Show and Tell Site At Doll Collectors

I posted the story of my pegwooden Jane there, and how I came to get her:

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/34665-another-peg-wooden-doll

Other doll makers/collectors  might like to go there and post some pictures, too. It's always interesting to read stories about other peoples' dolls.

More Info about Tuck Comb Dolls

According to my online research, "Tuck Comb dolls," are classed, along with other "peg woodens, or pennywoods" as Grodner Tal Peg Wooden Dolls, but they are in a special subclass because of their superior workmanship: carved wooden hair combs, fancy earrings, and lovely feminine shapes. They were produced in the Grodner Tal (Valley) in what was Bavaria but became part of Germany during WW II.

Like other pennywoods, these dolls were made in the nineteenth century, 1800 to 1850, and the paint on them contains lead. I'm not yet sure if they were always sold without clothing as the less-detailed pennywoods were.

"These are often referred to as "German" Tuck combs, probably because they were sold via the German Nuremberg Toy Market...." (Lotz Doll Pages) They are also sometimes incorrectly referred to as "Dutch dolls" from the word "Deustch" (ie. "German").

Their fancy hair comb was sometimes removed so they could wear hats or other headwear. The James Orem doll I bought (see previous post) is about 11 1/2" tall, the same size as my other pegwooden "Jane," who was given to me by a friend who owned two of these dolls (below). In exchange for making clothes for her undamaged doll, my friend gave me the damaged ("disabled," she said) pegwooden who was missing a lower leg. I made a new lower leg for her, and then she looked good as new.

I named my first pegwooden doll "Jane" because in Beatrix Potter's Tale of Two Bad Mice the pegwooden in the dollhouse is named Jane. It is weird that in all the times I read this book to my daughter Connie, I paid little attention to that doll. AFTER I received the pegwooden from my friend, I happened to purchase the book for my granddaughter and in reading it to her, noticed the pegwooden in the dollhouse.

Pegwoodens were made in every size from 1" to 17", but the ones most commonly for sale on Ebay are 11 1/2" and Jane is that sized, too. If you search "pegwooden" on my blog, you will see more pictures of the two dolls as I made clothes for them and repaired the one given me.

Someone Else is Making a Pegwooden or Grodner Tal Doll

http://www.atticbabys.com/2009/05/grodner-tal-work-in-progress.html
I've got one started, but she is still in a VERY primitive state.

Jane has clothes!

Considering she's been waiting about a hundred years for something to wear, I think she's probably pretty happy, even though she looks PO'd. I named her Jane after one of the dollhouse dolls in Beatrix Potter's children's book A Tale of Two Bad Mice. That was one of my daughter's favorite books when she was little and I just bought a copy for my granddaughters at Powells Books in Portland a couple weeks ago. It's a great story! Audrey loved it and I read it to her twice (at her request) and LaMont read it to her again.

Kids love repetition of stories they like. I so much prefer interesting stories like Potter's to some of the later Dr. Seuss. The first Seuss books were good: Bartholomew and the Five Hundred Hats, To Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, etc. The later ones got a little boring (for me) to read and read and read, although I did like Green Eggs and Ham.  When my daughter was ten and having a birthday sleepover, we heard all this ruckus in the kitchen at 4:00 a.m. There they were, six little girls fixing green eggs and ham  for their (early) breakfast!!!

Old Doll is Dressed

I used old linens with lovely crocheted edgings for the sleeves and trim on this dress. I buy them just for this purpose at yard/rummage sales. Often they have small tears or stains, but I can work around those. These dolls were very inexpensive and always sold without clothing; girls or their mothers were supposed to dress them, like I did this one. Now this doll is ready to go back to her home, and I will eventually dress the one that is mine, and give her a new lower leg.

Interesting Information about a Special Penny Wood Doll

Katrina, a member of TreadleOn, an online group to which I also belong, offers this interesting information about one of these "penny wood" dolls:
One of those (penny wood dolls) came across the plains from St. Louis to Sacramento in 1846 with Patty Reed, who was a member of the Donner Party. When the party got into trouble and had to abandon most of their belongings, the little wooden doll was the only thing Patty could take because it was small enough to fit into her pocket. (Many were about 4" tall, although Bonnie's two are 11.5".)
The book Patty Reed's Doll is the story of that journey, being trapped in the Sierra that winter, and the hardships the survivors encountered all written from the doll's point of view. When Patty later died, she donated the doll to Sutter's Fort, because that was the destination they were heading for. "Dolly" is on display at Sutter's Fort, and every spring, thousands of fourth graders descend upon it to see the doll as part of their California History curriculum. While this particular doll is important because of its unique history, these dolls were very common during the middle part of the 19th century.
Thanks, Katrina, for sharing this information.

Lovely Proposition from my Friend Bonnie

"I have a proposition for you," my friend Bonnie said, as she pulled a mysterious tissue-wrapped bundle from a bag. Unwrapping it, she showed me two old primitive wooden dolls, a kind I had never seen before.

She proceeded to present her "proposition:" "I know you can make doll clothes," she said, "so if you dress this one, I'll give you this one!" She pointed to the one missing the lower leg, the one she called "disabled." I was thrilled! I would be happy to make some handsewn clothes for her doll, so that I could earn the other for my own.

I am pretty sure I can make a nice outfit for Bonnie's doll and I'm also pretty sure I can fashion a new leg for my new doll, too.

Bonnie told me that the friend that gave her these dolls told her they were made for coal miners children, and that they had come from Virginia. She also guessed that they were pretty old.

I wanted to learn more about these dolls, so the first thing I did was post a picture of them on the Vintage Cloth Doll Making site. Several people responded that they were called "Penny Woods," inexpensive dolls that were sold in the 1800s in England, in Penny Shops, similar to our "dimestores," of the 1940s-60s. Most were small, about 4 1/2" tall, but Bonnie's are 11 1/2" tall.

One of the Vintage Cloth Dollmakers suggested I Google Penny Wood Doll as she had; she said there was a lot of information about them available online. I did and she was correct; I learned a lot about these dolls and saw some that were very similar to these two. WERE they made for coal miners children? I really don't know, but it's possible that these dolls were stocked at "company stores," for miners to purchase for their children. At the time these dolls were inexpensive; now, not so much!

At any rate, I am newly smitten by these dolls, as I have often been smitten before. See more of these dolls at:

http://http//auntpollysdollemporium.blogspot.com/2010/01/penny-wooden-dolls.html