Members were asked to bring a new doll or a doll that has special meaning for them. Pam Hardy brought this cute porcelain doll by artist Donna Rupert. She told the club that she had bought the doll when her granddaughter was born. Her granddaughter is now 18 years old.  Jan Irsfeld shared this stunning Cissy. She said that when she first moved to Austin, her doll collection was packed away. Jan visited a local doll shop and found this Cissy. She created the gorgeous hand-beaded gown for her, Bette Birdsong received this charming child from Jenell Howell as a thank you gift for helpi ..read more

Member Elaine Jackson lead the program, which was on books and dolls. She started out with one of the most famous books featuring a doll, Hitty. Hitty is the wooden doll heroine of Rachel Field's 1929 children's novel, Hitty, Her First Hundred Years. In the book, the eponymous Hitty (short for Mehitabel), a simple wooden doll carved by a peddler in the 1820s, narrates her adventures over her century of existence. Jackson explained that Fields was friends with illustrator Dorothy Lathrop and sometime in the 1920s, while strolling together in New York City they saw a small time-worn wooden doll ..read more

Member Jenell Howell did a program on doll designer Joseph Kallus.  She said that she was inspired by member Elaine Jackson's collection of segmented composition and wood character dolls. Jenell explained that George Borgfeldt and Company in 1912 contracted with Rose O'Neill to produce dolls and figurines based on her Kewpie characters and the company advertised for a sculptor to make a model. Kallus, a 17-year-old student at the Fine Arts College of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, submitted a plaster model and was hired to design the dolls. This began Kallus' long and creative career in ..read more

Member Jan Irsfeld generously opened her lovely home for our club's holiday party. The club provided a variety of pizzas and members brought many tasty sides and desserts. Jan's halls were definitely decked out for the holidays! Several members brought dolls to share. Pam Hardy displayed this beautiful reproduction Bru by famed doll artist Patricia Loveless. Elaine McNally brought this sweet carved wood Swiss doll she recently purchased at the auction of the Jonathan Green Collection. The smaller wooden doll sitting on her lap is one of Elaine's own creations. Elaine's daughter ..read more

Member Sharon Weintraub did a program on Black all-bisque dolls. She explained the French and German companies, and later Japanese makers, created Black all-bisque dolls, although in far smaller numbers than white dolls. While sometimes a Black all-bisque doll was made in same mold as a white doll and simply tinted brown, companies also created these dolls with ethnic features. In most cases the dolls were not made expressly for Black children. Many were garbed in ethnic costumes representing French or German colonies or were dressed as servants or entertainers. This example by Simon and Halbi ..read more

 At the our July 9, 2023, meeting, member Elaine McNally gave a wonderful program on so-called Motschmann or taufling dolls.  One of the dolls shared at the meeting was this scarce china version with inset glass eyes belonging to member Sharon Weintraub. This poor little guy was waiting to be restored, but the squeak box in his torso still worked.  At the 2023 United Federation of Doll Clubs convention in Bellevue, Washington, Sharon found a damaged antique taufling body that was missing the head, but had intact arms and pelvis. Even more serendipitous, the parts wer ..read more

Member Kenneth Reeves did the program on Ginny  and other Vogue dolls. He explained that in 1922 Jennie Adler Graves opened the Ye Olde Vogue Doll Shoppe. She began by dressing dolls imported from Europe and by 1925, Graves had to hire an additional seamstress, as well as home workers. In 1937, she purchased composition Toddles dolls from  from Arranbee Doll Company. Her daughter, Virginia, joined the company in 1942 (she would take over the company from her mother in the 1960s) and in 1945 Vogue Dolls was incorporated. The company moved to hard plastic in 1946. In 1948, Graves ..read more

Some events websites have posted a listing stating that our club is having a doll show on October 7, 2023. We are NOT having a doll show. Some of these sites, to fill their calendars and attract readers and ad revenue, take past event listings, update them, and post them without authorization. We have tried to have these listings removed, but it is not easy. In some cases, there is no way to even contact the website. Again, there is NO doll show on October 7th ..read more

 Member Elaine Jackson did a program on Edith Flack Ackley, an author and doll artist. Elaine noted that cloth dolls were often the first dolls given to children. She said that from the 1920s through the 1940s, many stay-at-home mothers began making and selling cloth dolls. This was a thriving industry, but many of these dolls were later discarded after they became worn or dirty from play. During this era, Ackley published books with patterns and instructions for making puppets and dolls. Elaine noted that in 1939, "Woman's Home Companion" magazine published doll patte ..read more

Member Elaine McNally did a program on so-called Motschmann or taufling dolls. She explained that although they are called different names by collectors and come in a variety of materials and styles, what the dolls have in common are a solid chest and pelvis connected by fabric, often covering a squeaker or voice box, and cloth inserts at the shoulders and thighs, giving the dolls the floppiness of an infant. Some dolls may also have swivel necks and jointed wrists and ankles. Elaine said that these dolls were inspired by a type of Japanese play doll called ichimatsu, which has the same "float ..read more