Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: KickStarter Project

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: KickStarter Project: We are on KickStarter!!  I just posted an update to our project, and we thank our backers so far! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/am...



We're updated!

We're on Kickstarter!

American Doll & Toy Museum


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/americandollmuseum/american-doll-and-toy-museum?ref=user_menu#

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Happy Birthday Barbie!

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Happy Birthday Barbie!: Hard to believe she's sixty, but our favorite girl has reached that milestone. We have over 300 Barbies in the museum and counting, alon...

Virtual Doll Convention; by Rachel Hoffman & Happy Birthday Barbie!!

Dear Virtual Conventioneers, Across the world, many collectors and institutions have joined in a celebration of the the Iconic Barbie! Today is her 60th birthday and I have to say - she has never looked better. There’s no one like Barbie who has brought adventure, fashion, and inspiration to millions around the world. Barbie has represented every career that I can think of. She is a liberator that has opened the eyes and hearts of millions of individuals. Whether you love her or not - you must admit that Barbie is ICONIC. Photo via Mattel. The North Carolina Museum of Dolls, Toys, and Miniatures hosted a "Bodacious Birthday Bash" with Bradley Justice Yarbrough and lots of doll friends. We were able to go live on Facebook today and enjoy a little cake and take in some of the action. You can look forward to exciting Barbie programs at the upcoming June Virtual Doll Convention. According to Mattel, the best-selling Barbie doll was the Totally Hair  doll, which debuted in 1992. If you are in the North Carolina Area, you must visit the NC Museum of Dolls, Toys & Miniatures to see an amazing collection of toys that are entertaining for both young and old. They are a nonprofit museum that features antique and modern dolls, toys and miniatures and ALWAYS have rotating exhibits. You can even host a birthday party there! You can also follow their Facebook page. “My whole philosophy was that through the doll, a little girl could be anything she wanted to be.” - Ruth Handler, Creator of Barbie The NC Museum of Dolls, Toys & Miniatures is a proud sponsor of the June Art of the Doll and All Its Creation Virtual Doll Convention. In Love and Dolls, Rachel Hoffman

Hina Matsuri Festival

         Well, I'm a day late, but it's still relevant.  Kokeshi dolls and all Japanese dolls are still desirable.  With the upcoming Virtual Doll Convention celebrating the doll as art.

 

If you have read Rumer Godden’s Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, you know that The Girls’ Festival in Japan, also known as The Doll Festival, takes place on March 3d.  Today, the Hina Matsuri celebration is also celebrated in the United States. We receive an ad from a Japanese Grocery Store each week, and the week's ad for the first of March featured sweets and special foods for the Doll Festival celebrations. These foods include shirozake, fermented rice sake, tiny crackers flavored with sugar or soy sauce, a salty soup with clams, and rice cake.  Culturally, this is a holiday apparently alive and well among Japanese Families. For information on the Hina Matsuri and other dolls, I recommend The Yokohama Doll Museum site, and works by Scot Alan Pate and Lea Baten. Pat Smith also wrote a book on Asian Dolls.  If you have not read Rumer Godden's Miss Happiness and Miss Flower and Little Plum about the Festival and the lives of three Japanese dolls, you must. Godden liked dolls and actually had the Japanese doll house built and landscaped to inspire her.  Huguette Clark, the famous reclusive heiress and collector, had a master craftsman create special Japanese doll houses for her as well.

 

The festival dates to the Heian period (794-1192).  Ornamental dolls are taken out once a year and arranged on steps covered in red cloth.  Dolls representing the lord and lady of the palace are arranged on the top shelf.  Other dolls representing their attendants and musicians are arranged on the steps along with miniature accessories. According to Japanese-city.com, the origins of The Girls’ Festival date from an ancient custom of floating Hina dolls of straw to the ocean.  The belief was that the dolls contained evil spirits and that as they floated away, the carried the spirits with them out to sea. This custom was called Hina nagashi or doll floating.

 

Lea Baten is one of my favorite doll historians, and her specialty is Japanese dolls.  Carl Fox in The doll also addresses many interesting examples.  See our Pinterest Boards on Japanese Dolls, Doll Collection, and Nepalese Dolls for more examples. According to Alan Scott Pate in his article Hina Matsuri; Dolls from the Japanese Girls’ Day Festival, dolls have been important to Japanese culture for over 13,000 years. Pate has pointed out that the doll on the top tier of the Hina display are the lord and lady, and are not referred to as emperor and empress dolls in Japan.   Other dolls and related items important to Japanese culture are Bunraku puppets, Kokeshi dolls of wood, Hakata dolls made of clay from the city or Hakata, Kabuki actors and actresses, netsuke meant to be tied at the end of sashes, and tiny dolls made of painted rice kernels.  Paper dolls are another Japanese tradition as are mechanical figures called Karakuri that are small, realistic robots that serve tea.  Samurai and other mythic figures celebrate The Boy’s Festival, held May 5^th. Friendship dolls were went to the United States during the 1920s, and American dolls were sent to Japan in exchange.

 

Artist R. John Wright has created beautiful Japanese children as featured in The Toy Shoppe, and French automatons were inspired by Japanese Geisha. German makers also created their versions of Asian and Japanese dolls.  Some Vintage Italian dolls represent Madame Butterfly and wear the traditional Kimono.  Effanbee made a vinyl version of Madame Butterfly in the late 80s.

 

As a recent Theriault’s auction of rare antique Japanese dolls has shown, there is still a brisk interest in these dolls.  The Takara Barbie and Japanese robots and Manga dolls are popular, inspired by their vintage cousins.  Morimura Brothers made bisque dolls in the style of German bisque babies and children, and stone bisque penny dolls made in Japan were very popular during the 30s and 40s.  Celluloid dolls nad toys rr4om Japan are very popular with collectors, as are bisque dolls and figurines marked “Occupied Japan,” made while the Untied States occupied the country just after World War II.  Ball jointed dolls are currently made in Japan, and there is an active community of doll collectors there, including temples devoted to cremating worn out dolls.  Shirley Temple’s life sized Japanese doll retuned home after the 2014 auction of her collection.  Temple had a large number of Japanese dolls in her collection, which were among her favorites. 

Dolls marked Nippon, Occupied Japan, or Morimura Brothers delight many collectors. Tiny rice Kokeshi dolls are great fun, as are tiny Geisha dolls made from Rice Crackers.  At Mitsuwa Shopping Center, Arlington Heights, there is a Japanese doll on display at the grocery store.

Japanese Friendship dolls tell their own story; we even had one at Audubon school, till the school closed and a teacher took it with her.

Friendship dolls at Putnam.  Photo by Ellen Tsagaris

Memoirs of a Geisha; Putnam Museum Literary Heroines. Photo by E. Tsagaris

This March 3d, take out your Japanese dolls, and if you don’t have an actual set of Hina dolls, arrange them around a good picture, serve miniature foods, and honor a tradition that dates to the 9^th century.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stuart Says; Reproduced here with his Gracious Permission

Courtesy, Theriault's

Friends, 

It's been a wonderful start to the New Year. Theriault's annual January event is the perfect refresh to go forward with the enthusiasm and passion of a time well spent together. That is, aside from all we endure in life, a chance to remind us of the pleasure we work hard for. All of us. Because in the end the "Happy Life of a Collector" is truly needed. We learn, we make friends, we connect with history, we become better human beings. We have a lot of fun! 

We are one. No matter our upbringing, our country, our color, our beliefs. We are doll collectors. And we preserve history together. 

2019 will be a lead up to a momentous moment. Perhaps for Florence, more than anyone, a true tribute. As well, for all of you. That is the collectors, writers, researchers, dealers, museum owners. All who have given rise to the doll as a worthy work of art, a genuine piece of history, and a respect to the only real three-dimensional art that evokes a true human experience. 

With that, our upcoming 50th anniversary is really about you. 

The landmark January event was just the start. Naples, FL, March 16 and 17, will continue this story with part two of the Lumia collection and part two of the Waller Collection. A new added event in New York/NJ, May 4 and 5, will guide us through the spring. Our UFDC convention auction in Nashville TN, July 22, featuring the pioneer collector Mary Lou Rubright will rally our summer energy and...the fall will bring plentiful surprises. It will lead us all to January, 2020. 

And where will that be? It's a surprise. No doubt one you will love and is so fitting for a 50th celebration. Call it a full circle moment. We will let you know more in time - but it will be as special as you might imagine. In the meantime, you might find hints and clues throughout the year. Enjoy the speculation and gossip until we announce what will be a fitting start to the next 50-years. 

That is, our next 50-years, all of us, together. 


Best, 
 

Stuart Holbrook 
President
Theriault’s
stuart@theriaults.com 

PS. In the meantime, see you in Naples, Florida. What a grand weekend that will be. 

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: March Skyward by Dr. David Levy; On Comets

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: March Skyward by Dr. David Levy; On Comets: ������Once again, it is with great pleasure that we look away from our doll cases and doll houses towards the heaven, to share the passion o...