Antique DOLL Collector September 2011 Vol. 14, No. 8
September 2011 Vol. 14, No. 8 $595 / $695 Canada www.antiquedollcollector.com
Chiffonnette’s Seaside Costume by Sylvia Mac Neil
W
Guiseppe Garibaldi wears the distinctive red flannel shirt in this popular lithograph. Photo from Wikepedia 18
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Chiffonnette’s distingué seaside costume is made in the Garibaldi style using 19th century materials. The blouse and sash, as well as the band on the skirt, are of red cotton, while the skirt and cape are in black and white striped cotton. All is garnished with bands of hand-embroidered briar stitch of cream-colored silk.
The Garibaldi blouse features a round collar and a placket at the front. It closes with a small, three-holed black button at the neck, and black hooks with thread loops continuing to the waist; the fullness is pleated onto a waistband. Long, ample sleeves are pleated at the shoulders and gathered onto a narrow, folded-back cuff at the wrist, closing with the same style button. The rich trimming of cream embroidery garnishes the blouse at the collar, front placket, and the cuffs.
The voluminous skirt has four double box-pleats at the front, with the remainder gathered, then whipped onto a cotton tape waistband; it closes with a hook and thread loop. A bordering of red is set near the hem, the edges trimmed in briar stitch embroidery. A long sash accompanies the outfit. It is hemmed narrowly along the edges; the short, straight ends are accented with embroidery and raveled into a narrow fringe. A circular cape of black and white stripes set diagonally is edged with bands of red, embroidered to correspond. The jaunty hood terminates in three points which are finished with fanciful, red silk pompon tassels.
A coquetish hat of black straw is trimmed with red ribbons round the crown, accented with a chou of ribbon and a plume of black ostrich feathers. Other choux are tucked under the brim at the sides, with long streamers fluttering behind.
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s ’ y d Pud m a e r D
Quality French and German Dolls Fine Antiques for 34 Years
Puddy’s Dream is located in Evanswood Village on Hwy 10, Weyauwega, WI
920-867-4300
dawnma@execpc.com
Free shipping on all DOLLS in 48 states Layaway Available
www.puddysdream.com
Super Rare 36” Heinrich Handwerck - S/H - Original HUMAN Prosthetic Eyes Pierced Ears. Natural Wavy Chestnut Hair. Antique Clothing - Highly Sought After Example - $3,200.
Huge 34” Kestner - Natural Red Hair. Brown Sleep Eyes - Mink Eyebrows. Antique Gold Wire Glasses - Ready For School - $1,650.
Mohair Artist Bear - 15” with Antique Peter Scherf head - $225.
Mohair Artist Bear - 10” Antique A.M. “Lilly” head - $125.
See Me - Sun. Oct. 16th at the Altrusa Charity Doll Show - Wausau WI.
Jean Ray’s Artist Dolls by Dominique Pennegues
A
rtist dolls designed by the French artist Jean Ray have been an enigma in the French doll collecting world until a short time ago. Collectors recognized the elegant look of those expensive dolls shown in Parisian major store catalogues from 1917 up to the early 20’s, but nothing was known about Jean Ray himself, and only very little about his dolls. All we knew was that Jean Ray dolls were first produced by M.F.J.T. (Manufacture Française de Jouets en Tissu), a French company run by Emile Lang, a milliner who turned to cloth doll making at the beginning of WWI (See See the January 2008 issue of Antique Doll Collector). Collector Emile and René Lang patented cloth dolls as early as 1915 and are mainly known by collectors for their interesting male cloth dolls dressed as soldiers. However, Emile Lang later on also
Nos Enfants (our children). Illustration by Jean Ray for “Le Rire,” 1912. It shows a pregnant mother asking her little girl to agree to go back home because of “the little brother coming.” The little girl agrees, saying that he must not arrive home before them. Note the elegance of the mother and the child. Private collection. France
Lily. Portrait. Painted feature head with fine Thibet wig. 1917. Collection Musée de la Poupée Paris.
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s ’ e e b n a f f E
& Friends by Don Jensen
omic character dolls have been around almost as long as comic strips themselves. Only three years after cartoonist Richard F. Outcault first drew his Yellow Kid in 1894, a Chicago distributor brought out a big-eared doll version of the popular character. After that, dolls modeled on comic strip characters became common. But not for Effanbee, which waited until the late 1920s to bring out its first popular cartoon character doll, Percy Crosby’s Skippy. Skippy’s huge success prompted Hugo Baum, Fleischaker and Baum’s “idea man,” to look for a follow-up comic doll. In 1935, his focus fixed on Popeye, the famous character from Elzie C. Segar’s Thimble Theater Sunday “Funny Papers.” Soon Baum had acquired a license and copyright design to make such a doll. Today, most are familiar with Popeye the Sailor Man, with his squinty look and his dependency upon spinach to keep him “strong at da finich.” And surely, back in 1935, comic strip Popeye was even more famous! Cartoonist Segar had launched the Thimble Theater cartoon strip in 1919, populating it with skinny Olive Oyl and her now long-forgotten family members: brother, Castor, father, Cole and uncle, Lubry Kent Oyl. Popeye, himself, didn’t join the Thimble’s troupe until a decade later – 1929 – but he soon took on the starring role. By the time Hugo Baum took notice six years later, Popeye was a genuine comic leading man. Interestingly, though Fleischaker and Baum primarily was a composition doll company, it did have some experience with cloth dolls such as its Kali-Ko Kate. And cloth was the medium Baum chose for Effanbee’s Popeye. In its promotional Patsytown News, a free publication sent to the many thousands of little girls who had become members of the Patsy Doll Club, Effanbee introduced Popeye as “a big doll, 16 inches tall.” The strikingly realistic doll has the cartoon sailor’s familiar jut-jawed face, with baggy nose and applied ears. He has one painted eye, the other seemingly shut in a squint. His head is topped with a blue-billed white sailor’s cap. 50
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Tagged Olive and Popeye. Fifteen-and-a-half-inch Olive. Popeye is all cloth, except for his attached compo shoes. Swee’pea no longer has a tag, but clearly was part of the Effanbee series.
Comic drawing of Eugene the Jeep
His prominent biceps, “tattooed” with a pair of anchors, are well displayed by his short-sleeved navy middy with blue-piped red collar and cuffs and three white buttons. Sometime before production began, Effanbee apparently changed its mind about Popeye’s trousers. Early advertising describes them as black with red trimmings. But every doll the author has seen wears white dungarees. Popeye’s black shoes are his only composition parts. Effanbee’s doll is marked only with an unusual cardboard hangtag shaped like a crate of spinach. In one 1935 issue of Patsytown News, Popeye is portrayed as a hero, saving another Effanbee doll, Ann Shirley, from a big, bad teddy bear. Another issue shows him watching hundreds of spitting images come off Effanbee’s production line. In that mini strip, clearly not actually drawn by cartoonist Segar, an amazed Popeye utters his famous exclamation, “Blow Me Down!” Though his comic strip predecessor, Skippy had been much more popular with children, seemingly Popeye did well enough in toy and department stores to warrant Hugo Baum’s faith in him. Because of his cloth construction, though, relatively few have survived the more than seven decades since. Effanbee’s Popeye is a rare doll today. The same can be said -- in spades -- about three of Popeye’s Thimble Theater comic strip companions -- Olive Oyl, Swee’pea and Jeep – that Effanbee introduced next. By far, the rarest of the trio Is Popeye’s friend, Jeep, a strange cartoon creature from the “Fourth Dimension.” Jeep – his not widely remembered real name was Eugene -looked vaguely like a spotted yellow dog, friendly and with the inability to tell a lie. During WWII, GIs named their rugged Army vehicles after Jeep. Collectors today are familiar with the Joseph Kallus-designed composition and wood Jeep, made in several sizes by Cameo, but Effanbee’s cloth version is almost totally unknown. To the author’s knowledge, no surviving examples have been found. The doll is known only from a single 1935 advertising photo and brief description. From that description, we know that Effanbee’s version was 14 inches tall and was made of a “soft, long-wearing material. . . yellow with red spots and nose.” He had a heart-shaped cardboard hangtag identifying him as Jeep, an Effanbee product. “He’s everybody’s lucky charm!” the company’s promotion caption asserted. Almost as rare today is Effanbee’s Olive Oyl. Only a few are known to exist. As a comic character, Olive dates back to the beginning of the Thimble Theater – much later renamed, simply, Popeye -- newspaper strip. By the early 1920s, she had evolved into a homely, skinny “flapper.” With Popeye’s appearance in 1929, she threw over her “lounge lizard” boyfriend, Harold Hamgravy, setting her sights instead on the rough-and-tumble Sailor Man. Contrary to popular assumption, in Segar’s comic strip, Olive never became Mrs. Popeye, and, in fact their relationship was very much off and on. It seems Olive, particularly in the ‘30s animated versions, had a fickle streak, often attracted to the brutish Bluto, Popeye’s arch rival. While it can be assumed that Effanbee’s Olive Oyl also dates to about 1935 or 1936, she seems to have never appeared in the company’s advertising. Unlike Popeye, Olive has a rubber head and neck on a cloth body. She has a prominent molded nose and a corresponding horn-like bun on the back of her black molded hair. At 15.5 inches, she is just a bit shorter than Popeye. She wears a frumpy red and white polka dress with a large Peter Pan type collar. And like Popeye, she is marked only with a cardboard
Rare photo from 1935 “Patsytown News” is the only known image of Effanbee’s cloth Jeep, a dog-like comic creature from the “Fourth Dimension.”
Creator of Popeye and the other comic characters, cartoonish E. C. Segar.
Comic drawings of Olive and Popeye. ANTIQUE DOLL COLLECTOR
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