I just love this photo!  Children in a basket on their porch on a sunny day – along with their calico cat and German dolly!  Precious!  I owned a calico cat when I was growing up; perhaps this is why I’m so fond of this image!

Judging from the children’s clothing and hair styles, the photo seems to date from about 1920.  The doll appears to be one of modest price and quality, made by a German firm like Armand Marseille or Cuno & Otto Dressel.  She has a typical “dolly-face” of the period. 

The article below, from About.com, describes the “dolly-faced” dolls made during the early part of the 20th century and explains how these dolls differ from “character” dolls.

The German “dolly-faced” child dolls are the ubiquitous antique bisque dolls that collectors today are most likely to find, produced from 1890 to about 1930, from such manufacturers as Armand Marseille, Simon and Halbig, K*R,  and Kestner. Most of these dolls came from the Thuringia region, which had rich clay deposits used to make the porcelain. Many of the German dolly-faced dolls are unmarked as to manufacturer, and there are many manufacturers that had their names and other details literally obliterated by the World Wars. The most sought-after of the German dolls of the early 20^th century are the character-faced dolls, produced in response to consumer demands for more realistic-looking children dolls. Kämmer and Reinhardt, Heubach and Kestner produced many high-quality expressive character dolls which are eagerly sought by collectors today. Also eagerly sought by collectors are all-bisque dolls (head, torso and limbs all made of bisque) from manufacturers such as Kestner, Heubach, and Simon and Halbig.

For German bisque dolls, as with all antique dolls, remember that quality varies widely even within one manufacturer’s products–dolls with finely detailed features (such as feathered brows and individual upper and lower eyelashes) and pale bisque are always preferred over dolls with single-stroke or other simplified features and darkly tinted bisque. Also, today’s collectors prefer closed-mouth bisque dolls, since many fewer of them were produced than open-mouth dolls. Common German bisque dolls of average quality which are unmarked or from Armand Marseille can be found for as little as $200 or $300, with prices for sought-after German characters soaring into the thousands.

Every little girl knows the story of Cinderella.  It is a tale of hardship and happy endings; of romance and true love.  Many of us probably even imagined that we were Cinderella and dreamed about our handsome prince finding us and living happily ever after!

This wonderful children’s book by McLoughlin tells the age-old tale in a slightly different fashion – through the eyes of a theatergoer viewing a stage production!  As the reader turns the pages, theatergoers in their boxes can be seen on additional flaps on the sides of the book.  

McLoughlin published at least two other stories in this format: Beauty and the Beast and Little Red Riding Hood.  These theater-shaped books were patented by McLoughlin in 1891 and known as the “proscenium format.”

The chromolithographs found throughout the book are amazing! 

I think this book is so special because it tells two stories simultaneously: the story of Cinderella and the story of the excitement and glamour of a night at the theater! 

If you’re interested in purchasing this treasure, it is currently listed on EBay.  I sell under the ID Elszen.

I love the vibrant coloring and details of fine paper dolls from the Victorian era!  This set, named “Mamie,” is lovely!

The doll depicts a beautiful brunette child, perhaps ten years old, with rosy cheeks and an oversized blue hair bow.  She comes with three dresses and matching hats.  The paper is thick and sturdy.

This set was made by Selchow and Righter, an American company with an interesting history.  The company made many paper doll sets during the same era as this set, including one featuring a Teddy Bear and his clothes!

According to 20th Century Paper Dolls Identification and Values, by Mary Young:

The Selchow and Righter Company is an offshoot of a business started in 1867 by A. B. Swift.  Mr. Swift was a wholesale distributor of toys and games on John Street in New York City.  One of the games listed in his first catalog that year was Parcheesi.  In 1870, the company was purchased by Mr. Elisha G. Selchow.  Mr. Selchow hired a young man named John Harris Righter to help run the business.  Righter did such a successful job that he was soon made manager, and he later became partner in the firm.  The company continued to sell large quantities of toys, games, and baseball equipment, and a large assortment of mechanical toy banks.  Mr. Righter died in 1909 and Mr. Selchow in 1915, but the company continued to succeed under the name of Selchow and Righter.  Like most other toy companies, it experienced only two major slowdowns during the years that followed:  one during the Depression of the early thirties and the other during World War II.

After the war, a crossword game was brought to Selchow and Righter for consideration but was turned down.  It was not the first time the owner of the game had been turned down, so he decided to set up his own factory and produce the game himself.  The name of the game was Scrabble, and the owner had the name trademarked.  He asked Selchow and Righter if they would sell him a small quantity of playing boards, which they agreed to do.  A year later, a greater amount of playing boards was ordered, and by 1952, the order was large enough to cause Selchow and Righter to wonder if they had done the right thing in turning down the game.  The owner’s little factory was beginning to swim in Scrabble tiles, and new orders from customers made the owner realize he could no longer handle it alone.  Hence, the game was licensed to Selchow and Righter.  The game has now been translated into many foreign languages and also made in Braille.

For many years, the Selchow and Righter Co. was the American distributor for J. W. Spear and Sons of London/Bavaria.  It handled all types of Spear games and toys, including toy theaters and paper dolls.  A Little Red Riding Hood theater with jointed figures was pictured in the 1924/25 Selchow and Righter catalog.  Spear’s paper dolls were also featured in that catalog.

I was thrilled to come across this very rare image of a privileged youngster surrounded by his fine toys!  There are so many noteworthy toys shown in this amazing image – including a Billikin Doll and some stuffed animals that appear to be by Steiff.  For this post, I want to focus on the wonderful, jointed, wooden animals seen in the image.  The elephant, donkey, horse, and ladder all appear to be part of a Schoenhut Circus set!

According to Countryhome.com:

In 1872, German immigrant Albert Schoenhut began producing toy pianos and xylophones in a one-room workshop. But it was the appealing line of string-jointed, poseable Humpty Dumpty Circus animals that eventually brought the A. Schoenhut Company, a Philadelphia-based manufacturer, international success.

Schoenhut’s wooden circus had a long production run, from 1903 until 1935, which accounts for the variations in packaging, size, and finishing techniques used on the animals. The company began making just a few basic circus figures—the clown, donkey, and elephant—later adding more animals, performers, wheeled cages, and props, all made to fit under a canvas tent. Often the pieces didn’t come in boxes at all—you’d go to a toy counter and buy what was available. In other instances, several figures would come packaged in a cardboard box, or in the case of a big set, a wooden box with a colorful illustrated label.

The early animals had glass eyes and were hand-shaped and hand-painted. After World War I began, for reasons of economy, they switched to painted-on eyes and did less hand-shaping. In the 1920s, they came out with a reduced-size circus: a tent with 20 to 25 pieces. Toward the end of that decade, they downsized even more, offering single boxed pieces and a $1 set consisting of three miniature figures. The miniatures were produced only in 1929, and are incredibly rare.

Oldwoodtoys.com lists Schoenhut’s collection of circus figures to include:

A Lady Circus Rider, Lady Acrobat, Ringmaster, Gent Acrobat, Negro Dude (a minstrel), Chinese Acrobat, and a Lion Tamer. Animals included an Alligator, Brown Bear, Polar Bear, Buffalo, Bulldog, Burro, Arabian Camel, Bactrian Camel, Cat, Cow, Deer, Donkey, Elephant, Giraffe, Gazelle, Goat, Goose, Gorilla, Hippopotamus, Brown Horse, White horse, hyena, Kangaroo, Leopard, Lion, Monkey, Ostrich, Pig, Poodle, Rabbit, Rhinoceros, Sea Lion, Sheep, Tiger, Wolf, Zebra, and a Zebu.

What fun our little friend must have had with this circus set!  I wonder how many additional circus characters were waiting inside his house on that sunny day?!

I have included a photo below of a great ad from 1928 showing a boy and girl playing with a later version of this circus!

If you’re interested in purchasing the original photo used for this post, it’s listed on EBay!  Check the link to my items at the top of the page!

This week has been extremely busy for me. My parents are coming from out of town and work has been hectic! I wanted to post a visual treat for my regular readers though!

This wonderful Romanian postcard features a pair of sisters with their antique bisque dolls! Such a quirky and fun image!

Do you think the brother and sister at the bottom are sharing a look of sibling love or are they on the verge of a fight?! Hard to tell!  He *does* seem like a bit of a “Smart Alec!”

Enjoy!