Wax-Over Character Doll

Wax-over Character Boy Doll

Seen in a photo shared by the seller (Vicky Hoff Forbes), this wax-over (unknown materials) shoulder head character boy entered my collection earlier this month, and is now a permanent installation in DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum. 

A lace-trimmed two-piece undergarment was worn underneath his romper.

He arrived wearing a cotton lace-trimmed undergarment underneath his romper. After removing the undergarment, the lower portion of the cloth upper arms and upper legs, and the strings that attach these to the wax lower arms and legs were visible. To cover this, I made knit arm cuffs and full-length socks.

This is the remaining sock of a pair of 15-inch-long black knit doll socks.

Several years ago, I purchased a pair of black knit doll socks that measure 15 inches long. Until my wax boy's arrival, I never had use for the socks. I used one of these to make his arm cuffs and socks.

After measuring the 2-1/2 inches needed for each arm cuff, I cut two pieces of this length from one of the doll socks and hemmed the raw edges. The cuffs were then tucked underneath the ends of the romper sleeves. 

The end of the romper sleeve is lifted up to illustrate the top of one arm cuff made from the doll sock. The cuff is not permanently attached to the romper.

The sleeve covers the top of the cuff, and the cuff covers the wax doll's upper and lower arm attachments.

The remainder of the sock was cut in half to create two full-length socks. Only one end of one of the created socks required sewing to close in the toe area. The original toe area was pre-sewn by the manufacturer.

One leg of the romper lifted up illustrates the top of one sock from the back.

Both legs of the romper cover the tops of the socks, and the socks cover the areas where the cloth upper leg attaches to the wax lower leg.

The previously worn undergarment covered the areas that the cuffs and socks now cover. It also covered his brown cloth body, where the romper did not close fully in the back.

With the undergarment removed, a small portion of his straw-stuffed brown cloth body was visible in the back. I used two black beaded map pins to close the gap in the back of his romper, as illustrated next.

With the map pins inserted, the back of the romper is properly closed.

I contemplated redrawing his rubbed-off eyebrows, but I will leave well enough alone. He's adorable just the way he is.

Doesn't he have the most adorable face?

View his museum installation here.

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

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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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