The Complete Guide to Antique, Vintage and Collectible Dolls
October 2019, Volume 22, Number 8 ON THE COVER The earliest version of the #1 Barbie doll, produced by Mattel in 1959. Original hand painted face. Happy 60th Anniversary to an icon.
25 Letters 30 Auction News 59 Emporium
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BARBIE The Story of an Icon
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AUCTION NEWS
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by Bradley Justice
Kathy Zimmerman collection
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61 Calendar of Events 61 Classified
PHILADELPHIA BABY And the Doll Collection of Historic Strawberry Mansion by Liz Morris
THE BISQUE DOLLS OF JULES VERLINGUE by Martha Waterman Nichols
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UFDC BLUE RIBBON WINNERS Part 1
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ARRANBEE’S LITTLEST ANGEL by Donna Brown
ANTIQUE DOLL COLLECTOR
OCTOBER 2019
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THE ARTIST DOLLS OF BRITAIN’S TODHUNTER SISTERS by Linda Edward
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1) Lifelike 13“ Heubach Whistler - One of the best faces ever! Plus his Factory Clothes & Shoes! A true portrait. The best! $575 2) 7“ Rare Heubach Googly “9087 “ - coy watermelon smile, mld. hair,top quality, Original Party Clown. $495; Heubach 6.5“ Winkersmallest size and Factory Playsuit in mint condition. $575
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3) Choice 10” Cabinet Size Steiner Bebe - precious doll with Signed Head & Body, blue PWs, closed mouth, hip-length handmade Mohair Wig and Clothes w/leather shoes! $2595
(212) 787-7279 P.O. Box 1410 NY, NY 10023
Quality Antique Dolls by Mail Return Privilege • Layaways Member UFDC & NADDA
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6) 18” Daisy Mold ‘171’ Kestner - mint blue eye child, fancy Antique Clothes & Fancy Shoes, properly mkd. Daisy body, head one size up. Still the 18” doll. $950 7) Choice 21” Halbig ‘1299’ Character Sweetheart - dewey bisque, brn. sl. eyes, 2-teeth, Factory Wig & Shoes, plus her fussy Antique Clothes! $895
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4) Rare 17“ SFBJ ‘255’ Handsome Young Jester - Beautiful closed mouth French Socket Head Character; portrait face, PWs, kind smile, SFBJ body/jtd. arms, Orig. Wig and vintage costume! Plus a Matching White Face Clown Doll too! Extremely rare French! (See page 9 for the SFBJ 238 Lady) $3500 5) 16” SFBJ 301 w. Trousseau & Store Trunk - a distinguished time capsule from Maurine Popp Collection w/ Factory Wig, blue sl. eyes w/ lashes, and several period outfits etc., charming! only $950
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8) Dreamy 1890 French Export 16“ Belton ‘183’ Gorgeous bisque, enormous brown PWs, early brows, Closed Mouth, luscious hip length Mohair Ringlet Wig, orig. Stiff Wrist Body, $1650
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9) Rare & Original Diorama Size 12“ French ChinaRohmer/Huret school, Factory Original Wig & Clothes, leather body, intricate facial modeling & wig, a unique cabinet fashion. $3250
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BARBIE APPEARING ON THE COVER OF ANTIQUE DOLL COLLECTOR MAGAZINE!!!
By Bradley Justice
This may be something you never thought you’d see, but when contributing editor and Barbie afficianado Bradley Justice reminded us that the Mattel Barbie doll celebrated her 60th anniversary on March 9, 2019, we knew it was time to salute her. – the editors
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ecently I was reflecting on the humble origins of the brainchild of Barbie founder, Ruth Handler, and I realized that, though we consider the Barbie doll modern, or vintage, the timeline for classification is pushing the iconic doll’s status toward Antique!** *** One can argue that point, but one cannot argue with the fact that she is the most popular, well known, and famous doll of all time. Personally, I covet the very earliest versions of Barbie, because they were created at a time when much of the media hype was elsewhere, and she was “just a doll.” Recently my friend Brigid excitedly called me about a recent purchase at an estate sale and we went through my list of questions - questions about the subtle differences that indicate which model the doll could be. I ask these of anyone who thinks they have just found the doll “Holy Grail,” a 1959 first edition, referred to by collectors as a #1. We determined that her find was a #2, essentially the same doll as a #1, but without holes in the bottom of her feet for a special posing stand. Still a treasure, and valued approximately the same. Brigid was thrilled and I was glad that another early doll would be finding a special place in someone’s collection. The first three styles of Barbie, #1, 2 and 3, all appeared in the first year of Mattel production, 1959. The dolls were produced in Japan and from 60 years and still fabulous- Barbie, you look marvelous! Showing her in the beginning, Mattel closely monitored production front of the images that appeared on her original box. The hand painted issues and costs, making changes and improvements doll still has the original hair set and all of her original accessories like as needed. For example, they wanted tight precision sunglasses and posing stand. Very rare: the #1 Barbie doll with a hand painted face was created within the first weeks of production. The initial for drilling the balls of the feet and inserting metal order placed by Mattel for the dolls was 50,000 pieces. tubing to accommodate the stand. This process was eliminated early in the production. (I think the #1 dolls were only in production for a brief period, perhaps months a difficult doll to find for most collectors. at the longest, then Mattel continued with a different posing But, as rare as the #1 and #2 are, a variation has turned stand). Despite the monitoring, when the first dolls arrived up that could be termed a unicorn in the world of Barbie — in California from Japan, Ruth and Elliott Handler felt that is the hand-painted #1 doll. the face was too Asian in appearance (Ruth’s word was When Barbie production began, the faces on the dolls “Oriental”) and the face was updated with more curved were all painted by hand by art students from a university eyebrows and blue iris for eye color. This variant created the in Japan. (This is documented in home movies by the #3. The #3 doll is the one that is most plentiful, but still, it is Handlers that are shown in the Hulu documentary “Tiny
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BARBIE AT 60 Shoulders,” about the evolution of the Barbie doll). Many faces were consistent with the style they had been shown and the students replicated it with such perfection that it is hard to tell this doll from a regular “screened” Original Doll ( i.e., when a metal screen is placed over the doll’s face, the mask contains cut-outs for items such as eyebrows, lips, eyes, which are then painted in with an This #2 Barbie owned by Brigid airbrush. It can take McHugh Jones, is the second version of the Barbie doll. Her face paint was several masks for a created using stencils that were cut face, each being for a in a metal mask and the features different feature). were applied by an airbrush. But one student painted her dolls with extra flair: The eyebrows have a little more style, the irises of the eyes are almost black. It gives the doll a noticeably different look that at first glance seems “wrong.” I knew all this when my friend Rachel contacted me to inspect a recently purchased #1. She had followed the list of my questions to validate that it was the original model. However, a colleague had looked at the doll and questioned it, so I told her to send me some pics. I am often skeptical for unscrupulous people often try to confuse collectors with repaints of dolls to make them look like rare versions of Barbie. So, I proceeded with caution. The doll in Rachel’s photo was one of the most breathtaking examples of an early hand- painted doll. She was untouched, in her original box with the packaging holding the stand in place. Her hair was in its original set with the original rubber band in place. It was as if it was purchased yesterday. Her original owner had never played with the doll. I was aware of the fact that the first three dolls tend to turn fairly pale, some ghostly white, some still with a pinkish cast to their coloring and complexion. There can also be some unevenness to this coloring, fading in places that are exposed to ultraviolet light. Why do they fade? Well, this
is a bit science and a bit hypothesis, but here goes: Mattel and their Japanese manufacturer, Kokusai Boeki, were learning the ropes of producing a rotational cast vinyl doll. Neither company had done this. KB was the factory Mattel was utilizing in Japan and their foreman along with Frank Nakamura, an engineer with Mattel, were flying by the seat of their pants. Fumiko Miyatsuka, Charlotte Johnson’s sewing assistant (Barbie’s original fashion designer) recalled that during early production as much as 37% of the pieces and parts had a defect (the vinyl didn’t always fill the voids of the mold creating bubbles, incomplete fingers, This #1 brunette Barbie is not hand painted. warping Her features were applied using stencils and an airbrush. etc.). Since vinyl was an expensive material, it would be prudent to recycle the damaged parts, grinding them back up into the fine almost power like consistency to be reconstituted in to the “viscous” fluid to fill the molds. I learned from a former Mattel engineer that when a vinyl or plastic is “recycled” (meaning that it was melted twice), it is no longer color-fast, and there may be discoloration. This doesn’t happen immediately but over the course of years, which could account for that noticeable flaw in these early dolls, their paleness. Pale or not, the early models of the Barbie doll are rare and are becoming more and more scarce. The #1 Barbie doll has often been said to be one of the best investments of the 20th Century, the original $3.00 investment, left untouched could net as much as $10,000. (The Guinness Book of World Records states that the highest price paid for a Vintage Barbie doll is $27,450 at auction.) Footnotes ** In general, a doll has to be made before 1960 to be vintage, and at least 100 years old to be referred to as “antique”. ***Regardless of which definition of antique doll you use, Barbie still has many years ahead of her before she achieves the coveted title of being an antique doll. Doll collectors generally divide Barbie dolls into eras based on their production years: Vintage Barbie dolls – 1959 to 1972. ANTIQUE DOLL COLLECTOR
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