sister, Tuesday, almost a year ago to this date.

Profile photos illustrate Cal's multiple missing hair plugs.

The original plan had been to maintain the artist's hair color choice, so I devised a plan to use hair clippings saved from my first grandson's first haircut*.  The clippings, unfortunately, were no where to be found.  I looked high and low to no avail.

Instead, I used strands from the Lock Twist braiding hair leftover from the locs fashioned for Tonner's Jon.  What was done to create the wig  is outlined below in the following photos and captions.

Cal's head is covered with two plastic twist tie bags that are secured with a rubber band around his neck.

A piece of brown cloth is placed over the plastic bags and secured in place with another rubber band.

A white ink pen marks what will become Cal's hairline in front.

The above photo and the next two illustrate an application of Aleene's Tacky Glue that covers the surface of the cloth  that will become the wig cap where the hair will be applied.

Overnight, the glue dries and stiffens that area of the cloth.

The extra fabric is trimmed away from the glued area to create the wig cap.  Cal tries it on for size.

The wig cap is trimmed a bit more. The braiding hair used, prior to clipping tiny portions of it, is shown above.

The strands of hair are clipped into small pieces.  (Not shown, another layer of Aleene's Tacky Glue is smeared over the wig cap before the cut pieces of hair are immediately applied to cover the surface.)

Small pieces of hair are applied over glue onto to the wig cap and allowed to dry overnight.

Cal wears his new wig, the color of which closely matches his original hair color.  Since it is a wig, it is removable, although chances of Cal wanting me to remove it are slim to none.

Close-up of Cal with his healthy head of auburn hair.

Tuesday joins her brother and is amazed by the amount of hair growth he has experienced in less than 48 hours.  Just like a typical teasing brother, Cal plans to keep his alopecia recovery treatment a secret from Tuesday, at least for a while. 

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*By the time I completed the draft of this post, I remembered using Grandson's first haircut clippings on two small Berenguer baby dolls in approximately 2008 (next photo).  It pleases me to have remembered what happened to the hair saved from his very first haircut.

LaNewborn Berenguer dolls have rooted hair courtesy of me and hair saved from my first Grandson's first haircut.  The girl has a ponytail with bangs and spiral curls on the sides.  The boy has a short Afro.

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Finding Tuesday

Tuesday, a 17-inch wax doll, photograph courtesy of Mama Jo's House of Dolls

The thought of owning Tuesday, the doll shown above, dates back to 2012 when I stumbled upon Mama Jo's House of Dolls on Facebook.  The Facebook page and Ruby Lane shop of the same name belong to Jo Maeder*.  Jo is the author of When I Married My Mother.  Jo's book is a candid account of her re-established relationship with her elderly, doll-loving mother and the events that led to Jo's inheritance of 700+ dolls.  Tuesday is one of the 700.

Close-up of Tuesday reveals facial cracks that did not diminish my desire to own her.  The cracks, in my opinion, add character.  Photo courtesy of Mama Jo's House of Dolls

After seeing Tuesday's Facebook photo, I contacted Jo to inquire about her.  "She'll be my first wax doll," I thought, a medium I had longed to own in black-doll form.  Tuesday's height, whether or not she was for sale, and at what price were some of my unanswered questions.   Jo answered that Tuesday was not for sale, explaining how very special she was to her.

Tuesday was made by renowned doll artist, Gladys MacDowell, who made dolls from the 1940s through the 1970s.  She was a member of the National Institute of Doll Artists (NIADA) and member of the Dollology Club of Washington.  Prior to making wax dolls, MacDowell made hundreds of cloth dolls according to her profile in the 1977 book, The American Doll Artist Volume I by Helen Bullard.  The profile reveals MacDowell's inspiration to make her first wax dolls occurred after she attended a Panamanian Carnival in Panama City where she and her family resided for four years beginning in 1947.  At that carnival, she saw a group of authentically costumed Panamanian dolls and decided to make some herself using beeswax found among her husband's radio parts.


Bullard writes:
As a seasoned doll collector, [MacDowell] had many acquaintances in the field, and soon she was being asked to make wax dolls for numerous collections.   Even more anxious were the owners of battered antique wax dolls who asked her to restore their darlings, if not to pristine beauty, then to some acceptable fraction thereof...  Among her clients [were] many museums, a testament to her expertise in dollmaking and restoration.

Bullard concludes:
MacDowell is unable to put together a catalog of all the dolls she has made since the Panamanian family in 1947... Almost everyone was a child doll, usually a portrait, and most often one of a kind.


A United Federation of Doll Clubs first prize ribbon-wearing Tuesday is shown on page 120 of Bullard's book.  Tuesday's caption reads:  Little girl in wax.  Portrait.

Gladys MacDowell was Jo Maeder's maternal great-aunt, which is understandably the reason Tuesday is so special to Jo.

Understanding this, however, did not prevent me from viewing Tuesday's Facebook photo from time to time and continuing to appreciate the 1950s little girl innocence that MacDowell had been able to capture in three-dimensional form.  Gazing at her picture, I often wondered what little girl served as Tuesday's inspiration after the family's return to the States, which is when Tuesday was made based on the handwritten "1959" that appears on her back.  Gladys' son, Robert MacDowell and Jo both shared that Gladys named the doll Tuesday because she had the idea to make her on a Tuesday.

Photo courtesy of Mama Jo's House of Dolls

Eventually, I pinned Tuesday's photo to my Pinterest board:  Beautiful Black Doll Sightings because to me she is beautiful and my desire to own her continued.

In January 2013, I saw a photo posted on Facebook of a group of dolls from the December 2012 Gaithersburg Doll Show.   Included in the group photo was another Tuesday!  This one was dressed in a red floral print dress.  I tracked down the owner to see if she was willing to part with Tuesday.  Of course, she was not.  I shared the link to the image with Jo, who until then did not realize other Tuesdays existed.  She asked her cousin if he knew how many Tuesdays Gladys made.  His answer was possibly 10.  With this additional information, I felt there was hope in finding one for myself.


In November of 2013, Jo informed me of another Tuesday and a male companion that were in another seller's Ruby Lane shop.  "Could this be true?" I thought, after seeing the two dolls listed together.  The boy was interesting, but I only wanted Tuesday.  I wrote the seller and asked if she would be interested in selling Tuesday to me.  Her logical preference, unfortunately, was to keep them together.

Tuesday and her companion (brother) from another Ruby Lane seller

The dolls remained together in that listing, unsold at the seller's original asking price until March of 2014 when a drastic reduction in price was made and I placed the pair on a four-month layaway.  Finally, I had found my Tuesday and as an added plus, her brother, too!

Tuesday and her brother have been "home" finally for a little over a week.  I recontacted Jo with additional questions regarding Tuesday's history before sitting down to write this post.  I wanted to be certain all historical facts were accurate.  Jo graciously shared additional information along with her Cousin Robert's email address.   In addition to contacting Robert, I wrote the seller to obtain any additional information she could provide that was not included in her Ruby Lane description.  Her only addition was they were purchased on eBay a few years ago from someone who she believed lived in California.

In the seller's description, the male doll was also attributed to Gladys MacDowell.  After I shared their photos with MacDowell's son Robert, he wrote:

I'm pretty sure that 'Tuesday' was created while we lived in Virginia after 1950.

The other doll is not her work. She had a friend who made some dolls in the rough style, but I'm rather sure the other one was made by Ms. I.V. Roberts.

I googled her name and discovered that I. V. Roberts was also a NIADA member.

Brother's origin remains a mystery because unlike Tuesday, he is unmarked.  Was he a collaboration between the two artists or did MacDowell, in fact, make him?  Is he a one of a kind?  These are some of my unanswered questions about him.

I believe Brother, whose name is now Cal (an acronym for three special young men in my life), and my Tuesday were created at the same time, by whom remains a mystery.

What I do know for sure is that my Tuesday is labeled #1, which indicates she is the first one MacDowell made.  She was made during the 1950s for someone named Marie Mae Schwartz, as illustrated by her handwritten shoulder plate markings that extend onto her brown cloth back:

My Tuesday's handwritten marks identify her as the first Tuesday made and for whom she was made.

Tuesday has brown human hair that is rooted into her wax head and styled in six braids wrapped with yellow fabric at the ends.  Cal has red hair that is also rooted, unfortunately, some hair plugs are missing.  Tuesday and Cal have brown inset eyes.  His eyes glance to the side.  They both have brown cloth bodies, and as stated, Cal is unmarked.  Both have bare feet.  Like Jo's doll, my Tuesday wears an ID bracelet on her left wrist. Cal has a harmonica on a string around his neck.  Cal stands 16 inches; Tuesday is about 15-1/2 inches.

Additional Photos:

Tuesday has six squared-off braids of human hair.

Poor Cal has some missing hair plugs and rather prominent cheeks.

The "u" in Tuesday's bracelet is upside down.  The snug fit prevents flipping it over.

What I also know for sure is that I am happy to have finally found my Tuesday!  She and the bonus companion were well worth the wait. 

*Jo Maeder is also the author of When Opposites Attack.

Update 07-17-2026

Another collector has a similar wax boy doll purchased at a doll show in Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida, during the 1980s to 1990s. Her doll is similar to my "Cal." The doll dealer who sold it to her said the boy was made by a guy from Coral Gables, Florida. Her boy has a shirt tag that reads: "Sunny Boy."

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