AI Doll Images Part 3 of 4

I created more AI doll images using specific instructions.

This is part three of a series on AI-generated doll images using my original doll photos and prompts to create social-media themes, change backgrounds, envision clothing and settings, and to enhance or correct photographs. Using AI helps me accomplish things in minutes that would otherwise require learning skills and software that aren't part of my creative toolbox.  The following photos were AI-enhanced:

After physically redressing "She's That Girl Reign" in American Girl Julie's 1970s casual fashion, I used the prompt: place this doll in a 1970s-decorated African American home with shag carpet in a color to match the room decor.

I failed to note in the previous related posts that AI has often failed to produce what I expected in some of my earliest AI doll photo editing. I learned early on that where dolls and people are involved in images, AI often defaults to White dolls and people and will sometimes change dolls' complexion/ethnicity and/or facial features. My prompts are now more specific with the added instruction: do not change the doll's facial features or complexion.

The prompt used to change the background of the original picture: Place the dolls in an airport setting with baggage for the doll in blue who is traveling to Illinois. The one in brown is seeing her off. 

The prompt used for the original picture of these dolls was: place these dolls in a classroom setting.

This doll (Honey by Curly Girls United) was placed in a colorful background to match her Mondrian-patterned dress.

The plain background of this group photo of seated Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls was transformed by placing the dolls in a culturally enhanced bedroom setting.

Place this doll in an early 1900s bedroom setting, was the prompt for the original photo of a Leo Moss-type doll by Rubin Quintano.

For the original picture, I used the prompt: Create a better background for this group of Madame Alexander dolls.

Caution: Sometimes AI makes mistakes with misspellings when words are involved, or numbers when years are involved. It also makes other image errors. After images are created, they must be carefully examined. 

Below, is 1) an original photo of a Xian Xian doll group followed by 2) AI's errored result of the prompt it was given, and 3) the correction of its errors.

I used this prompt: Do not change the dolls' facial features or skin tone. Dress them in beige and white fashions and place them in a cozy setting. The following photo with errors resulted.

The dolls were dressed in beige and white and placed in a cozy setting; however, AI added an extra pair of shoes on the floor, and the sofa arms and cushion are stained. 

To correct the errors in the above AI-generated image, I used the prompt: Remove the extra pair of shoes from the floor and correct the 'dirty' or 'stained' areas on the sofa arms and cushion.

This is the final, corrected version.

Because its intelligence is artificial, for best results, AI always requires human guidance. Always.

Related Posts

Part 1

Part 2

__________

All photos and text are copyrighted and may not be used elsewhere without the author's permission.

©Black Doll Collecting/dbg

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

Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published. To contact me directly, use the About page link, which is also visible in Web View mode; find and use the email link.

Visit and follow DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum (VBDM) for over 1000 curated installations of antique, vintage, modern, and one-of-a-kind Black dolls, and now featuring profiles of Black-doll collectors, artists, and other Black-doll contributors. 

Contact the curator through the VBDM contact page to have your Black-doll collector or artist profile featured on the museum website for up to 30 days.

Leo-Moss-Type Dolls by Rubin Quintano

Leo-Moss-type dolls by Rubin Quintano, ca. 1990s

Recently, the opportunity presented itself for me to add a second doll by Rubin Quintano to my collection. Quintano made dolls fashioned after the doll-making style of late 19th-century dollmaker, Leo Moss. 

With the arrival of the new doll (shown above on the right), I discovered that I had not yet installed my larger Quintano Moss-type doll, Cecily, in DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum.  That installation was finally  published on 07/05/23 (follow the link at the end of this post to view). The newer doll's museum installation will be published on 07/07/23, but I wanted to publish this brief post to introduce both dolls to readers of this blog as well.

Cecily is my first doll by Rubin Quintano.

Cecily is a 22-inch doll by Rubin Quintano that I have owned for several years. This doll is featured in Myla Perkins' second Black Dolls book. I purchased Cecily from the doll's original owner. Cecily is also included in my four-part article on Leo Moss dolls that I published in an Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black article in 2016. (Follow the link to the article at the end of this post.)

My newly acquired Rubin Quintano doll is much smaller than my first one.

The new doll is only 15-1/2 inches tall and is unnamed. Before this doll entered my collection, it was also featured in my article on Leo Moss dolls. A glimpse of this doll can be seen in the following YouTube video, which was uploaded by Rachel Hoffman for Ruby Lane on September 29, 2018. The video covers Charm City Dolling Club's special black doll exhibition, Black Dolls: A Journey Through Time. The exhibition was part of the 2018 UFDC Region 11 Conference.

Cecily and the new girl (I might name her Cecile) display well together.

Use this link to access the Leo Moss article. (The Quintano dolls are included in part 3.)

Read Cecily's Virtual Black Doll Museum installation here.

©Black Doll Collecting/dbg

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

__________

Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published, so don't waste your time. To contact me directly regarding dolls or any of my posts, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.

If you're not already a subscriber, visit, "like" and follow the Black Doll Collecting Facebook page or bookmark the Black Doll Collecting home page and visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays when typically new posts are published.

Check out what I am selling here. 
Check out my eBay listings here.
Please follow my sister blog Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black.
*New*Visit/Follow DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum
Donate here to support this blog. Thank you!

Guest Post: Through the Eyes of a Leo Moss Collector: Bev’s Story

Through the Eyes of a Leo Moss Collector: Bev’s Story 

An 11-inch doll by Leo Moss

By Beverly W. Flowers

I have focused my doll collection on vintage and antique black dolls by developing a strategic plan that required daily hunting for these rare and valuable dolls. I never imagined I would be asked to guest blog on Black Doll Collecting by Debbie Behan Garrett as a collector with a Leo Moss doll. The offer should not have surprised me. Debbie has supported and encouraged me throughout the years. She has promoted black doll collectors and artists in her books, articles, websites, the We Love Black Dolls Anew Facebook group, and through her Black Doll Collecting and Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black blogs. We owe so much to her dedication and I thank God that Debbie never gave up her daily sharing of doll information.

My Doll Collecting Journey

I started collecting dolls over 30 years ago to honor Maggie Pearl, my mother. Mom supplemented my Christmas gifts by making clothes for my Barbies. I did not appreciate her labor of love until she died from breast cancer at 42-years young. Reality sunk in when I realized the only things I owned were doll clothes and a $150 car.

I began collecting black Barbies because I thought they were lovely and shared Mom’s classic beauty. Eventually, my three jobs could not feed my lay-a-way habit. So, I started an entrepreneurial business in 1988 called Exquisite Showcases. I had magnificent glass display cases with exotic woods, which I varnished, and then were hand-assembled by an artist. I planned to sell them at doll shows even though I had never been to a doll show. I just thought everyone needed display cases for antique dolls but not one case sold. I believed a beautiful black antique doll would highlight my special display cases. However, the shows only had white dolls and dealers assured me that I could neither afford nor find an antique black doll.

         Eventually, I repeated this to my future husband, Bill, that doll dealers said I would never see or own a good black doll. He found it offensive that I would allow anyone to create a ridiculous barrier to my dreams. Bill’s life theory still is based on the philosophy that everything is possible if you are prepared and have the will.

In 1997, Bill handed me a piece of paper with strange words, “eBay.com.” He suggested selling my Barbie dolls and investing in dolls that stood the test of time and had the potential to gain even more value. He could not wrap his head around mass-produced collectibles as a stable investment. Bill reassured me that selling dolls would allow me to buy antique dolls that would hold their value and could be displayed in my cases. His idea ignored two significant facts. I did not have a computer, and I was not going to sell my barbies. My brother Mike, who had accompanied me in those painful sell-less display case days, happily gave me his computer. Bill sealed the deal with a promise that when we married, every dollar I made selling anything would go to buying old dolls. The money would never be used to solve household financial stresses. Thus, selling Barbies would allow me to transform my modern collection into a unique ensemble of vintage dolls that represented my mother’s spirit and the life of people of color. I was sold on selling.

Leo Moss Dolls

Leo Moss portrait doll

        I forget what year, but eventually, the Mr. Leo Moss doll was offered on eBay. However, I was not sure about bidding five thousand dollars on him. I would have to strip my collection down to the bones to come up with the money. Also, my doll notes were scattered, and I had no idea which magazine had pictures of him. I could dig up the money with a massive doll sell-off but not the confidence. I had a tremendous buyer’s remorse when the doll sold.

I vowed that I would never again freeze because of a lack of knowledge. I would become an expert in all the dolls I wanted to collect seriously.  I cut and pasted every article and advertisement with Leo Moss dolls in all the available sources into a computer log. I also went through all the doll magazines from the late 1970s to track Leo Moss dolls as they moved from auctions to collectors and back again.

I noticed that auction houses frequently used the tag “attributed” to Leo Moss dolls, leaving doubt about authenticity. I wondered how experts in identifying artist reproduction of Bru dolls could not confirm a Moss considering that Betty Formaz and Rubin Quintano were the primary artists working in Leo Moss’s style, and their work was distinguishable from real Mosses.

I believe the root of the confusion on the authenticity of Leo Moss dolls can be found by examining articles written about the dolls. Steva Roark Allgood wrote an article entitled “To Leo with Love” in the Fall 1987 Doll News magazine. Steva found that Moss created dolls for children and not as art. The bodies were awkward and poorly proportioned. More importantly, Steva concluded most Moss dolls are unmarked. Myla Perkins adds to dealer uncertainty by noting in her book, Black Dolls: An Identification and Value Guide 1820-1991, that Formaz had bought heads without bodies (see plate 29 in Myla's book).

Therefore, I can reason that unmarked heads and inappropriate bodies or “new” bodies on old heads resulted in uncertainty about the authenticity of Moss dolls. Dealers hate uncertainty and were already suspicious about all these recently discovered Moss dolls entering the market from a single source, Betty Formaz. Dealers may have chattered that Betty, being a doll artist, made the Leo Moss dolls. Again, Betty’s dolls and Rubin’s dolls are distinguishable from Leo Moss dolls from an artistic point of view and the material used. She sold the dolls almost immediately after purchasing them, and I do not know of any existing Moss molds.  

Dealers that never handled a real Leo Moss may have inadvertently bought Betty Formaz and Rubin Quintano dolls and passed them into the market as authentic Leo Moss dolls. Thus, the major factor that contributed to the use of the term “attributed” may have been the sellers' need to skirt any liability to buyers. The few experts on the dolls cautioned auction houses that they were selling reproduction dolls. Even Myla, who may have owned the most extensive collection of Leo Moss dolls, warned about Moss reproductions in her first book Black Dolls. However, Myla in her second book writes on page 33, “see page 417, plate 1654 for an excellent example of a new Moss look-alike.” Here she points the reader to an artist doll by Rubin Quintano done in the Moss style and not a deliberate fake by a con artist.

 

Prior to becoming part of Debbie Garrett's doll collection, Cecily by Rubin Quintano ca. 1992, a 22-inch Moss-style doll, was featured on page 417 in Myla Perkins' second Black Dolls book.

        I reasoned if dealers were confused, there must be confused collectors that thought they had a Formaz or Quintano when they had a Moss doll.

My strategy was to find unmarked and unappreciated Moss dolls being sold because of the confusion caused by the uncertainty of handmade artist dolls. The dolls are dark; thus, it is difficult to see the differences between artist dolls and real Moss dolls in low-quality pictures. I have tried to take an accurate count, but I may have double-counted some dolls because of a change in clothing or the angle of the new photo. Myla said there are 50 known Moss dolls.

I decided to hunt for even more Moss dolls that may be in auctions, flea markets, or antique shops. But first, I would have to be an expert in Leo Moss dolls without owning one.

I had to find someone willing to show me a real Moss doll. I would have to ask dealers again, but by this time I knew my way around a doll room. A few years later, I stumbled upon someone who owned Leo Moss dolls and was willing to share knowledge. I was introduced to the word “handle.” She allowed me to feel the weight, see the coloring, hair patterns, marking, breastplates, and bodies of these rare dolls. She allowed me to do the same with the dolls created in the Leo Moss style. I was taught how to differentiate between a real Leo Moss and a replica style. I was one of the few people in the world that had handled one, and it was intoxicating.

Two Opportunities of a Lifetime

Held at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, Michigan, the "I See Me: Reflections in Black Dolls Exhibition ran from September 20, 2016, through June 25, 2017.

I believe it was June of 2017 when I stumbled on a Facebook page advertising an upcoming exhibit of the largest collection of Leo Moss dolls. What an opportunity! I could compare variations of eyes, skin smoothness, colorings, and hair patterns. I could tell by the pictures that the dolls were from Myla’s books. We had a week to fly to Detroit to the “I see me: Reflections in Black Dolls” exhibit sponsored by the Motor City Doll Club at the Charles Wright Museum.

An emotional tidal wave rolled over me in the exhibit room as I spread out years of notes and pages from Myla’s books and Debbie’s articles. Everything about that exhibit blew my mind. I absorbed every feature like a sponge, but until then, I did not know that Myla owned them. I had counted her dolls in my total, but I had been waiting years for some of Myla’s dolls to appear in circulation.

My day begins by brushing my teeth and checking my doll searches for Moss dolls, and a few others. In March of 2019, I opened my eBay searches to see an auction for a “Vintage Leo Moss Doll Buy it now $200.” The seller was paid before I read the full description. I then read the full description over and over again while waiting for a word from the seller. 

When the doll did arrive, the seller included a handwritten note:

“Thank you for your purchase. I enclosed a newspaper clipping on the doll. I was lucky as a child to see this exhibit in Detroit. I believe in the 70’s? I bought this from a woman in Royal Oak, Michigan who repaired dolls then. Glad to hear that the doll is going to a new place. I’m slowly selling my collection. I have no children to pass the collection on to.”

Her Name is Maggie Pearl

Named after Beverly's mother, Maggie Pearl is an unmarked 1800s doll by Leo Moss.

Maggie Pearl is an unmarked 1800’s head with glass eyes.  She is 11 inches tall with molded hair and painted lips. She has a replaced body. Her neck socket is professionally stuffed to hold the head.

Authenticating Maggie Pearl required finding a small Leo Moss doll that was made during the same period in Leo Moss’s artist life. I needed to find a doll with the same bumpy complexion, dimples, and youthful look. Myla Perkin’s first book showed a similar doll, see Black Dolls, book one, plate 25:

 

 “Tiny baby, 10” tall.  This is the smallest of the Leo Moss dolls to have been purchased from the Moss family. It has a papier-mache head and bent leg jointed baby body. Head has inset tiny glass eyes, molded hair. Doll was made in the late 1800s and is unmarked.”  

However, Maggie Pearl was not a baby. I needed to find a toddler or adult.

"Tiny Black Paper Mache Boy by Leo Moss" in a photograph courtesy of Frasher's Doll Auctions is the doll Beverly used to authenticate Maggie Pearl as a Leo Moss doll.

I found a doll from Frasher’s Doll Auctions, Lot 158, that was presented as a young boy.  The catalog description read:

“TINY BLACK PAPER MACHE BOY BY LEO MOSS. Marks: None. 8 1/2”. Black paper mache head and body, tightly curled sculpted hair, boyish-like fashion, prominent brown inset glass eyes, closed mouth, impressed dimples, jointed shoulders, and hips, wears original cotton overalls. Commentary: Very unusual example of early work by Leo Moss. One of the smallest sizes known to exist. Very good condition.”

The back of Maggie Pearl's head, neck, and upper back are illustrated in this photo

I confidently concluded that Maggie is an early 1800’s head because Steva noted in the previously referenced Doll News article that the “later dolls have a very smooth finish that resembles porcelain.” Maggie’s face is not smooth.  I also know her body was professionally replaced by examining the neck socket.  The seller said she had the doll for years and bought her from a doll doctor in Detroit.  Hopefully, a reader knows the complete story behind Maggie Pearl and can fill in the missing pieces of Maggie’s Journey to me.

Maggie Pearl is seen in a close-up that illustrates the details of her sculpted face and hair.

Now, Maggie Pearl is displayed in the very same mahogany framed glass case that experts told me would never hold an antique black doll. She is the result of a plan to see and learn as much as possible about the works of her artist. See the pictures and be amazed at a never published (until now) Leo Moss doll. Please, no flash photography (I always wanted to say that). 

Maggie Pearl is posed with the 40th Anniversary Barbie to illustrate the doll's diminutive height when compared with other Leo Moss dolls.

References:

Black Dolls an Identification and Value Guide 1820-1991 by Myla Perkins

Black Dolls an Identification and Value Guide: Book II by Myla Perkins

Frasher’s Doll Auction (Tiny Black Paper Mache Boy)

“To Leo with Love,” Doll News, Fall 1987 by Steva Roark Allgood

******

Thank you so much, Beverly, for sharing the doll-collecting journey that led to acquiring the perfect Leo Moss doll for an exceptional, once-in-a-lifetime price! I am sure the readers of this blog enjoyed your story as much as I have enjoyed it. 

This post can also be read on my sister blog, Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black where a related four-part story about Leo Moss dolls was the first post.

For more information about Beverly and to follow her blogs on Black Memorabilia, Black Art, and Black Dolls, visit her website, Antique Black Dolls and Things.

dbg

There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.

Check out what I am selling here. 
Check out my eBay listings here.
Please follow my sister blog Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black.
Donate here to support this blog. Thank you!

The R.Q. Five

Five R.Q.-marked dolls - Photograph courtesy of eBay seller, shadowsam

The above five Leo Moss-type dolls were offered recently on eBay.  They sold for $395.00.

After the auction ended, the doll historian in me contacted the seller to ask if I could use the auction pictures for this post.  Seller, shadowsam, graciously agreed.  In return, I offered to extend a photo courtesy for the use of the photos and a link to their current listings, which can be found at the end of this post.  I also asked the seller if additional information beyond what was written in the auction description was known, and if so, could it be shared.

The seller did not know very much about the dolls other than "they were acquired at an auction house."  The auction description was written as follows:

Up for auction are 5 Vintage Black African  American Artist Made Dolls Resin Cloth Bisque OOAK.
These dolls are in used played with condition and would be great for parts/repair or to restore.
We are not really sure what they are made of, the heads feel like resin but we did see cloth bodies and the legs and arms feel like bisque.
They are homemade but they would need some work as you can see in the pictures, they have been in storage for quite awhile.
The only mark we saw was RQ on the neck.
The clothes show lots of wear also.
The dolls range from about 17" to about 28" tall.
Don't miss out on these dolls, bid now!
 

The R.Q. mark is illustrated on this doll's neck.  Photograph courtesy of eBay seller, shadowsam.

Because I am familiar with the R.Q. mark and own one doll with it, I knew these dolls were made (or refashioned) by Rubin Quintano, who is known for making dolls in the style of Leo Moss, whose dollmaking preceded Quintano's by several decades.  Moss made dolls from the late 1800s through the early 1930s, but his dolls were not discovered by doll collectors until the 1970s.  

Quintano’s Moss-type dolls can be traced back to at least the 1980s and possibly prior.  He used Moss’s dollmaking technique of applying papier-mâché-type material over the heads and sometimes bodies of already manufactured dolls, resculpting the faces and hair, and changing the eyes to achieve the Leo Moss doll appearance. 

This close-up includes two Rubin Quintano dolls fashioned in the style of Leo Moss dolls.  Photograph courtesy of eBay seller, shadowsam.

Most Quintano dolls look similar to the two shown in the above picture. 

Leo Moss-type crying doll and smiling doll with teeth are shown in this photo.  Photograph courtesy of eBay seller, shadowsam.

The doll on the left in the above photo has the signature Leo Moss tears.  Moss is said to have added tears to portrait dolls of children who cried as they sat to have their dolls made.  Of the five dolls in this auction, it was the largest doll, seated next to the crying doll, that really interested me.  I had not seen one by Quintano like this one.  It reminds me of a Leo Moss doll that recently sold at auction for $7000. 

This doll met with some misfortune that I hope is repairable.  Photo courtesy of eBay seller, shadowsam.

The doll with the broken-off head, shown above, has a unique face as well. 

This cloth body appears to belong to the unfortunate doll with broken head/neck attachment.  Photo courtesy of eBay seller, shadowsam

One of the dolls in the auction had a painted-over- or papier-mâché-covered body.  Photo courtesy of eBay seller, shadowsam.

As shown in the two photos above, in this auction, the seller illustrated the cloth body of one doll and the painted body of another.

Others have attempted to recreate Leo Moss dolls.  Quintano’s dolls are, however, by far the closest in appearance to an authentic Leo Moss that I have seen to date.  Because his dolls are usually marked R.Q. in red paint, this indicates he in no way attempted to deceive the doll collecting community about their authenticity.  He simply utilized his artistic ability to fashion dolls in the likeness of Moss dolls.  Other than his dolls, additional information about Rubin (sometimes spelled Ruben) Quintano is not known.  Dolls by Rubin Quintano are featured in part three of my article on Leo Moss dolls published at Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black.

As promised, here is the link to the seller’s current eBay listings.

It would not surprise me if some or all of these dolls show up on eBay once again but individually.  Kudos to both the seller and buyer.  

dbg

There is always something to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for following, commenting, and sharing using the share button below.

Check out what I am selling here. 
Check out my eBay listings here.
Please follow my sister blog Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black.
Donate here to support this blog. Thank you!