Member Jan Irsfeld generously opened her lovely home for our club's holiday party. The club provided a variety of pizzas and members brought many tasty sides and desserts. Jan's halls were definitely decked out for the holidays!
Several members brought dolls to share. Pam Hardy displayed this beautiful reproduction Bru by famed doll artist Patricia Loveless.
Elaine McNally brought this sweet carved wood Swiss doll she recently purchased at the auction of the Jonathan Green Collection. The smaller wooden doll sitting on her lap is one of Elaine's own creations.
Elaine's daughter, Allie, brought these two well-loved antique teddy bears. The larger one is by the English company Merrythought and carries the firm's label on the sole of its right foot. The other bear is an early Steiff.
This German character baby is a family heirloom from Sylvia McDonald's daughter-in-law's grandmother. The pretty pink sweater was made by Sylvia's grandmother in the 1940s for Sylvia's childhood dolls.
Myrna Loesch brought this Gene doll ready to hit the slopes in her fashionable ski outfit.
Jan dressed this Madame Alexander Cissy in an outfit inspired by the fashions of the early 1900s.
Speaking of inspiration, Jan recreated an entire ancient Egyptian burial chamber using her imagination, staging and seamstress skills, and several Cissy dolls.
This is the top of the sarcophagus.
Inside is a Cissy elaborately dressed as Egyptian nobility.
Beneath her is her gem-bedecked mummy.
This Cissy represents Hatshepsut, a female pharaoh who reigned in the fifteenth century B.C.E.
In 2016, researchers recreated the face of a mummified head of a young woman found in the archives of the University of Melbourne in Australia, whom they named Meritamun. This Cissy is Jan's own recreation of Meritamun. In front of her are four canopic jars topped with heads of Cissette dolls. In Egyptian tombs, the four jars held the stomach, intestines, lungs, and liver of the deceased, and each jar lid was carved with the head of the specific deity assigned to guard them.
This purple robe was displayed by Jan Irsfeld at the club's September 11, 2022, and was made by Alexander to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Elizabeth's coronation. Jan now has the version of the Cissy who would have originally worn this robe.
Jan also allowed members to peek into her meticulously organized workroom.
