Ruth Gibbs Dolls

January 10, 2015 Meeting of the Birmingham Doll Club

Jill S.  served as hostess and gave a presentation on Ruth Gibbs Dolls.  Ruth Gibbs dolls were created and produced by Ruth Gibbs and her husband, Herbert Johnson.  Ruth Gibbs was an antique doll collector who worked as a design stylist and merchandizing consultant for Dennison’s Department Store in NYC.  The couple had a strong desire to produce a china doll that would not only be collectable, but could also be played with by little girls.  Ruth Gibbs began making the dolls in the early 1940’s.  In 1948 a patent was issued for “Ruth Gibb’s Godey’s Lady Book Dolls”.  The dolls were produced in a factory in Flemington, NJ.  Herbert Johnson managed the factory.  The dolls had a china shoulder head, china lower arms, china lower legs, and a cloth body.  There was wire inside the bodies to make the dolls easy to pose. The dolls were produced in 12” and 7”, with the smaller size being more popular.  Early dolls had white skin and looked more like antique china dolls.  Later dolls had pale pink or dark brown skin (rare) and a more modern, page boy hair style.  The dolls are inscribed “Ruth Gibbs” on their back.  Hair colors were brown, black, blonde, and red.  Rare dolls had applied wigs.  Most of the dolls had gold painted shoes, though other colors (to match the hair color) were made.  The doll’s faces were hand painted.  The dolls were sold in many different styles of clothes including story book and fairy tale characters, brides, and colonial ladies.  The dolls were also sold undressed with a dress pattern so the new owner could sew for her doll.  Production of the china head dolls ceased in the mid 1950’s.  Plastic dolls were later produced for a short time. 

An early 7" Ruth Gibbs Doll with a flat top hair style

 

Here is a blonde 12" doll in a lovely pink "mommy made gown"

A beautiful bride!

A fairy queen

A pretty Ruth Gibbs doll.  I love her bonnet!

Little Women dolls

Close up of Marme

 

Lucky Barbara won this lovely Ruth Gibbs doll as a door prize!

Here is an example of a Ruth Gibbs doll box with a pattern for clothes for the doll