Antique DOLL Collector January 2012 Vol. 14, No. 12
January 2012 Vol. 14, No. 12 $595 / $695 Canada www.antiquedollcollector.com
A Visit with
Helen Welsh Gastaldo by Donna C. Kaonis
A
t the tender age of six Helen Welsh Gastaldo already knew the meaning of mint and boxed. On shopping expeditions her mother would buy her a Barbie with extra clothing, shoes and accessories. Helen valued her Barbies so much she wouldn’t play with them nor could any of her friends! “I would put a new outfit on the Barbie and then carefully wrap it back up in the original plastic cellophane wrapping.” A couple of years ago she finally parted with her original childhood Barbies at top prices. As a little girl she also collected ceramic horses and international dolls. Then like most of us other interests took hold, her marriage, jobs and two daughters, Kris and Heather, occupying every spare moment. About fifteen years ago with her daughters grown, she rediscovered dolls with a passion. Since then there has been no stopping her. Above: Although extremely difficult to find in good condition, Helen has managed to acquire an impressive collection of early Steiff velveteen animals. 18
ANTIQUE DOLL COLLECTOR
JANUARY 2012
A small unmarked French fashion with lovely gray eyes.
Far left: Lenci’s chubby faced series are among Helen’s favorites. The girl holding the rooster, circa 1930, is from the desirable 1500 series. Left, Series 110/64 Lenci, c. 1927 with unusual leather shoes; circa 1930, this toddler in red has her name “Lusi” appliquéd on her pocket; rare winking model 264 from 1926. Below: The Lenci in pink is from the 1500 Grugnetto series, in blue, the 300 series; the Lenci miniatures, also known as mascots, are circa 1933. The one in red has floppy legs.
Right: This rare back doll is Series 112, and was made during the first years the company was in business. Below: Although Lenci concentrated on child and boudoir dolls, they did make a few babies with curved legs beginning in the 1920’s.
Today Helen lives in a beautiful suburban home with her husband John, a prominent neurosurgeon, and their cats, Gus and Caesar. John is a proficient pilot and while the rest of us suffer the indignities of commercial flying, they rent a plane at a nearby airport for their vacation travel as well as doll shows and auctions. On a personal note, I am fortunate to have Helen as a neighbor and good friend. Each morning, weather permitting, Helen runs by my house at approximately 5:30 am. I take her word for this as I am always sound asleep. She is passionate about her running and very disciplined. Just two weeks from now, she and John will be running in a half marathon at Disney World in Orlando.
ANTIQUE DOLL COLLECTOR
JANUARY 2012
19
26
ANTIQUE DOLL COLLECTOR
JANUARY 2012
The Beautiful One Has Come by Kathy Embry Marked S&H over 1160-0, 10in tall cloth body with leather arms, human hair wig with braids that wrap around her head. Closed mouth, single stroke eyebrows, long black eye lashes, fixed blue-grey eyes. She has a sweet serene face. Carole Miley Collection.
The former villa of Carl Halbig.
I
t was in 1869 that Wilhelm Simon and Carl Halbig founded their porcelain factory in the peaceful village of Grafenhahn. I know it is a very peaceful place since I was lucky enough to have visited there several years ago. I saw the large tall villa, where Carl Halbig once lived on the wooded hillside that overlooked the meadow where the porcelain factory once stood. I will always remember this small village as having the friendliest people in Germany. The porcelain factory began making doll heads in 1869 which were said at the time to be made of “bisquit” porcelain. The Simon & Halbig factory was very successful until the beginning of World War I in 1914. This was when American importers stopped buying German dolls. If you look in The Artful Aspect by Jan Foulke, you will find three pages of mold numbers
ANTIQUE DOLL COLLECTOR
JANUARY 2012
27
Barbara Spears • P.O. Box 126095, Ft. Worth, TX 76126 Phone (Home) 817-249-2069 (after 8:30am & before 10:00 pm CST only please) • E-mail: barbarasdolls@barbarasdolls.com 1
7
13
2
3
8
9
14
5
4
6
10
15
1. 10” “Blue Boy”, dressed by last owner, cute bisque head and hands, painted eyes, very nice cond. Straight limbed kid body $95 2. 25” K*R, Simon Halbig, brn flirty eyes, orig. hh long curls, white silk dress, ant. shoes, flapper body, 1 finger broken, big toes have some damage $650 3. Darling and very nicely made Oriental doll house family, leather hands and shoes, silk faces w/painted features, from 3” father to 1 ½” smallest child, circa 1920’s-30’s $125 4. Gorgeous 21” Alexander Cissy, tagged navy taffeta dress w/watch pinned to waist, tagged Alex faux fur shrug, Alex petticoat, tagged Alexander navy blue lace teddy, hair in orig. set, beautiful face color $450 5. Darling 25” life-size baby, Heubach-Kopplesdorf #267, clothes incl. lovely white organdy dress with pink ribbon in insertion at waist, lots of lace appear orig., bonnet old but not orig. Brn sleep eyes, dimples, 5-pc compo. baby body $350 6. Gorgeous Kestner 152 (harder to find mold #), 21”, brn sleep, hh wig, lovely organdy dress is newer, red bow in hair, red shoes, bj body has normal wear $395 7. 21” very early 1900’s heavy compo boy by Elektra NY, painted blue eyes, swivel wrists, dressed in cute blue knit suit and matching cap, little paint flaking on lips $125 8. What a cutie! The always popular SFBJ 236 “Laughing Jumeau” toddler as a boy, blue eyes, hh wig, ant suit, and his “so French” red beret, 19” tall $850 9. Pair of lovely Sasha dolls, Cora and Caleb, both have wrist tags/boxes with a few “dingies”, she also has outer box sleeve, $175 each 10. Beautiful 27” unusual bisque head girl, marked only 60 and a scratched “X”, French-type bj body, hh wig, blue sl eyes, lovely pale pink cotton batiste fancy dress $495
11
16
12
17
11. Lovely 17” marked Emma Clear “Coronation” lady, molded white w/ gold accents “crown” w/molded blue & gold pin, molded blue earrings, molded 3-strand beads, beautiful black dress $295 12. Sweet little 11 ½” Shoenhut baby face on “walking” toddler body. Antique white dress & slip, orig 1-pc undies and black stockings (holey), orig nailed on wig, body “walks” when you hold her hand and pull her along, face has orig. finish with an outer paint chip on cheek and a paint crack on forehead, usual to Shoenhut dolls $650 13. 2 gorgeous Simon-Halbig 1160 “Little Women” heads only, both have orig wigs, blonde has 2 long curls w/cluster of braids in back, blk eyes, and is 2 ½” inches at $100, and the other is an extra large 2 ¾” w/blue eyes, side curls w/cluster of braids in bun on back head, and she is $150 14. 21” AM Floradora mkd A 11 M Floradora, usual beautiful AM bisque, molded eyebrows, blue sl eyes, old white dress with a blue ribbon at waist and one under eyelet on skirt, mohair wig w/blue bows on each side face $225 15. Loveliest of the lovely 21” Emma Clear in china, spill curls w/molded blue and gold band across hair, mkd Clear ’41, orig old clothes, dress shows some age wear $350 16. Adorable little 14” BSW baby, blue sl eyes, mohair baby wig, old white batiste dress trimmed with lace and pink ribbon, hat old but is pink $125 17. Beautiful and serene, Parian lady with molded blouse top w/blue luster trim on tie, ptd blue eyes, antique cotton print dress has fading, parian type lower arms and legs, legs have boots w/blue tie on stockings $550
We accept VISA, MC and Discover, checks and money orders. Layaway is available. Layaway dolls are not returnable unless a crack or chip in bisque head not described is discovered. Dolls purchased with credit card are subject to a 5% fee if doll is returned, except if the doll has crack or chip in bisque or china not described. WE BUY OLD DOLLS • WILL TRAVEL TO PURCHASE COLLECTIONS.
PLEASE SEE OUR WEBSITE AT:
www.barbarasdolls.com For More Beautiful Dolls, Doll Clothes, Accessories, Books And Paper Dolls, Etc.
Etrennes…
Happy New Year! by Donelle Denery
The former original owner received this charming presentation box in 1903. The 10inch bisque doll has over fifteen original items of clothing plus many accessories still tied down.
F
or many of my doll collecting years I’ve been fascinated by dolls in elaborate presentations. In 1999, Theriault had an auction titled “Etrennes – French Nineteenth Century Holiday Dolls and Playthings”. The wonderful book published for this auction talks about how one person consigned to them a collection of 300 Etrennes catalogs from 1877 to just after World War I. The catalogs pictured the holiday offerings of leading French stores. Items depicted in the catalogs were found and offered in the auction along with the catalogs. Many of the items were elaborate presentations including dolls, doll related items or toys. These catalogs showed gifts called Etrennes. An Etrennes was a gift given for New Year’s Day. This tradition was only celebrated in France, where New Year’s was the big gift giving day. Started in the Roman-Gallo times with simple gifts of food of honey or sweets, the tradition was celebrated well into the 20th Century and evolved into luxury gifts for loved ones – especially children. The French department stores, such as Au Nain Bleu, competed for business by showing their items in elaborate catalogs. How lucky we are that these catalogs survived. While dolls made in France were sometimes used in these elaborate presentation boxes, often dolls of German origin were used, even during the World War I. What originally sparked my interest in presentation boxes was finding a German doll dealer at a doll show that had purchased the entire collection of a very elderly friend. In this group was a presentation box that the original owner received as a child during the holidays in 1903. As is typical with many of the presentation boxes, the box is made of paper covered wood with a colorful lithograph of children on the lid. This particular box, which measures ANTIQUE DOLL COLLECTOR
JANUARY 2012
35
alome S
Lenci’s Femme Fatale by Myra Fay Graubard
Photos by Gabi Dendinger
L
56
ANTIQUE DOLL COLLECTOR
JANUARY 2012
enci’s early all-felt doll, Salome, circa 1920’s, has quite the reputation. They took her femme fatale legend and ran with it, creating a sensuous, sassy, swivel-hipped doll that leaves nothing to the imagination. My sixteen-inch tall doll features articulated arms. When posed opposite her unusual swivel hips, she creates the illusion of her dancing the “Dance of the Seven Veils.” One focuses on her alluring left side-glancing eyes and heart-shaped face, with painted open mouth. A knotted rope-like headdress, attached to maroon and blue short felt strips, crowns her head. Further enhancing her ensemble is ornamental white beading, cascading down her blue bolero vest, as well as on long maroon and blue strips which comprise her ankle-length skirt. Round circles of the same material, in two shades of green, intertwined with several white beads, hang from the bottom of the skirt, augments the costume weight as well as adornment. If sandals graced her feet at one time, I am unaware of them. My Salome dances barefoot. The Hebrew name, Salome, is derived from the root word Shalom, which means, peace. Alas, accounts of her life were anything but peaceful. First mention of Salome was in Flavius Josephus, ‘Jewish Antiquities.’ She was the stepdaughter of Herod Antipas and the daughter of Herodias. He gave reference to her name and details of her family relations. The legend of ‘Salome’ is derived from two Biblical accounts, passages in Mark and the Gospel of Matthew. She is not mentioned by name in Mark’s reference, but called either ‘Herodias’s daughter’ or ‘the girl.’ Salome danced before Herod on the occasion of his birthday. In the original Gospel story, Salome was depicted briefly as an amoral adolescent, who shockingly demands John the Baptist’s head on a charger, fulfilling her mother’s vengeful request. An aside must be mentioned here: Salome of legend is not considered the same person as Salome the disciple, who witnessed the Crucifixion of Jesus as cited in Mark 15:40. The Biblical story resonated with renowned painters. Titian’s version contrasts the brutally severed head of John the Baptist with the innocence of her girlish face. Gustave Moreau depicts Salome as the poster girl for decadence and vice.
T
he nineteenth century afforded us two bizarre and scathing interpretations of her story, sprinkled with more than a pinch of literary license, through Oscar Wilde’s play (1896), and Richard Strauss’s one-act opera (1905). The Salome of Wilde’s play takes a perverse fancy for John the Baptist. When he spurns her affections, she causes him to be executed. In the shocking finale, Salome embraces John’s severed head and kisses it. Richard Strauss’s opera is famous for Salome’s “Dance of the Seven Veils.” Stauss expanded Wilde’s concept, depicting the dynamics of the Scripture’s most dysfunctional family. Here a psychopathic Salome demands the holy man’s decapitation as revenge against her shamelessly spurned immoral propositions. Her stepfather, Herod, continues to make incestuous innuendos. Herodias delights in the prize of the disembodied head. Salome sings in delirious triumph while sweeping it up in her arms, then sensuously kisses the Prophet’s dead lips! Wilde’s Salome inspired a 1923 silent film which stared Alla Nazimova. The 1950’s film ‘Sunset Boulevard’ showcases the principal character, Norma Desmond, writing a screenplay for a silent film treatment of the legend of Salome. She performs one of the scenes from her screenplay after going insane. A myriad of films, ballets, and songs, too numerous to mention, were inspired by the legend of Salome. Was she motivated by revenge, adolescent lust or a victim of parental incest and court intrigue? This is a matter of personal interpretation. One thing we can agree on: We are fortunate to have Italy’s Lenci doll, Salome, to stir our imaginations and bequeath us artistic pleasure.
ANTIQUE DOLL COLLECTOR
JANUARY 2012
57