Annual Doll Sale - B'ham Doll Club of AL

Antique and modern dolls and accessories

Free appraisals

May 4, 2013 from 8 to 2

1809 Mission Road, Vestavia Hills, AL

Happy Birthday, Michelle!

Happy Birthday, Michelle!!!  Here is a stuffed rabbit by Hansa for you.  Hope your day is great.

Happy Birthday, Dorothy!!!

Here are Md. Alexander Ginny dolls from the New Orleans UFDC Convention last year.

Teddy Bear Display

Here are some of my favorite bears - including artist bears, one offs (one of a kind), an antique, and a crocheted set of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, which makes me smile.  The bear on the bicycle won 3rd Place in his category at the United Federation of Doll Clubs Convention in New Orleans last year (out of 23).  Click on photo to enlarge.

Delicious Party Pound Cake

Besides giving a delightful program on small dolls, Debra served this delicious pound cake.

Kathy’s Party Pound Cake



1 box pound cake mix
4 eggs
1 stick butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 box powdered sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
1 (8 oz.) block cream cheese

Have eggs, butter and cream cheese at room temperature.
Combine cake mix, butter, and 2 eggs.  Mix well (batter will be stiff).  Spread in a greased 9x13 pan.  Combine cream cheese, sugar (save enough to dust on top after baking), 2 eggs, and vanilla.  Spread over cake.  Sprinkle pecans on top.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.  Cool slightly.  Sprinkle sugar on top and cut into small squares.

April Meeting - Program on Small Dolls (8" and under)

COLLECTING SMALL DOLLS
PROGRAM FOR APRIL



Our program for April was about collecting small dolls eight inches and under.  There are a multitude of dolls made of various materials that fall into this category , but we focused on the original all bisque and subsequent bisque-head with composition body small dolls.

During the 1860’s and 1870’s there were already miniature dolls such as all-wooden dolls, bisque and china-headed dollhouse dolls, and china “frozen Charlottes.” However, in 1878 a different kind of miniature doll was born.  In that year an advertisement appeared in La Poupee Modele, a French children’s magazine.  It announced the birth of “poupees de poches,” or pocket dolls.  These little all-bisque dolls looked like a realistic child, with real wig and glass eyes.  They were fully articulated and could be dressed and undressed.  Earliest production of the little all-bisque dolls appears to have been French, but within two years the French doll shops started using German doll firms for their “French” all-bisque dolls.  The German firms of Simon and Halbig and Kestner made many of the early all-bisque dolls for the French trade.  The all-bisque dolls were immediately very popular, but for some reason the name “pocket doll” was not.  In 1880, only two years after their introduction, they were re-named “Mademoiselle Mignonette.”

Around 1900, the meaning of the word “mignonette” changed.  Instead of meaning only the all-bisque doll, a “mignonette” became any small bisque-head doll regardless of the body material or quality.  The doll firms began putting the bisque heads on small composition bodies and these were also known as “mignonettes.  These dolls were much less expensive than the all-bisque dolls.

We had the largest doll attendance we've ever had at a meeting, I think!  Sorry I couldn't post all the photos.  We had all kinds of dolls for show and tell including bisque, china, papier mache, cloth, composition, wood, and celluloid.

A great book

Bisque Kewpie, all bisque, Hitty, etc.

Some great small bisque heads with compo bodies

Cloth ethnic dolls

Bisque heads

A mix of bisue, cloth, and wood

Palmer Cox Brownies, cloth