Little KLAUS the PAPER DOLL

I've mentioned in the past that years ago I was up very late one night, searching around ebay, blindly clicking from page to page. Ebay can be such a bad place in the middle of the night, especially if you've taken an Ambien and haven't gone to bed. The next morning I awoke and remembered I had a debate with myself about a box of paper dolls for sale for several hundred dollars. Did I or didn't I buy them? I did, and my stomach sank. Fortunately when the 29 pounds of paper arrived I changed my mind. Hundreds of paper dolls, all neatly arranged in envelopes for those that were cut, and nicely labeled. It had been a collection that had belonged to a librarian who had died. I put many of them in albums, but there are still several hundred to go.

This little fella, Klaus, is in a booklet that contains 3 dolls. He's a keeper.












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Tattered and Lost: The Quiet Art of Reading

WHICH PAPER DOLL is this?

I've posted this photo at my other blog, but thought that ephemera collectors, especially those who collect paper dolls would enjoy seeing it. What makes this snapshot unusual is that the little girl is holding a paper doll. It's pretty common to find photos of children with dolls, but not paper dolls. I'm sure some eagle eyed reader who collects paper dolls will be able to figure out which doll it is.


Click on image to see it larger.


Click on image to see it larger.

This photo is from the Betty Schnabel estate sale and is in her mother's photo album.

DOLLS OF MANY LANDS greeting cards

To see other doll cards from this series click on "Dolls of Many Lands" in the labels below. This is the last of the cards in the box.

DOLLS OF MANY LANDS greeting cards

To see other doll cards from this series click on "Dolls of Many Lands" in the labels below.

DOLLS OF MANY LANDS greeting cards

To see other doll cards from this series click on "Dolls of Many Lands" in the labels below.

DOLLS OF MANY LANDS greeting cards

Every once in a while my best friend puts together a fun box that she ships to me. I never know what will be inside. This past week I received such a box and I have gone through it layer by layer, taking my time, a little bit each day. She said I was treating it like an archaeological dig. That describes it perfectly. It has wonderful items, many of which I will share. The first is below.

Dolls of Many Lands greeting cards made by Tichnor Brothers of Boston were a gift to my friend from her grandparents when she was little. They are lovely and remind me a bit of the Hallmark cards that are so popular to collect. Over the next few posts I will feature the cards.

Sadly I cannot find any information about who illustrated these cards.

Click on any image to see it larger.








Is it just me or does the Eskimo doll look like singer Keely Smith?

The cruel and harsh world of COMIC BOOK PAPER DOLLS

Oh how cruel they were! How evil to have done this! Have they no shame?

Hyperbole? Perhaps, but you take a look at the evidence before you let them off the hook for this crime against little kids who just wanted to play with the paper doll.

Now, imagine you've saved up your 10 cents in 1959 and bought the latest issue of Laugh featuring Archie and his friends. Lo and behold also included was a Katy Keene storyline. And is it just me, but is it doubtful that Katy and sis came from the same DNA?


Click on image to see it larger.

So you turn the page and there are all these wonderful clothes for a paper doll. The only problem is which came first? The doll or the clothes? The doll is on the preceding page, the clothes on the following verso.


Click on image to see it larger.

Hmmmmm...didn't anyone at HQ see this coming? If the kid cuts out the clothes the doll is gone. If the kid cuts out the doll the clothes are gone. Sneaky, very sneaky. But wait, there's a simple solution. Cough up another 10 cents to some unknown ranch in Santa Barbara and a fictitious character will send you the doll and clothes even though you're already holding them in your hand. They even state:

Readers Note: All these fashion cut-outs fit the sis doll on the preceding page!

Yeah, yeah, but you've stuck your little reader in a Twilight Zone episode. How would I have solved this? I'd have traced the clothes, used my crayolas to color them, then cut out the dang busted doll. I'd have been a happy, though slightly irritated, camper.

And I'd have thought the extra clothes on the last page of the story were just super keene. But I still wouldn't buy that sis has any chance at all of growing up to look like Katy. I'm thinking we need to see the milkman, the Fuller Brush salesman, and the paper boy.


Click on image to see it larger.

Would Shirley Temple MAKE IT TODAY?

I ask you, honestly, would Shirley Temple even have a chance today? Personally I don't think she'd even be able to get an agent interested in her. She wouldn't fit the rather skanky mold of young "stars" these days.

I simply can't imagine what she'd have been like had she been part of the culture of the '90s and the 21st century. I think she'd have still turned out to be a good and decent person thanks to her parents constant interest in what surrounded her. She certainly wouldn't have turned into a Lindsay Lohan or Miley Cyrus. But you do have to wonder how she would have been changed by our current culture.

Click here to see a vintage Shirley Temple paper doll from my collection.

(SOURCE: The American Magazine, May, 1937)

SNOW WHITE and the SIX GNOMES cut-outs

This Snow White and her Six Gnomes is from The Delineator July 1918 issue. Sometimes the magazine included paper dolls, other times they were little cut out scenes like this.


(SOURCE: The Delineator, July 1918) Click on image to see it larger.

The artist, Robert McQuinn, is rather difficult to research. I cannot find any biographical information about him other than that he did illustration work for publishing and also was involved in costume and set design for the theater.

(SOURCE: Historic Newspapers)

(SOURCE: The Bookman, Vol. 43)

To see other work by McQuinn click here and here.

Okay, you're probably asking the same question I'm asking...where's the seventh gnome? That could be a mystical question for sure.

CARNIVAL paper dolls by Saalfield in 1944

If you have been following my other blog, Tattered and Lost Photographs, this week you'll know I've been featuring photos of little girls with dolls. Meanwhile, at this site I've been featuring paper dolls.

Today I'm featuring a doll created by Jean Morse for Saalfield, Carnival, published in 1944.

The cover features die-cut windows showing two of the dolls heads riding in the carriage.

Inside, first page, the two complete dolls.

There are many more costumes than what I feature here.

If you take a look at Tattered and Lost Photographs you'll see paper dolls being held by two little girls. I know one of them is Patty and Sue also published by Saalfield in 1944. Do you think it was also illustrated by Jean Morse? Any information would be helpful.

And I've mentioned this before, but I think with this doll set it could be mentioned again. Why were male dolls always so effeminate? Was it because parents or the manufacturers simply didn't want little girls dressing and undressing "masculine" looking dolls? Was it that the artists couldn't draw masculine images? Somehow I doubt it. And considering how homophobic this country is, were these dolls ever a problem for the manufacturers? Just something I've wondered about since I started collecting paper dolls. As a child I never noticed it.