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Antique DOLL Collector December 2009 Vol. 12, No. 11

December 2009 Vol. 12, No. 11 $595 / $695 Canada www.antiquedollcollector.com

Preview: Theriault’s Grand Marquis Auction Weekend, January 8th - 10th

The Quest of Two Collectors When choosing her doll house room, Hanne Buktas had a keen eye for architectural details, as evidenced in this superb example that has original papers and trim, and outstanding ornamentation.

The 3 ½”h. miniature globe with ebonized wooden base and bone or ivory globe features such exotic place names as Chinese Empire, circa 1880.

The petite French all-bisque mignonette has jointed elbows and knees, being sold on Friday, January 9.

Among the miniature dolls in the Hanne Buktas collection, Echoes of Remembered Rooms, is this very ﬁne French all-bisque mignonette in original costume.

ere is how a collection can begin. An early-dawn stroll through a neighborhood ﬂea market and spotting one pure and shining treasure among the dusty baubles and detritus of other people’s lives. It is a little miniature chair, for example, and it reminds you of Grandma’s chair when you sat at her feet and she told you stories of long ago. You must have that chair. And then the chair begins a quest for a miniature version of the tiny foot stool you sat on. And then for a miniature puppy like the one that never left your side all those years ago. And then for the carpet, the tables, the lamps, the people, and soon, the walls of a house itself. It is then that you know you have begun another collection. The journey to create a perfect world in miniature is underway. Or the journey can be the quest for a doll that resembles one you saw so many years ago in a shop window, or your grandmother’s attic, or even in your grown-up world, in the cabinet of a friend already devoted to the search for beautiful dolls. Theriault’s January auction weekend in Newport Beach, California on January 8-10, 2010 is the story of the quest of two women to create their own perfect world in miniature and in dolls. An ocean and half a continent apart, neither knowing the other, each has spent the past three decades dedicated to the search for the ﬁnest, the most elusive, the choicest. For one, Hanne Buktas, the search was for dollhouses, furnishings, and miniature dolls. For the other, Vera Bryant, the search was for dolls. They come together at this three-day weekend event in a felicitous and awesome way. In pristine original condition, the French miniature salon with silk upholstered furnishings and numerous accessories, is just one of the 128 dollhouses and doll rooms being offered in the Hanne Buktas collection.

– Their Perfect Doll World

Among the ﬁne doll rooms, notable for their luxury size, is this example known as “Madrid at the Turn of the Century” including a wedding party, the rooms enhanced with details such as a leaded window, fancy chandeliers, and set-back garden room.

The Hanne Buktas Collection, titled “Echoes of Remembered Rooms”, of dollhouse miniatures, miniature dolls and dollhouses, was exhibited on the upper floors of her stately Vienna, Austria mansion, and many have considered this the most comprehensive and exquisite collection ever privately assembled. Comprised of the finest in European 18th and 19th century miniature furniture and accessories, the collection is rich, as well, in miniature dolls, mignonettes, room settings and historic dollhouses. Examples from the Golden Age abound, with names such as Rock & Graner, Evans and Cartwright, Wagner & Sohne, Erhard & Sohne, Babette Schweizer, Bing, and Maerklin, as well as houses and rooms by Moritz Gottschalk, Christian Hacker and others. There are, too, wonderful kitchens, filled to over-flowing with wares, tools, early pottery and rare accessories, with examples providing an outstanding historical perspective of kitchens from the late 18th to early 20th centuries. Shops, groceries, milliner’s, breweries, and other unusual rooms are found, too, although it is the superb homes and rooms, ranging from quaint and cozy to palatial, that most cause the imagination to soar.

The Marquis smokes, the Lady glides, the weeping child bemoans her tumbled doll, and the Vivandiere brings sustenance to the troups, among others in the ﬁne group of automata from the Bryant collection being sold by Theriault’s on January 9. The auction, Echoes of Remembered Rooms, includes many wonderful chandeliers and lighting pieces including this rare example.

SHOPPING IN PARIS

by Jan Peterson Photos Elwyn Peterson

Les Poupees Retrouvees is a must for doll lovers visiting Paris.

Arielle has furnished her entire shop in antiques, including the brass cash register.

y closest friend, who is also passionate about collecting antique dolls, and I have often said one of our favorite fantasies is to take a time machine back to the Paris of the glory days of shops such as Au Paradis des Enfants, or the 19th century Au Nain Bleu. This summer in France, my dream came as close as possible to coming true! Tucked into a side street not far from the Arc de Triomphe, is an antique doll store that is simply a gem. Les PoupĂŠes RetrouvĂŠes (Found Again Dolls) could easily be missed. There are no signs above the shop, and it would be easy to walk right past it without knowing it was there. However, once inside, the doll lovers of Paris are happily chatting with the owner, Arielle, and it is obviously a favorite destination. I was immediately reminded of the London pub in the Harry 32

French fashion dolls live very well indeed in this charming shop in the heart of Paris.

A group of mignonettes pose in front of an antique child’s folding screen. Arielle’s shop is Bleuette heaven.

Potter novels that only other magical people can see! For Arielle’s shop is, indeed, a magical place. Arielle recalls ﬁrst falling hopelessly in love with antique dolls standing in front of her mother’s display vitrine of antique dolls in her childhood home when she was ten years old. The love affair has been a lifelong pursuit of beautiful dolls and all their lovely accessories. In 1990, she decided to turn her passion into a career and opened her ﬁrst shop in Paris. Until quite recently, that is where she combined career and happy obsession. Then, one day, she was walking past her current location and saw that it was for sale. Once inside, she knew she had found the absolutely perfect place to display her antique treasures. The shop itself is a true antique with gorgeous display shelves and built-ins dating from the 19th century. Arielle felt as if she had come home! She bought the shop and, without enormous renovations, was able to open the store of her dreams. The crowning glory was a massive, beautiful antique brass cash register she found in England

Hats and bonnets are a specialty.

and had to have for her shop. (I think my own husband should no longer complain when I ﬁll our suitcases with only doll furniture to lug home!) The combination of already there antique décor and Arielle’s exquisite taste in arranging and displaying her rare and precious wares make the shop a visual jewel when you step through the door. Drawers and drawers hold everything a doll from long ago could have ever dreamed of possessing. Shoes and bootines of every size, socks, tiny handkerchiefs, simple straw hats to elaborate ruched bébé bonnets, every luxury toilette article imaginable, gloves, fans, corsets, and an entire closet ﬁlled with frocks for the tiniest mignonnette to the largest bébé await doll collectors and their spoiled “girls”. Those who collect little boy dolls are not disappointed, either! Arielle has a charming selection of little boys and wonderful props to keep them happy, too, such as antique marbles and other “boy” toys. She has a lovely collection

A tiny sample of shoes and gaiters for every size doll. 33

Kämmer and Reinhardt’s Cloth Caricature Dolls

by Linda Edward

he ﬁrm of Kämmer and Reinhardt founded in 1885 in Waltershausen, Germany is widely known to collectors for the many ﬁne bisque headed dolls they produced between 1886 and 1933. But in the early 20th century they also made some very interesting cloth caricature dolls. Over the course of the past 20 years or so my husband and I have kept an eye open for examples of these dolls and information pertaining to them. To date we have seen Kämmer & Reinhardt catalogs dating from 1925 through 1927 which show these dolls. In these catalogs the company refers to them as “Highly original character dolls.” However the text also refers to these dolls as “our well-known cloth dolls” which makes one wonder if they were in fact available in previous years. The vast variety of models of these dolls that we have seen over the years would seem to support that theory but until further evidence can be found this remains conjecture only. The catalog copy goes on to tell us that the dolls measure 33cm. (about 13 inches) in height and are “light as a feather,” weighing 80 grams. The dolls heads were made of needle sculpted stockinette; sizing of some sort was then used to coat the face to stiffen the needle sculpted contours. Their noses are often supported by wire armatures and their highly painted and expressive features make these dolls more caricatures than characters. Their features include applied felt ears, and

Many of the men in this line of dolls sported monocles and smoked pipes or cigars. 40

Three businessmen show a variety of facial needle sculpting. All have wire armature bodies, wooden feet, and two have stockinette hands and one has felt hands.

Kämmer & Reinhardt produced a wide range of dolls depicting tradesmen and various professions. Here we have a symphony conductor, a milkman, a waiter, and a cobbler.

These gentlemen look like a group of swells, ready for a night on the town. The two painters seen here illustrate that even though certain models were “stock items” each achieved a personality of its own because of their hand-made nature.

This group look more like a bunch of rogues or racetrack touts.

yarn or plush mohair fabric hair. They were costumed in felt, cotton, and woolens to represent individuals from everyday life such as bums, dudes, conductors, bakers, porters, brewers, tailors, milkmen, sportsmen, peasants, and so on. The photo in the catalog shows twelve different models although as previously mentioned, numerous characters not pictured in the catalog have been found. We do know from this same catalog that Kämmer and Reinhardt did take special orders for variation of character or costume for their other types of male dolls, perhaps that same policy applied to these cloth caricature dolls. Although examples of these dolls depicting women have been found occasionally, all of the dolls pictured in the 26/27 catalog depict men and the majority of the dolls found are male. One group of dolls depicting a schoolroom includes four schoolboy dolls, to date these are the only child dolls of this type that we have seen. The dolls have torsos made of inexpensive cotton stuffed with excelsior. The arms and legs of the dolls are unadorned pieces of wire which run through the torso and end in the doll’s hands and feet. Once costumed this simple body construction is completely hidden and allows the dolls to be easily bent into various poses. The hands are made of cotton, felt, or stockinette and have stitched ﬁngers (except one example wearing gloves). The majority of the dolls have distinctively shaped

The Monk and the Priest. The painting used in conjunction with the needle sculpting can be clearly seen on the face of the priest.

Both of these waiters show the vast difference in character faces that were achieved in these dolls.

s a m t s i r h C d n a l Toy s On Live

his 1920’s department store giveaway lacks easy definition. Call it a play sheet or a cardboard cut-out. With scissors and glue, and a lot of patient cutting, it is a diorama, a toyland tableau, a tabletop Christmas scene. A 13 by 27-inch, tri-fold sheet of lithographed cardboard, it is at the same time, both a clever bit of advertising for Chicago’s onetime Boston Store and an elaborate children’s toy. How this bit of Christmas-past survived, unscathed, for more than 80 years is a bit of a Christmas miracle in itself. Clearly, back then, someone thought it was worth saving in its like-new condition, uncut, unglued, unassembled. (And it remains original and uncut. The photos show a replica of the vintage toy shop constructed from color photocopies.) Brightly illustrated, it shows a three-sided view of a real, circa 1925 Christmas display which comprised the department store’s entire 11th floor. It is complete with counters and cash register, sales clerks and showcases full of real dolls and toys. Its accessory pieces include cut-out wagons and sleds, teddy bears and spinning tops, balls, and toy trucks. There’s a wideeyed pair, a little girl and boy togged out in their 1920’s best, and, of course, a Christmas tree and Santa himself. We can, in fact, approximately date this promotional toy, given away by The Boston Store in downtown Chicago, thanks to an identifiable real Effanbee doll, Harmonica Joe, which was copyrighted in 1924. Other recognizable Effanbee mama dolls of the mid-20’s era sit on the illustrated toy shelves. While a rare and unusual bit of advertising ephemera, the Boston Store’s Doll and Toy Shop finds its origins in the 19th Century printed cardboard miniature theaters. While toy theaters themselves date to ancient Greek and Roman days, they did not become commercially viable until London’s John Kirby Green began mass printing them on inexpensive flat cardboard stock in 1808. Published as loose sheets or booklets to be cut out and constructed, they became popular with both children and adults during the Victorian era. Though largely out of fashion by the 1890s, these cut-out stages, props and dramatic characters did enjoy brief minor revivals in later years, including 1925, which coincides with this Boston Store advertising piece.

Assembled Boston Store Doll and Toy Shop.

by Don Jensen

Some of the cut-out, stand-up accessories, including Santa and the two children.

Close-up of the doll and toy department counters and sales clerks.

Original 13 by 27-inch uncut lithographed cardboard sheet

Reverse of uncut sheet, with show window panels, assembly instructions, drawing of the Boston Store building and a view of a completed diorama scene.

Today few sources of reproduction cardboard cut-out scenes exist. Most toy theater printers went out of business long ago, and their printing plates, based on elaborately designed and colored artwork, were lost or destroyed. The author purchased several modern reprints in booklet form – an operatic theater production, complete with actors, scenery and stage, and a diorama view of the entrance to Copenhagen’s Tivoli amusement park – at Pollock’s Toy Shop in London’s Covent Garden. But what of this advertiser, the Boston Store in Chicago? It too has an interesting backstory.

Midwesterners should not mistake it for the modest 14-store chain of department stores still existing today in the state of Wisconsin. That group, today part of the Bon-Ton chain of sizable mall stores from Massachusetts to Montana, had its origins in a single Boston Store which opened in Milwaukee in 1897. Nor should it be confused with other Boston Stores which existed in places like Davenport, Iowa; Binghamton, New York; Erie and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, all unrelated but all capitalizing on the 19th Century notion that Boston was the center of fashion and commerce.