Nancy Ann Storybook dolls are named after their creator,Nancy Ann Abbott.
These two are two different interpretations of Alice Through the Looking Glass. One is a bisque version. (The first dolls were bisque.)
The other is the later, plastic version.
I very much prefer the cute faces of the bisque dolls to the blank stares of the plastic dolls.
Neither of these dolls are wearing what I consider a classic Alice dress,and neither is blonde for some reason.
The bisque doll has a simple dress with attached apron.
Both dolls are 5 and a half inches tall.
Some Nancy Ann dolls are jointed at the neck,but some aren't. Plastic girl is,and can turn her head. Bisque girl has a one piece body/head.
Some Nancy Anns have jointed hips,but others have one piece style body/legs.These both have jointed hips, so they can supposedly sit down. The plastic girl could move her legs far enough to sit, but the bisque girl was stuck. I couldn't move her legs far enough to get them to sitting position. I was afraid to force the legs for fear of breaking them. All Nancy Anns have movable arms.
The original bisque dolls have painted eyes.
The plastic doll has sleep eyes,instead of painted eyes.
Nancy Ann Storybook dolls can be hard to identify, since dolls with the same name were produced in a variety of outfit fabrics, as sometimes the original fabrics became unavailable during production of the doll. There is a great site that can help you identify your Nancy Ann doll,which you can go to HERE.
The real life Nancy Ann became a doll maker by accident, or possibly fate. Originally intending to become an actress, Nancy Ann Abbott moved to Hollywood in the 1920's. She played bit parts and performed as a dancer in small roles. She later costarred in Westerns. Although her friends thought she would be a big star some day, it was a random request to dress a doll to be given as a gift that changed her life. She dressed a plain, bisque doll and turned it into something impressive enough that she got orders for more. In less than a week she had hundreds of orders for more dolls, strictly from people seeing that one doll and telling others.
In 1936 Abbott began making the dolls from home. The dolls started life as tiny dolls,less than 4 inches tall. The 5 and a half inch size began to be used at the end of 1936. By 1937 Nancy Ann Dressed Dolls was a company,and by 1942 the company was making a million dollars a year. At one point they were producing 12.000 dolls a day. In 1944 they were so busy they had to have their switchboard disconnected! By the end of the 40's it was the biggest doll company in the country. Pretty impressive for what started as a home business.
Abbott started out using dolls made in Japan. The dolls began to be produced in California in 1939,by which time Nancy Ann had an entire crew of artists hand painting the doll's faces.
The company became Nancy Ann Storybook dolls in 1945. Nancy Ann Abbott died in 1964,and the company filed for bankruptcy the following year. The company was sold,and dolls were produced in the 60's and 70's,but they never regained their popularity. They were popular enough for Jesco to market rip off versions, made from spare parts purchased when the company liquidated in the late 70's.
Nancy Ann dolls were brought back as a series of limited edition dolls in 1998. Although over 50 dolls were originally intended to be made,in the end there were only 4 produced. Last year Robert Tonner's company Phyn and Aero produced a brand new line of porcelain Nancy Ann dolls,sculpted by Dianna Effner. The faces are a sweet combination of the original face, and the cute children's faces Effner is known for.
The little girls I'm going to be showing you this week are only a small portion of Connie's collection of Nancy Anns. See you tomorrow for more of them.
Since neither of them are blonde, perhaps they pre-date the Disney version? The bisque one definitely does. And before Disney, different editions of the book had Alices with whatever hair colour the current illustrator wanted even thought the original Tenneill version was blonde.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't even thinking of the Disney Alice. (I seldom do.) I suppose I gauge every Alice by the Tenniel illustrations,because those are how I think of Alice. I suppose they are closer to the real Alice,Alice Liddell,who had a brunette page boy hair cut as a child.
DeleteThe bisque doll is really sweet looking. They are cute dolls, but don’t really seem like Alice in Wonderland at all.
ReplyDeleteThey don't seem like Alice to me either. But then,I'm very picky and specific about my Alices.
DeleteWhat cute "sister" dolls. I like the bisque one's face better also.
ReplyDeleteI think the little bisque one is my favourite of the two, there is something very sweet and childlike about her that particularly appeals to me.
ReplyDeletei think the bisque ones are cuter in general.
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