American Doll and Toy Museum

We will be adding photos, beginning with ancient dolls, as an annexe to the museum; visit us on Facebook, Dr. E's Doll Museum, and on Twitter @Dr. E's Doll Museum. We also have Facebook pages Doll Universe, Antique Doll, and Dr. R. We are on Flickr under Ellen Tsagaris, and ISSUU as Old Dolls. Our other Twitter account is Old Dolls. On Instagram, we are ellen_tsagaris. In keeping with our new non profit name, we've changed the name of this blog. All we need now is the building!!

Friday, August 29, 2014

Guess The Kardashian Barbie Is No More!

Does anyone know what the prototype dolls would be worth?

Guess The Kardashian Barbie Is No More!

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

The Difference Between Hopi Pueblo Indian Kachina Dolls and Navajo Kachi...

Monday, August 25, 2014

19th c continuedDr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Folk, Flower Dolls, a Theriault's Auction

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Folk, Flower Dolls, a Theriault's Auction: Folk art is generally defined as art created by people not trained. They didn't go to art studio in college, or take classes at an art ...

Click on above link for more photos!''

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Welcome New Follower!

We picked up a new follower, and I'd like to Thank You and Welcome! Check out our other blogs, key words, Dr. E's Doll Museum, Dr. E's Greening Tips for the Common Person, Miss Barbara Pym meets Miss Charlotte Bronte, Memoir: Writing your Life Story, An Apologia for Countess Erzebet Bathory, Doll Collecting at About.com. Enjoy our web museum, and we love comments!!

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Upcoming Auctions - Theriault's Antique Doll Auctions

Upcoming Auctions - Theriault's Antique Doll Auctions 2 vol. set october 5, 6 catalopg with folk dolls, many 19th c.

Monday, August 18, 2014

View Catalog Item - Theriault's Antique Doll Auctions Prevost and Huret

More images of Huret/Prevost. Enjoy. View Catalog Item - Theriault's Antique Doll Auctions

Thursday, August 14, 2014

For Love of Doll Play; In Memoriam

The 14th and 15th of August are bittersweet days for me. A young friend of mine, Janet Coulter, was killed on the 14th 40 years ago in a freak car accident. She had just recovered her health after being in the hospital nearly a year, and was riding home from her job in a fastfood restaurant. She was my next door neighbor's great niece; Charlotte, our neighbor, lived to be 106. Janet and I would write, and she would visit her aunt during the summer. She was from a little town in a very rural community. We talked about farms, and boys, and music. She still liked dolls, and the summer we were ten we played Barbies in twilight. We used illustrated books as backdrops for doll houses, some were books about dolls, and they made a great stage. We caught fire flies in jars, and let them go, and watched the sun set. I have a couple photos, her letters, and two necklaces her mother gave me, and the memories that are never far from my heart. My grandma Marie was born August 15th, a holy day commemorating the Assumption of the Virgin. She, my great grandmother Margo on my dad's side, and my friend, Rosemary, are the three truly good, guileless people I've known. They never lost their tempers, never were vain, never said a bad thing about anyone. Grandma Marie sufferred her whole life; as a child, she had no toys, and went to school at 11 to learn to be a seamstress. She wore black because her father died when she was a little girl. She sufferred from ill health, World War II, the deaths of two children, her mother, her mother -in-law who was her best friend, and the death of my Grandpa Steve. She taught me Greek, though she had no former schooling past age 11. She was magnificient with her crochet hook, creating her own designs and pictures, never using a pattern. She baked, but not Greek pastires, rather she made cherry pie and chocolate chip cookies. She loved poems, and cut them out with her pinking shears from Greek newspapers. She would make little books by fastening her poems together with safety pins. She married grandpa Steve through an arrangement, and they met in Paris. She had a complete French trousseau. After the War, they came back to Villa Grove, IL, and resumed their business, Fanakos Bros. Restaurant. During the Depression, when transients would come to beg for food, she would make them fried egg sandwiches and ask if they wanted mustard. She always crossed herself when she passed a church, and she heated our dog's meat scraps so he wouldn't eat cold food. Before I started school and everyone moved across country but for me and my parents, I stayed with her and grandpa Steve. It was the best time in my life. I helped her bake, and plant flowers. We took little walks, and she told me stories and sang. She never complained, even when she broke her hip in a car acccident the day before Christmas Eve that nearly killed all of us. No matter what pain she suffered, she never let on. She would just pick up a quilt, or her crochet hook. Grandma Marie was famous for disliking nudity. She cut the photos out of certain Nataional Geographics, and if I left a naked doll lying around, it would have dress sewn for it by morning. She asked my uncle, who was an artist, to paint outfits on the Greek Figures on the vases and plates my family collected. After the war, she and the rest of my family travelled. They brought back lots of dolls, and two of those started my doll collection. Grandma loved dolls, but never had any when she was little; she worked all the time, and they were too poor. She also wore pins on special occasions, and that started me wearing them, and collecting them. She died in 1981, and I miss her everyday. My grandpa Steve died in 1979. My mother, her sister,my great grandparents, two uncles, and that little aunt who died in infancy are with her. If there were prizes given for being excellent women, she would have won them all. I miss you, Yia-yia.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Dolls are only "Creepy" if you Lack Something to L...

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Dolls are only "Creepy" if you Lack Something to L...: Again, I say, "Free the Talega 11!" held hostage in San Clemente. By the way, has anyone wondered how SC's Finest "booke...

Monday, August 11, 2014

View Catalog Item - Theriault's Antique Doll Auctions

View Catalog Item - Theriault's Antique Doll Auctions

Very Rare bisque lady, with sculpted corset. Thank you, Theraiult's

View Catalog Item - Theriault's Antique Doll Auctions

From July 20, 2010; 'The Great Man's Doll" bought by Victor Hugo, also from the auction of Anne Rice's Dolls.

View Catalog Item - Theriault's Antique Doll Auctions

A bibliography of doll and toy sources : print mixed media electronic musical and artistic (Book, 2010) [WorldCat.org]

Huret and her Friends; the 19th c. continues

In "Old Dolls" (1950), Eleanor St. George writes that"There was one street in Paris, around le passage du Choiseul, that was almost entirely occupied by the makers of doll costumes, doll wigs, and accessories. Like the ealrier miliners' Models of papier-mache, these later French types were really ashon dolls." St. George seems to be one of the earliest writers to use the term "fashion doll," yet it is appropriate to describe those dolls that had extensive wardrobes designed to show the latest fashion.

We know that the earliest fashion dolls, dating even to the 14th c., were sent around the world, from royal court to royal court, to show what the latest fashions were. By the 18th c., the fashion dolls were called Pandoras, and their popularity continued until paper dolls and colorful fashnion plates from Godey's, Harper's, and Petersen's magazines became plentiful. The rise of fashion paper ephemera is simultaneous with the increasing availability of paper and its decline in cost. The Industrial Revloution and the invention of chromo lithography also helped. But, I digress. Back to our Poupees Modeles, those wonderful 19th century fashion dolls which, while still fairly plentiful, are amont the most desireable of all doll, commanding top price. They may also be the most reproduced of all antique dolls, but that is my opinion.

My opinions and taste also favor Huret dolls, and their rivals Rohmer, as the most amazing of the French Fashion genre. Huret dolls are mentioned in Anne Rice's novel "Taltos," and Sethany Ann of "The Dolls Christmas" is a Huret. Annabelle of Tudor's "A is for Annabelle" was, too, and so was the early mistress of Tudor's legednary doll house, "Melissa Dove Crane." In ight of the bitter dispute over Tudor's will, I'd love to know where her dolls are now. The actual doll Sethany Ann is featured in Eleanor St. George's other classic, "The Dolls of Three Centuries." The late Maureen Popp had excellent examples, and the late Dorothy Dixon once owned the elusive pewter headed Huret which is my Holy Grail of dolls, and which I've written about in my book on metal and mechanical dolls, "With Love from Tin Lizzie . . ." Again, anyone with information of the wheareabouts of this doll, please let me know. A gorgeous, rare, open mouth Huret from the Mary Merritt Darrah collection sold above $50,000.0 a few years ago when the museum collection was auctioned by Noel Barrett. Noted doll authority Mary Ann Spinelli writes that the Huret fashion doll of the 1850s is from the earliest period of fashion dol history, and that painted eyes looking downward are typical of these dolls. www.maspinelli.com/fashion.htm. Spinellis had a lovely Huret for sale on her site for $23, 750.00. The doll had a sheepskin wig, and a wooden body with a green oval stamp that reads "Boulevarde Montemarete, PARIS" on top. The rarest Huret dolls have gutta percha bodies that later dried out and became brittle, ultimately disintegrating. Another plump faced Huret with a dreamy experssion and blue-green plaid costume could be Sethany Ann's twin. She hails from the site Provenance dolls, www.provenance-dolls.com/laides.html. This doll has the typcial blue eyes, 'bee-stung' mouth, and plump rosy cheeks agaisnt a white complextion. She, too, is on a wooden body.

Good images of Huret marks may be found at dollreference.com/frenc_antique-doll_makers, or just at Dollreferenc.com. Search for French doll makers, then look for Huret in the alphabetical listing. Addresses found as part of doll marks include "2Boulev'd Montmatre, Paris" withte he phrase "EXPon UniverLLs 1867), and "68 Rue de la Boetie." My Huret doll head is a bit later, with holes cut out for glass eyes. I paid next to nothing for this head, and it is indeed old. Later, I bought a replica doll from the wonderul America's Doll Factory, and paid over $100.00 for the head, and later the wig and new leather body. I sewed the dress from expensive Japanese silk, and provided shoes and an elaborate black velvet hat. How ironic that the reproductionm no matter how lovely, cost so much more than my original head! Poupendol.com notes that the Huret "created a new industry in the luxury trade dolls, and, as such, they have arked their place in the history of toys." Pictured on this site is "The Great Man's Doll," auctioned by Theriault's several years ago as part of hte auction selling Anne Rice's doll collection. Victor Hugo bought that Huret for his granddaughter. This is a wondeful web museum of the various dolls, icnluding the later versions by Prevost. You may also view Huret doll furniture, hats, fasions, and accesorries.This is an excerpt from the book ib "Les Poupess Huret", "The Toys, What's Inside," (1868) which featured Huret dolls displayed at an 1867 exhibition, by Henry Nicolle. A new book which features a Huret with her original trousseau is "The Changanting Trousseau of Chiffonette" by Sylvia MacNeil. (www.bisquebeatuies.com.) Still another book detialing the wardrobe of a Huret is "The Trousseau of Blondineete Davranches: A Huret Doll & her Wardrobe 1862-1867" by Florence Theriault, and available at Amazon.com. Huret History: M. Francois Theimer, noted expert on French dolls, has stated that he feels Mlle. Adeleide Calixte Huret is the "initiator" of the French doll industry with the development of her magnificent poupees (www.respestfulbear.com/blog/2009/07/111.) A well educate woman from an upper class family, Mlle. Huret was well-read and evidently famliar with the work of Jean Jacques Rousseau. She was brought up by a her father, a widower who was employed ad a royal mechanic, and her uncle, a police prefect and lover of the theater. The young Mlle. Huret was intriqued by theatrical cosgtumes and dolls from an early age, and attempted to dress a heavy wooden doll, which she found awkward. In the same way Ruth Handler was inspried to create another fashion doll, Barbie, after she watched her daughter dressing paper dolls, Huret would be inspired to create a doll that could be dressed and undressed easily by children. Mr. Theimer, who along with Danielle Theimer authored "The Huret Book", My DM seems to dispell one mtyh, that the dolls by Huret and others were not meant for children, but as mannikins. This is a view held by some venerable doll historians, but I, too, would have to "agree to disagree" with them. I have a photo of a little girl holding a fashion doll that has been really played with, and besides Hugo's purchase, such a doll is menioned and described as a toy for Amarantha, heroine of Robert Penn Warren's novel, "Band of Angels." Masion Huret began operation in the 1850s; it did not cease until the late 1920s, and some claim the firm went on under Prevost into the 30s. Anohter Huret innovation, according to M. Theimer, is the idea of removable doll clothes. He notes that before, clothes were sewn onto a doll, making doll play difficult. I would argue that, in part, this is the characteristic of a true fashion doll; her clothes can be removed and changed. Rohmer: Madame Marie Antoinette leontine Rohmer ran her business in Paris from 1857-1880. Her dolsl were 14-18 n. tall with cihna or bisque sivel headed dols. she used kid lined shoulder plates nad moitned bodies of lieather. She also used gutta percha, but only for arms. these are very rare to find. (dollreference.com/rohmer. . . ) Spinelli shows a Rohmer doll with paitned eus and a china head representing "Le Mode Enfantine," which characterized early child French fashions, precursors of the bebe which Jumea and Bru mastered, but which M. Theimer claims Mlle. Huret introduced as a reaction to the all adult female dolls the predomianted the doll world before Mlle. Huret. That Rohmer doll has a leather body with wood tenon joints ant the dhoulders, and more gussets at the knews for further movemient. the bront torso bears the stamp of "the Hosue of Rohmer." she is dressed in a black and white strirpped skirt, blouse, and black wool jacket, a school girls' outfit from the early 1860s. Leontine Rohmer lost a court case to Huret over zinc bodied dolls and patents and designs involving the cup and saucer neck joint. These dols are rare; one is pictures in "With love from Tin Lizzie..." Mme. Anne Marie Porot, colleaugue of M. Theimer, is an expert in these Rohmer dolls. More information on the rivarly betweent these two historic women entrepeneurs may be found in the Yahoo group, "Hurets, Rohmers, Barrois, etc. Molds, https://groups/yahoo.com/neo/groups/petite . . .). Many French fashion china heads are made by Rohmer. There are many Pinterest boards on these dolls, including my own "Doll Collection" and "Antique Dolls-Huret & Rohemr Fashion Ladies," "antique dolls," "Antique Dolls," "french fashion dolls," "Munecas Antgiguas," and Theriault's on Pinterest.