POLLY'S PAPER PLAYMATES from 1911

This antique paper doll is from The Boston Herald Sunday supplement in 1911. Looks pretty good for being over 100 years old.

There were 12 dolls in this series as shown below or here. Alas, I only have two from the series.

Click on image to see it larger.

And click on over to Tattered and Lost Photographs to see a young girl with a Madame Alexander doll.

Estey Organ Co. ADVERTISING PAPER DOLLS

These two dolls advertised the Estey Organ Company. I imagine they were printed around 1900, give or take 5 years either direction.

These same dolls were also used by the McLaughlin Coffee Company and others. That would be an interesting item to collect; all of the dolls from the different manufacturers.

Sadly there's never any artist information given about these old advertising paper dolls.

Click here to see other dolls in the series that Estey sold. Click here to see more at the Estey Organ site and hear an actual organ being played.

The Estey Organ Company was founded by Jacob Estey when he bought out a Brattleboro, Vermont manufacturing business in 1852. The company went on to become the largest manufacturer of organs in the United States. The original company had been founded in 1846. It employed more than 500 people and its high-quality items were sold as far away as Africa, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Around 500,000 to 520,000 reed organs, or 'pump organs' as some term them, were built between 1846 and 1955. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

Click here to read about the Estey Organ Company Museum.

To see a couple of real dolls with their dolls visit Tattered and Lost Photographs.

UPDATE: From reader WJY:

Your dolls were probably made between August 1898, the end of fighting of the Spanish American War, and December 1898, when the Treaty of Paris was signed, which resulted in the annexation of Guam, Puerto Rico, the Phillipines, ended the occupation of Cuba, and recognized Cuban independence.

None Such JAPANESE AND CHINESE PAPER DOLL

I collect paper dolls and am fondest of the ones made pre-1950s. I especially love old advertising dolls. The lithography gave them a richness you would never see in later day dolls.

I purchased this doll several years ago on eBay. The seller was elderly and selling off some dolls his late wife had owned. I told him they'd be taken care of.

When looking at old dolls like this I wonder more about the hands they've passed through than who manufactured them. This particular doll dates to 1895.

To receive this doll back in 1895 the buyer had to first buy five packages of None Such New England Mince Meat and cut the heads off the woman holding a pie on the package. Sounds a little brutal. They were then supposed to send 10 cents in silver along with the heads. Starts to sound a bit like a ransom. If they didn't have the 10 cents, which was apparently the shipping charge, they could cut off 20 heads and get it for free. Now it's just starting to sound like an episode of CSI.

To read about the company that sold the dolls, Merrill-Soule headquarter in Syracuse, click here. The printer was Forbes Lithography located in Boston, Massachusetts.

This post ties in with this weeks posts on my photography blog, Tattered and Lost Photographs, where the category is dolls.

AMERICA paper doll

A little piece of paper 114 years old. One of a series of 12 little paper dolls offered by the Barbour Brothers Company of New York in 1895. This one was called "America" for obvious reasons. Originally they cost three two-cent stamps. I think it interesting someone named her Grace, the same name of the doll I posted last night.