November 12, 2023, Meeting

Member Sharon Weintraub did a program on Black all-bisque dolls. She explained the French and German companies, and later Japanese makers, created Black all-bisque dolls, although in far smaller numbers than white dolls. While sometimes a Black all-bisque doll was made in same mold as a white doll and simply tinted brown, companies also created these dolls with ethnic features. In most cases the dolls were not made expressly for Black children. Many were garbed in ethnic costumes representing French or German colonies or were dressed as servants or entertainers. This example by Simon and Halbig is incised 836 and is a standard mold tinted with a brown complexion. She has bare feet and wears her original bathing costume. The diminutive doll she holds is a French doll known as a Liliputien. Just 2.75 inches high, she  has a swivel neck with a molded loop and has peg-jointed arms and legs. These Les Liliputiens came in a wide variety of costumes; although the white versions generally wore painted light blue boots, the Black dolls were barefoot.

Sharon next discussed the Black all-bisque dolls by the German company Gebruder Kuhnlenz. She said the these dolls have appealing ethnic features with full lips and prominent lower faces. The complexions vary from brown to deep black, the dolls do not have painted lashes, and are barefoot. This pair in their original box wear the costumes of cakewalk dancers.  Inside one of the sections in the box is written in pencil "From Grace to Sadie Newell Christmas 1889." 

Three more dolls by Kuhnlenz. The red and yellow outfit is a copy of an original costume worn by a Black Kuhnlenz doll.

Sharon displayed these examples of Black all-bisque dolls attributed to the German company J.D. Kestner.  The two girl dolls have swivel necks. The one in the red gingham dress has a closed mouth while the one in blue has an open mouth with tiny inset teeth. The standing boy in the molded rompers has loop-jointed arms. All of the dolls have bare feet.

This is a frozen version of the boy in the molded outfit. 

Sharon said that the firm of Hertwig and Company made a wide variety of Black all-bisque dolls. The tallest doll in the "grass" skirt is painted bisque. Next to her is a tiny immobile figure of a Black man in a yellow top hat; he is part of a family of miniature Black figures. Behind him are two cute character dolls in their original matching ribbon outfits. In the back row are two more examples of German Black all-bisque does by unknown German companies. The one in the molded outfit and "straw" hat is wire-jointed. The doll next to him in a molded turban wears his original Middle-Eastern outfit. 

Sharon then shared examples of French Black all-bisque dolls. The one in the red and white outfit is marked on the back of her swivel neck with the "F.G." in a scroll mark of Francois Gauthier. Her all-original outfit may represent one of France's Caribbean colonies. She was made using a typical all-bisque mignonnette doll mold and has molded boots. The two little dolls are more examples of Liliputiens  and wear their original clothing.

Sharon explained that when German goods were embargoed during WWI, Japanese companies entered the bisque doll market, often directly copying German dolls. This example of a Japanese Black all-bisque doll may be early, because the modeling and decoration are of higher quality than is typically found on these Japanese products. The doll has unusual "snow" hair created with bits of ground bisque. 

Member Bette Birdsong brought several examples of Black all-bisque dolls. This tiny bare-foot example is by Simon and Halbig.

These are more typical examples of Japanese dolls. They are often referred to as "Topsy" because of the tiny pigtails inserted into their scalps. Such dolls were often sold in five and dime stores in the United States. Copies of these dolls with extremely black shiny complexions began being produced in China in the 1980s.  

A variety of itty-bitty Black babies ride in a tiny tin car. The one in red is an all-bisque doll and the other two are seated figurines (the one in the back is eating a watermelon slice). These seated figurines are often found attached to miniature cotton bales and were sold as souvenirs throughout the South.

Member Pam Hardy shared this black cloth doll with an embroidered face. It appears to be a commercially produced doll from the 1940s.

Member Jenell Howell brought these two tiny Liliputiens.

She also shared this stunning wooden Schoenhut doll.

 

Black History Month; Composition Topsy Doll

 Continuing our club's virtual meeting honoring Black History Month, member Michele Thelen shares this composition cutie. Michele says that the 12-inch tall doll is unmarked and is wearing her original outfit. Beginning in the 1910s, a number of American companies began producing dolls out of composition, a mixture of glue and sawdust. The dolls were lighter and not as fragile as their bisque and china counterparts (although not washable!). Composition dolls dominated the American doll market from the 1920s through the early 1950s, when hard plastic dolls began to appear. There were many American companies producing these dolls and unmarked dolls were often sold to jobbers and department stores to dress and sell under their name.

Often Black composition dolls had two or more inserted pigtails of yarn and were marketed as Topsy dolls. Topsy originated as a character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. In the book, Topsy is a brutalized and neglected child. When first introduced, she is a Black enslaved girl about eight years of age, clad in a filthy ragged dress and carrying the scars on her back of multiple beatings, Topsy has never known love or kindness in her short life; she does not even know who her parents were. All she has experienced are harsh labor and beatings, berated as being wicked and lazy. Topsy is amoral, having learned how to lie and steal in order to survive. The slaveowner Augustine St. Clare cynically purchases Topsy as a gift for his sister, Ophelia, to "educate." Although Topsy is clearly intelligent and resilient, Ophelia harbors prejudice against Black people and has no empathy for the child, treating her with distaste. It is only when Augustine's daughter, Eva, learns that Topsy has never been loved and treats her with true compassion and kindness that Topsy is inspired to learn and improve. In the book, Topsy was a symbol of the degradation and brutality of slavery, which affected not only the enslaved, but tainted the rest of society as well.

So how do we get from this pitiful abused, beaten, and neglected child to the cheerful Topsy dolls? Uncle Tom's Cabin was extremely popular and, thanks in part to lax copyright laws, minstrel shows seized upon Stowe's characters, putting on what became known as "Tom Shows." The shows, typically only very loosely based on the book, stripped out much of Stowe's strong anti-slavery and religious sentiment (there were even pro-slavery versions), although they kept some of the melodramatic scenes, such as Eliza carrying her child as she struggles to cross the icy Ohio River and into freedom just ahead of the slave hunters. For the most part Black characters, typically performed by whites in blackface, were mocked as exaggerated stereotypes and used as comic relief, often breaking into song or dance. In these shows, Topsy became the mischievous mirthful "pickaninny" with a head full of pigtails. Sadly, most of the images the American public has of Uncle Tom's Cabin are drawn from these Tom Shows, working their way into popular culture (including Felix the Cat and Bugs Bunny cartoons some of us watched as children).

Black History Month; Million Dollar Baby (In a Five and Ten Cent Store)

It was a lucky April shower, it was the most convenient door 

I found a million dollar baby, in a five and ten cent store 

Music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Mort Dixon and Billy Rose, 1931

As part of our club's virtual meeting celebrating Black History Month, we introduce a baby from the five and ten cent store belonging to member Sylvia McDonald. While the little Black all-bisque baby in the wicker buggy might not technically be worth a million dollars, Sylvia bought it when she was around seven or eight years old from a five and ten cent store and to her it is priceless (Sylvia thinks that the original cost was 25 cents). Japan first entered the doll market in WWI when German dolls were embargoed, often directly copying German models, and continued producing inexpensive little bisque dolls into the 1950s. The Japanese dolls did not match the quality of the German bisque dolls, but they were also less expensive and just the right size and price for the growing five and dime store chains. The little girl in the green plaid dress is by artist Heidi Ott doll and the other doll was designed by Sylvia Natterer and is named Deborah.

Sylvia thinks that about this same time she bought an Amosandra doll. Created by the Sun Rubber Company in 1949, Amosandra was the first mass-produced rubber Black doll, a cuddly baby who could drink and wet. The doll was produced as a tie-in the the popular radio program "Amos ’n’ Andy,” which later became a short-lived show on CBS television. The original radio show was a comedy featuring two characters, Amos Jones and Andy Brown, Black farm workers from Georgia who had moved to Chicago (and later Harlem in New York City) for a better life. The radio show was extremely popular and it was estimated that at its peak one-third of the country tuned in. The doll coincided with the birth of the youngest child of Amos and his wife, Ruby, her name a mixture of Amos and Andy. On the radio, Amos and Andy were voiced by two white actors (who appeared in blackface for publicity photographs, although the television show did cast Black actors). The show was criticized by some in the Black community as depicting Blacks in derogatory ways.

However, little Amosandra was extremely popular with children of all races, but unfortunately her soft rubber skin hardened and deteriorated over time. This was the sad fate of Sylvia's doll.