The Seniors Centre for Excellence December congregate luncheon featured guest speaker Willa Wick and her extensive doll collection.
Wick started collecting dolls five years ago, buying at second hand stores, auctions and off eBay. Over 200 dolls made of china, porcelain, paper mache, wax, tin, felt, wood and cloth fill Wick’s home located outside of Harriston.
“My mother was not a sewer but she made me a cloth doll when I was a child. Named Granddaughter, my doll was well loved and is in pretty rough shape, but I am keeping her,” Wick said.
In the 1800s dolls were made with porcelain or china heads, necks and shoulder plates. Their appendages were wired together and knotted. Intricately-made leather hands can be found on dolls from this time period.
A doll’s authenticity is confirmed by the manufacturer’s name found written across the shoulder plate. When the original doll’s body, usually stuffed with sawdust wore out, homemakers sewed replacements out of cloth stuffed with old clothing, cotton balls or other available materials.
“The oldest doll in my collection is an 1870s paper mache doll. Germany was the largest producer of dolls with some originating in Norway dating back to the early 1900s,” Wick explained.
“The older dolls’ arms and legs were made of dark-coloured cloth, not the white cloth we are used to seeing. A few dolls are jointed, enabling them to sit or bend at the knee.”
Paper mache dolls look similar to china dolls and are coated with wax to preserve the mache.
Tin head dolls, produced during the porcelain/china doll era, were designed to replace these fragile dolls that were easily broken. But once dented, repairs to a tin doll were nearly impossible.
The felt-pressed Lenci doll’s popularity soared in the early 1900s and after the First World War, despite their expensive price tag. Unique to this collectible doll are its elaborate costumes, pouty lips and sideways eyes expressing sullenness in the male version and loneliness on their female counterpart. A genuine Lenci doll has the Lenci trademark stamped into its foot.
With the introduction of celluloid materials to the doll industry in the 1920s, little girls enjoyed playing with Carnival and Kewpie dolls. Like tin head dolls, these dolls were also irreparable if dented and tended to melt during extended periods of sun exposure.
By 1940 toy companies manufactured wind up dolls. Wick’s collection includes a wind up baby doll that crawls across smooth surfaces.
“When I started collecting dolls, I made a conscious choice to collect dolls manufactured before the 1970s. My collection includes Peg Dolls, a John A. Macdonald doll, Betty Boop, clowns, Halloween characters, Tom Sawyer, corn husk, burlap, bed and baby dolls,” Wick said.
Three of the most popular dolls at the luncheon were Poor Pitiful Pearl, Bradley and Howdy Doody.
Poor Pitiful Pearl, produced in the 1960s, was promoted as “so ugly, she’s cute.”
Bradley dolls also from the 1960s were known for their big, beautiful eyes and long slender fingers intricately designed to bend.
Ventriloquist doll, Howdy Doody, housed a pull string in its back. When pulled the doll’s lips moved, allowing a ventriloquist to perform their act.
A discussion followed Wick’s talk during which attendees reminisced about their own childhood dolls.
