Posted 12 years ago
mike101
(96 items)
Any idea what these dolls are called?
From left to right
Doll #1 has "Dolly Madison"
Doll #2 and 3 look the same and has "Colonial"
Doll#4 cant read name on box
Doll#5 Box has "China" but no Tag
All eyes open and close and seem to work well.
These are just Plastic dime store dolls . They packaged them in a lot of different ways . Some in fancy boxes others in plain . These could have been giveaways for a promotion . They are from late 40's and 1950's . Not very desirable to collectors as they are very abundant on market and were cheap dolls and made for novelty gifts .
They are plastic molded arts dolls or PMA . Their clothes are stapled on .
Hi, I meant to comment here, sorry! I know more detail about these dolls, would you mind contacting me? My email is tinklie@aol.com. Thank you!
Becky
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nice-lot-of-Vintage-Antique-Nationality-Dolls-with-sleepy-eyes-Duchess-More-/130745734118?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e710d93e6
Beck please share your knowledge with all of us on CW on these common inexpensive Dutchess dolls and look forward to seeing your collection .
Welcome to CW
I Look forward to seeing more information on CW
Thanks
Mike
Ok, just wanted to be sure, but I'm not sure why some people put "Duchess Doll" in Ebay as they are most likely from the Blue Bonnet Margarine promotion in the late '50's to early '60's. Manikin, you are correct about them being cheap promotional dolls, a box top sent in with a couple of bucks for the doll of your choice. They apparently had a few promotions, Dolls of all Lands, Heritage, Storybook, and possibly more. The first doll seems to fit into Heritage-Louisana Cajun (tag is wrong), the two in pinkish gowns, Storybook-Dolly Madison (again, wrong tag), next, Storybook-Betsy Ross (the box you couldn't read), and Dolls of all Lands-China. I see one box says "Colonial", but I believe whoever owned them before you, mistakenly used that box, as this name is for an ARCO doll and very different looking. Hope this helped!
Many companies produced these dolls if your referring to the boxes they are in Blue Bonnet usually marked them blue bonnet . Plastic molded arts did many as well as several others . I would say people use the term Duchess most as it really is more known and since they are all the same just packaged different and sold or given away as promotions a person searching for them would be inclined to use duchess doll or PMA doll in a search .
Here is an article on these little plastic dolls and there are some companies that aren't even named on their list . Far to many so they get grouped into one category so make it simple since most people don't care which company made them as the only real difference is in packaging . And some did package them in beautiful boxes for displaying in . Thank for your input beck and hope you share some of your dolls with us at CW always glad to see others collections here :-)
Many doll companies made small hard plastic dolls during the era of 1948-1960s, one of which is the Duchess Doll Corporation. Dolls are often marked on the back with; Duchess Doll Corp 1948 or 1949. Dolls are all hard plastic, 7-8" tall slender adult figure body jointed at neck and shoulders with non-bendable legs, painted or sleep eyes, wigged, and molded painted on low heeled shoes, with elaborate costumes stapled to dolls body. These are also called "Travel Dolls". Duchess dolls are inexpensive and often found, still in their original box with tags.
Duchess Doll face mold
Some Duchess Doll names are:
Alice in Wonderland, Bride, Brides of the World, Charm Girl, Cinderella, Continental Dolls; Dolly Madison, Queen Elizabeth; Coronation Doll, Dale Evans, Danny the Groom, Dolls of all Nations; Gypsy, Irish, Morocco, Spain, Dream Girl, May, Miss Hollywood, Fairy Princess, Miss North American Van,
Miss Tastee-Freez America's Sweetheart,
Miss Valentine of 1951, Scotch Girl, Walt Disney's Peter Pan and Tinker Bell.
Some other companies that made similar hard plastic dolls are; Fortune Doll Company made a Pam doll of hard plastic, 8" tall, sleep eyes, synthetic wig, dressed doll, Hollywood Doll Company made lots of 8" hard plastic dolls and Plastic Molded Arts Company (PMA), who made tons of small hard plastic dolls and also supplied parts and entire dolls to many companies.
http://dollreference.com/duchess_dolls.html
also
http://pages.neeleysantiques.us/153/InventoryPage/1879419/1.html
Wow....That is some great very detailed information. Thank you so much everyone. This Mystery is definitely solved. CW ROCKS..........
Thanks Mike I normally don't write a long info on common dolls but I guess I should , however it is hard for me to type to long so I try and keep it brief and to the point . So do we want long descriptions ? I think they are needed for rare dolls but not common one's .
have a good day and keep unpacking them dolls Mike :-)
Thank you your giving me great information:) its nice to have the name of the doll and if it a special doll more info is great.....you have been amazing.
Thank you so much
It's true, they were very cheap when they came out. Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) also had promotions for these similar dolls, "12 Beautiful Dolls of the World", their flyer stated and many dolls served double duty throughout the collections. Ex: Louisiana Cajun and France are the same doll. Spain and early California are the same doll. ARCO dolls where manufactured by the company A & H Manufacturing, Inc., in New York, USA. and maybe the Blue Bonnet dolls as well, not really sure about that though. Reddi-Wip and Swiss Miss also promoted similar dolls. I'm working on finding out more about those. I'll post pictures of my ARCO dolls soon!