Here is Martha with Leeann and her Valentine dress, across from a nice lady who moved from New Orleans after Katrina. She and her daughter (2 down) make porcelain dolls. Leeann creator, Denis Bastien, is seated next to her.
Wilma is trying to decide what to buy next - Leeann clothes, shoes, or earrings.
Denis Bastien, LeeAnn creator, happily signs dolls for purchaser after his interesting and informative presentation about how he got started with his doll company Affordable Designs. An interesting aspect of his business is working with the Chinese factories that make and dress his dolls.
Here are photos from our road trip to Huntsville for the Valentine's Day LeeAnn Event. The luncheon was
enjoyable, the hat-making workshop fun, and there were sales displays of items for LeeAnn, Denis Bastien's doll that was our favor. The photos show some of Mr. Bastien's dolls for sale, 2 of our members enjoying the day, a table of delighted girls from a private girls' school, and one special find (valentine dress for LeeAnn). The 68 dolls offered today are one-of-a-kind, and Mr. Bastien kindly signed our dolls on their fannies. LOL His dolls are offered for sale at the Paris Doll Museum, and were featured there in an exhibit, with dolls posed in the windows. I have seen this important museum, and am quite impressed that they sell his dolls.
Here is a 16.5" hard plastic 1950's walker with "160" on her neck. She may be LuAnn Simms by Roberta Doll Co. LuAnn was a singer, and one of her recordings is "Little Rag Doll." The 1915-1922 compo on the right is 15" Effanbee's "Baby Dainty," all original,complete with skates. Her body is cloth. They are both all original and in wonderful condition; dolls like this hold their value.
This collector loves cloth dolls, as you can see, but these china dolls at the bottom by Ruth Gibbs caught her eye, and they joined the others in her doll case.
Effanbee's Patsy dolls were a hit in the 1920's and 1930's, and many other companies tried to copy her looks without getting too close in order to avoid a lawsuit. This resulted in many other cute dolls representing this time period for collectors to enjoy today. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed this program on often overlooked dolls.
Here are 2 sweet Md. Alexander babies in their Christmas dresses - Victoria and Kitten, along with the real cat Hello Kitty. These belong to our brand new doll club member Lydia. Glad to have you with us, Lydia!