January 11, 2026, Meeting

Pam Hardy gave a program on baby dolls. She told the club that she has loved baby dolls since she was four years old. Pam displayed her "last" doll, a Babeside Reborn Baby that was her Christmas present.

Another baby from her collection is this bisque-head Bye-Lo baby, designed by American artist Grace Storey Putnam in the 1920s. Pam said that she had long wanted a Bye-lo baby, but was waiting for one in excellent condition with its original button. She finally found this beautiful babe.

Pam Hardy brought this porcelain doll by artist Donna Rupert. . . 

. . . as well as this vinyl doll by Effanbee named Lisa.

This composition baby was a gift to Pam. It is believed to have been made by Arranbee.

Another early doll from Pam's collection, this all bisque baby is by the German firm of Hertwig and Company and has its original clothing.

Kenneth Reeves brought this composition "Mama" doll (so named because the sound box in her cloth body once said "Mama" when the doll was moved) and a Baby Ginny in a bright bathing suit.

His doll in the yellow outfit is also a Ginny while the tot in purple is an unmarked drink and wet doll. The boy in the white jacket was made by Italo Cremona. Kenneth told the club that he bought this doll because it resembled one that his brother had received as a child.

Elaine Jackson shared a trio of all-wooden Schoenhut dolls. She told the club that Harry Schoenhut had designed the baby head in 1911 and the company used this head until it went out of business in 1935. This doll is a walking model.

The doll in white wears a dress made by Elaine's mother in the 1940s. The boy has an open mouth with metal teeth and sleep eyes. Elaine told the club that this was an attempt by Schoenhut to compete with popular composition dolls and was among the last of the dolls produced by the company.

Sharon Weintraub display this bevy of all-bisque babies. The largest doll is by J.D. Kestner. It has the plump bent limb body first introduced by Kammer and Reinhardt in 1909. On its lap is an all-original Bye-lo Baby. Sharon told the club that the Bye-lo was so poplar that it was called the "million dollar baby" and was made in a wide variety of sizes, including little all-bisque dolls like this one. The happy toddler in pink is "Bonnie Babe" designed by artist Georgene Averill in the 1920s.

These two bisque-headed babies on composition bodies are also from Sharon's collection. The smiling Black doll is by the German company of Heubach Kopplesdorf and was marketed as "South Seas Baby." The other doll is "Hanna" by Schoenau & Hoffmeister. Both wear their original outfits with "grass" skirts..

Myrna Loesch brought two vintage drink and wet babies by Madame Alexander, This is Baby Wendykins.

Also pretty in pink is the 1957 Little Genuis.

This trio of adorable infants were Myrna's childhood dolls. They are by American Character.  This is Tiny Tears from 1959 to 1960.

This doll is another Tiny Tears,  from 1963 to 1964.

Myrna told the club that this doll is from the Toodles line. 

She also shared this all-original Teenie Toodles by the same company.

David Craig shared this fully-articulated doll by Ruby Red Galleria. 

Sylvia McDonald brought this doll that she received when she was seven years old. The doll has a "magic skin" body made of latex that was advertised as feeling like real skin, but Sylvia noted that this material darkened and deteriorated over the years. She made this doll a body suit to try to preserve it.

Sylvia brought a batch of babies. The brunette in the back is Thumbkin by Effanbee. The babe in the bonnet is an unmarked composition copy of the famous Madame Alexander Dionne Quintuplet doll and the bisque-headed baby in the sweater is mold number 750 was made by the German company of Armand Marseille.

Also shared by Sylvia is the composition baby in the print dress; it has tin sleeping eyes and is circa 1919. In front is Baby Thumbelina by the Ideal Doll Company.

Ann Meier displayed this porcelain-headed baby. The head turns, displaying different faces.

This big German bisque-headed baby brought by Better Birdsong has quite a background story. Bette told the club that when she was in college she traveled by plane to Paris with her mother and sister. There she bought this doll in an antique shop and it flew home with her on her lap. Her doll collection was at her parent's home when the house caught fire, but this baby survived, although her composition body was covered with soot and her hair had been singed.

Nancy Countryman could not recall where she got this baby doll, but has had it since 1977.

Nancy also brought this selection of doll fashions, still in their original packaging.

 

July 9, 2023, Meeting

Member Elaine McNally did a program on so-called Motschmann or taufling dolls. She explained that although they are called different names by collectors and come in a variety of materials and styles, what the dolls have in common are a solid chest and pelvis connected by fabric, often covering a squeaker or voice box, and cloth inserts at the shoulders and thighs, giving the dolls the floppiness of an infant. Some dolls may also have swivel necks and jointed wrists and ankles. Elaine said that these dolls were inspired by a type of Japanese play doll called ichimatsu, which has the same "floating" limbs. In 1853, American Commodore Mathew Perry sailed into Tokyo harbor to re-establish  trade and contact with Japanese, who had closed off their country to most foreigners. Among the artifacts brought back by Perry were Japanese dolls. German companies began manufacturing dolls with similar bodies in papier mache, sometimes with a wax coating, and china. The dolls often resembled babies with round bald heads, sometimes with little tufts of hair painted by their ears, hence the name "taufling," meaning a very young infant. However, dolls also were made with hairstyles or features associated with older children. Christoph Motschmann patented a voice box that was used in many of these dolls; an early collector seeing the Motschmann name on one such doll mistakenly thought Motchmann had made the doll, when in fact he had simply designed the voice box. The tallest standing doll is an antique, while the two other standing dolls are creations by Elaine.

This doll with molded hair was a gift to Elaine from a friend. It is papier mache with a wax coating.

'

The tallest doll with a curly mohair wig has a voice box operated by a pull string and clearly cries "Papa." Standing in front of this doll is a traditional Japanese ichimatsu doll. The little doll next to her is wax over papier mache and wears her original clothing. 

Member Sharon Weintraub displayed these two Japanese ichimatsu dolls. The lady doll is unusual because most ichmatsu resemble young boys or girls and the child doll has a bisque head, rather than the traditional head with a complexion made of gofun, a smooth white coating made from crushed oyster shells. 

Sharon also shared this scarce china version with inset glass eyes. Although unmarked, the head resembles the rare glass-eyed china head dolls made by the German company of Kloster Veilsdorf. This poor little guy is waiting to be restored, but the squeak box in his torso still works. 

Member Elaine Jackson brought this example with sleeping eyes. She has a squeaker, but lacks floating hands or feet.

Member Pam Harding displayed this beautiful Bye-lo baby. She said that she had wanted one for a long time. 

She also shared this stockinette doll with large painted eyes made in 1976. The doll is supposed to represent Betsy Ross.

Member Jan Irsfeld told the club how she found, restored, and dressed this lovely Cissy doll by Madame Alexander. 

 

Women Doll Artists; Grace Storey Putnam

This bevy of babies are all-bisque versions of the Bye-Lo baby designed by American artist and sculptor Grace Storey Putnam. Putnam, after her divorce from sculptor Arthur Putnam in 1915, gave art lessons and sculpted to support her family. She wanted to create a doll portraying a new born baby and in 1920, using a three-day old baby girl as her model, sculpted a life-like baby head of wax. She approached George Borgfeldt and Company, a doll importer and distributor in New York City, about creating the doll in bisque and in 1923 the first Bye-Lo babies hit the market. And hit they did--the doll was so popular it was christened the "Million Dollar Baby." In addition to a doll with a bisque head and celluloid hands on a cloth body modeled to resemble a floppy newborn, the popular Bye-Lo also appeared in a variety of all-bisque versions, and, for adult fans, as pincushion dolls and salt and pepper shakers  The Bye-Lo was also made in other materials, such as composition, and was produced in some form through the 1950s.  Although the marks on the dolls vary over the years, except for the smallest all-bisque babies, they all carry Putnam's name.  The largest baby in the picture is six inches long and the little frozen action Bye-lo is 3.25 inches long.