April 12, 2026, Meeting

David Craig did a program on D.A.E. Originals fashion dolls designed by his friend, David A. Escobedo.

In 1992, Escobedo began his career as a doll designer by repainting and dressing "My Scene" Barbie dolls (the two following dolls are examples).  He then worked for Mel Odem dressing the Gene doll line. In 1997, Escobedo decided to start his own doll company. D.A.E. Originals. 

The company began by creating limited edition and one-of-a-kind vintage-inspired outfits for Gene. In 2002, Escobedo introduced his own fashion doll, Vivian the Miniquin. According to her backstory, in 1943, the upscale Diamonds Department Store opened. The store became famous for its innovative and dramatic window displays. Vivian was a mannequin in the fine clothing department. She and her fellow miniquins, as Escobedo called them, could absorb the feeling and memories of any customer who touched them, giving the miniquins a glimpse of the outside world. At night the miniquins would come alive, sharing what they had learned and enjoying the department store's many amenities until morning came and they had to return to their places. 

David told the club that although the Vivian face sculpt has remained the same, the later editions are fully jointed. The company also gave Vivian a beau, Monty, in 2005. David said that Escobedo wanted to capture the lush fashions of the post-WWII era and was also inspired by clothing worn in movies from that period. The clothing is exquisitely proportioned and detailed, including the hats, shoes, accessories, and  undergarments. This Gene doll models some of the lovely lingerie made for Vivian.  David told the club that he is drawn to these dolls because they remind him of his childhood and watching his mother and grandmother getting all dressed up in their finest outfits. 

 

Jenell Howell continued the collectible fashion doll theme by sharing this example from the Deja Vu doll line by Tonner Doll.

She also brought two much earlier examples of fashion dolls. This flirtatious flapper is Mold 1159 by Simon and Halbig. Her slender lower legs have feet molded to wear heeled pumps.

Also by Simon and Halbig and produced for Cuno and Otto Dressel is this Mold 1469 with a slim composition lady body.  Her Edwardian outfit was created by Doug James for his 1470 line of dolls and clothing, modeled after the Halbig 1469 series.

Myrna Loesch shared this charming Gebruder Heubach character child.

Nancy Countryman brought this boxed fashion set for Barbie.

Sharon Weintraub shared two recent finds, This is a doll is from the Dunaev factory in Russia, which used a head from Kammer and Reinhardt as a mold for its terracotta heads. The dolls were made beginning in the early 1900s and were dressed in authentic Russian costumes. This doll represents a merchant's wife. The doll came with a tag describing only as "Strange Doll," but Sharon told the club that she likes strange.

Also on the strange side was this wind-up automaton monkey by the French maker Roullet et Decamps. Originally, the key was jammed, but Sharon was able to access, clean, and oil the mechanism, so now the monkey musician plays his accordion, turns his head, and opens and closes his mouth while a cheerful tune plays. 

 

February 8, 2026, Meeting

Elaine gave a program on cowboy and Indian dolls. She talked about growing up in the 1940s playing cowboys as portrayed in popular culture, but explained that the way the cowboys were depicted in Hollywood is a myth. Elaine said that the cowboy traditional began in Texas after the Texas revolution, when Hispanic ranchers and farmers abandoned their cattle as they were forced to immigrate to Mexico. Hands were hired to round up the stray cattle and drive them to market. However in 1883,  Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show created the myth of the cowboy as a noble savior of the wild west. Elaine noted that although 40 percent of the cowboys were Black or Hispanic, on television and in the movies cowboy stars such as Tom Mix, Gene Aubrey, Roy Rogers, and the Lone Ranger portrayed cowboys as a white man protecting civilization from savage Indians. By the 1940s, every American composition doll company had introduced a cowboy doll.

Elaine displayed a number of cowboy dolls from her collection. The composition boy in the back row wearing a red checked shirt and chaps is "Baby Grumpy" by Effanbee. Just to his right in the front is a yellow and white oilcloth doll by the Atlanta Novelty Company and the little tan doll is "Wild Bill," a cloth chew toy. To the far right of the picture, the cloth doll in the front with the checked shirt and red bandana was made from a commercial doll pattern first issued in the 1940s. Just behind him, in the blue shirt and straw hat, is a cloth cowboy made from an Edith Flack Ackley pattern. The tall cowboy in the brown vest and checked shirt behind him has a cloth body also made from an Ackley pattern, but he has a painted wooden head. To the right of the Ackley cowpoke in the blue shirt is a cowboy in brown and tan with a head made from a nut. Behind him, handsome in blue and white, is an all-wooden cowboy carved by Austin artist Nancy Grobe. In front of the pair is a Hitty doll carved by Connie Hardt and dressed as Davy Crockett. One can't play cowboys without Indians, and Elaine shared a number of dolls representing Native Americans. To the far left of the picture are two painted cloth Native American dolls created in the 1930s under the Work Progress Administration, or WPA. In front of the is a tiny bisque nodder doll by the German firm of Hertwig and Company.

 Elaine explained that Native American dolls were often made either as play dolls or tourist souvenirs.  The two cone-shaped dolls on the left of the picture were made by the Seminole tribe out of cloth and palmetto fibers. Elaine said that the older dolls have clothing made from appliqué, while newer versions are decorated with rick-rack. The cloth doll in blue in the center is dressed as a traditional Navajo woman and in front of her is a tiny birch bark canoe. The wooden doll, representing a Native American child, was carved by Connie Hardt.

On the left of the picture are two dolls with carved wooden heads that represent Northeastern tribes. Behind them is a cloth doll that may have been made from an Ackley pattern. The composition baby in yellow felt was from Madame Hendren, a trade name used by the American Averill Manufacturing Company. Next to him, in orange cloth, is a Native American character by the British doll maker, Norah Wellings.

In this picture, the flat colorful cloth doll is actually an oven mitt modeled after a Hopi Kachina. The two seated clay figurines are Pueblo storytellers and the porcelain Indian in the feathered headdress is a bell that was made in Japan. The brown doll captioned "Alice's Baby" was commercially made as an early teething toy for infants.

Members shared some of their Western-themed dolls. Jenell Howell displayed this cute 1955 cowgirl outfit made for Ginny by he Vogue Doll Company, 

as well as this 1952 Ginny in her original Native American outfit.

She also shared this Mary Hoyer hard plastic doll in a hand-knitted outfit representing a South American cowboy known as a "gaucho."

Bette Birdsong brought two Gene dolls in glamorous cowgirl garb.

Sylvia McDonald brought several dolls. The man in the horned headdress in the back represents a Plains Indian doll and dates from the 1930s. The plastic doll in the blue velvet blouse and red skirt was given to Sylvia by her brother in the 1950s and represents a Navajo woman. To her right is another Navajo doll, made out of cloth. In the front is Woody from the "Toy Story" franchise and a Seminole doll that Sylvia told the club is around 75 years old.

David Craig told the club that he didn't have any cowboy or Indian dolls, so he brought two dolls decked out in red and white for Valentine's Day. This blond belle is by JAMIEshow USA and is dressed in an outfit for Gene.

This lady in red is by the Phoenix, Arizona company of D.A.E. Originals.

Lynda Eitel displayed this Navajo woman doll that she had made, 

as well as a number of Western miniatures.

Ann Meier shared these Skookum dolls. Designed by Mary McAboy, these Native American souvenir dolls were from 1913 through the 1960s. They are known for having blanket-wrapped bodies with no arms and molded composition or plastic faces with side-glancing eyes. 

Sharon Weintraub displayed several German bisque examples. This all-bisque cowgirl and her little Indian companion are by Hertwig. 

This all-original Native American character doll is by Bahr and Proschild. The head is incised “244” on the back.

Created by Gebruder Heubach, this doll is based on a real Native American woman, popularly known as "Princess Angeline." Her name was actually Kikisoblu and she was the eldest daughter of Chief Seattle, leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish peoples on the West Coast. In 1855, when the Duwamish Indians were forced to leave their land for reservations, she insisted on remaining in Seattle, living in a small cabin and supporting herself by doing laundry and selling handwoven baskets.

January 12, 2025, Meeting

Member Sharon Weintraub did a program on German male bathing beauty figurines, whom she called "beach beaus." She told the club that German companies did make male bathing beauties, but in far fewer numbers than their female counterparts.

Sharon said that many beach beaus appeared as comic figurines. Posing proudly by a small vase or match holder, this male bather stands over the caption “Gaze on me Girls.” He is from the firm of Schäfer and Vater, founded in 1890. Underneath he is incised underneath with Schäfer's crowned sunburst mark and "9593," as well as stamped "Made in Germany.”

 

Also by Schäfer is this pair of real swingers. Sharon told the club that  their legs are hinged with wire, so that they can swing back and forth. 

Sharon called these two mature beach beaus nodding acquaintances, as their bisque heads bob up and down. The man in blue stripes is incised on the back edge of both his head and robe “9273," while his companion is similarly marked “9274."

Sharon noted that not all beach beaus were comic characters. This pair of bisque vases feature a man and a woman dressed in matching red and white bathing attire. She had the bathing beauty preparing to dive in her collection for many years, but later came across the male mate at a local estate sale.

Sharon told the club that in 1879, Italian artist Odoardo Tabbachi created a marble sculpture entitled "La Tuffolina" (the diver), featuring a voluptuous bathing beauty in a graceful diving pose. The statue was so popular that many German porcelain companies produced their own adaptations of Tuffolina in both bisque and china and in a wide variety of sizes. The metal stature is a bronze copy of the original Tuffolina. Next to her is a very scarce male version of La Tuffolina (Sharon suggested that he could be called "Il Tuffolino"). He is 22 inches tall and incised under his base "No. 302" and “3."

Sharon told the club that these two handsome beach beaus are by the German firm of Hertwig and Company. The company, founded in 1864, produced a wide variety of products in "portzellan und feinsteingut" (porcelain and earthenware), from utilitarian household wares to artistic figurines, dolls, and novelties. The beau in black and red is of china  and is stamped "Germany" and incised "544, " while his brother is of light-weight earthenware, and, in addition to the "544" mark, is incised underneath "16." 

This standing beach beau is of precolored bisque with loop jointed arms. There are holes in the soles of his feet for the supporting rods of a stand and "Foreign" is stamped in black on the sole of his left foot.  Sharon explained that in 1890, the United States Congress enacted the McKinley Tariff Act, which required that items imported to the United States be marked with their country of origin. The use of "Foreign" was initiated as a way to comply with the Act, as well as subsequent laws enacted by other countries. The "Foreign" mark not only indicated that an item was manufactured for export, it could be used to avoid marking the originating country's name on a product when there might be some tension between it and receiving country. Sharon attributed the figure to the German firm of Hertwig and Company, which made extensive use of precolored bisque. She said that she suspected that with the jointed arms and the holes in the feet for a supporting stand, he was intended to be dressed and displayed, most likely as a groom. However, she has dressed him in swim attire created from a scrap from an antique wool bathing suit.

Sharon said that this beach beau was created by the German company of Galluba and Hofmann, founded by Hugo Galluba and Georg Hofmann in 1891. She noted that while this firm is renown among collectors for its beautiful bathing beauty ladies, Galluba made at least one male counterpart. He is superbly sculpted with detailed musculature and has a golden tan. Under his left thigh he is incised with "80423 P.P." 

Member Myrna Loesch shared this mustached man doll with a bisque head and articulated wooden body. He appears to be stamped "SS" on his back and resembles dolls made by artist Sherman Smith.

Member Jan Irsfeld brought a bowling beauty instead of a bathing beauty. This felt and cloth character doll may be by either Klumpe or Roldan, two Spanish doll makers who produced a wide variety of souvenir and comic caricature dolls beginning in the 1950s.

Guest David Craig shared this ball-jointed doll by the Phoenix, Arizona company of D.A.E. Originals.  David told the club that he really likes the fashions of the 1950s and 60s. 

Member Pam Hardy brought this French S.F.B.J. doll. In 1899, French doll makers, including Jumeau,  formed an alliance named Société Française de Fabrication de Bébé and Jouets, using the mark "S.F.B.J." SFBJ used Jumeau molds for some of its dolls.