Doll-A-Day 2023 #25: Knickerbocker 'Cradle Purse and Doll' Doll

   Today's doll is a tiny one Emma has in her 'stuff to sell' stash. He's this kid.

He's a Cradle Purse and Baby doll.

He was made by Knickerbocker, in 1978.

For some reason his copyright says 'Morgan Inc.'

He originally came with a cradle shaped purse that he could lay in. You can see a picture of one of these dolls with their original box and cradle purse HERE.

He measures about 3 and a half inches tall.

He's all cloth, except for his face.

He even has little cloth hands.

He has painted eyes and a very pink mouth.

There's a little bit of rooted air peaking out from under his hat. 

It looks like it might have been chopped though.

  That's the doll for today. See you tomorrow for another doll.

The Doll Book of the Month Club: Little Kettle-Head

   The Doll Book of the Month Club entry for this month is one I didn't even think about posting before, because until I started thinking about it recently, I forgot it even had a doll connection. But I have been thinking about it recently, because of the fire. I've been wondering if it survived. It hasn't been found yet, but nobody has gone through all the books I had on the landing. A lot of them were fine, and some of them were soaked and damaged, but rescuable. Some of them weren't rescuable and were thrown away. I'm hoping this book was one I had the forethought to put in a plastic bag to keep it dust free, and that the bag didn't melt. 

**********************UPDATE! Ken found my Kettle Head!******************************

  Things melted in weird ways. Things you would have thought would have been fine, melted beyond help. Other things you would have thought would have been burnt to a crisp, or ruined by water, are perfectly fine. For example, there are still cloth and wooden things in Fuzzy's room that are fine, if smokey smelling. The accordion that was behind the door, (which was hacked off it's hinges. Why? It was open...), is still standing. But there were things on the landing that melted beyond recognition. The shower curtain in the bathroom melted! That was the opposite side of the landing!

  But I digress. The book I have been thinking of not only has a doll connection, but a connection to what happened to us two weeks ago. The book, published in 1904, is called "The Story of Little Kettle-Head, An Awful Warning to Bad Babas or The Story of Little Degchie-Head". 

Pretty weird title, but this is a pretty weird book. In fact, even though this book was written for children, don't read it to children! This book can be considered disturbing. I find it disturbing, but I also find it so bizarre that I find it hilarious. 

This is an easier to see version of the cover that I found on the internet.

  First I'll explain that a 'degchie' is a large, handle-less aluminum pot, often used in Indian cuisine. In other words, a kettle. (Not like a 'tea kettle'.) So. Why is the subject of the book a 'kettle-head'? Well, here's the story. Hang on to something.

  The story concerns a little British girl named Mary, who lives in India with her parents. Mary has a dangerous obsession: she likes poking fires. 

In fact, she LOVES poking fires. She does it all the time. She is told off for it, and dragged away from fires. But she is still compelled to poke them. 

   One day Mary finds her mother busy with the cook's accounts, and she takes the opportunity to wander into the cook house, where she sees all the pots cooking on the fires. She wants so badly to poke them. The problem is, the fires are high up, and she can't reach to poke them properly. 

Mary is resourceful, and she finds a large kettle used to boil water, and uses it to stand on. She's very pleased that she can then poke the fires better. But the pot is unsteady. It flips, and Mary falls head first into the fire, and her head is 'burned right off'. You read that right. The kid burned her head off.

  Does she die? Nah. The cook comes back and finds 'Missy Baba' in the floor with no head. 

                                             Just a puff of smoke where her head used to be.

  He's resourceful too. 

He grabs a kettle and plops it on her neck, ties her bonnet on to hold it, and draws a face on the kettle with a burnt stick, the very stick she had been poking the fire with. And what did he do then? He sent her to her mother! No, 'hey, your kid burned her head off. I have replaced it with a kettle.'  Nothing. He just sends her to her mother.

  Mary goes to her mother, but won't show her face when her mother speaks to her. The next morning she eats breakfast with her sunbonnet on, so her parents can't see her face. These parents are really hands on care givers. They don't notice their child has a kettle for a head, even when all she can say is "Clip Clap clapper apper apper.", as the only sound she can make is the rattling of the kettle lid on the kettle. Instead of thinking that's strange, and investigating, they get angry and tell her she's rude.

  Mary stays in a corner all day, crying, while pretending to play with her doll, and still making the 'clapper apper apper' sound. She refuses to go on a walk with her parents, instead hiding her face, and clapper appering.

  That night she's afraid to take her bonnet off when she goes to bed, in case 'the only head she has' falls off. But no fear! It's Christmas eve! Old Father Christmas shows up. He finds Mary in bed, and tries to think what he could possibly give a child with "no proper eyes to read a book with, no proper nose to smell a scent bottle, no ears to hear a drum and no mouth for sweets." He concludes that she also "couldn't kiss a doll with that mouth!" But he doesn't give up. He digs deep into his bag of gifts to find one fitting for Little Kettle Head...I mean, Mary. 

At the bottom of the bag he comes across a lone doll head, surrounded by the pieces of what was once her body. 

The doll had been cut to bits by a bunch of 'wild toy soldiers with their sharp swords'. Luckily Father Christmas stopped them before they chopped the doll's head to pieces too...BY GIVING THE SOLDIERS TO SOME BOYS! What?! These toy soldiers are so violent and destructive, and their swords are so sharp, that they destroyed a doll, so what's the best things to do with them? Why give them to some kids, of course! But they were 'wild boys', so obviously they were as bad as the soldiers. Maybe they would even be a threat to the soldiers. Great kids to give sharp stuff to. I think they were some cousins I had.

  But back to Mary. Old Father Christmas decides the head is 'the very thing' for Mary. So he puts a table next to her bed and sits the head on it. 

  In the morning Mary is 'delighted to find Father Christmas had brought her a new head', a 'beautiful doll's head with long golden hair and real eyelashes.'  

  She carefully glues it to her neck and sits very still until the glue dries, so the new head doesn't fall off. 

  Then Mary shakes her head to make sure it's secure, jumps for joy, and runs off to show her parents her new head. Her ever observant parents are very pleased with Mary's looks, because her hair has 'grown a yard long in one night, and we never saw you look so smiling before.'  This kid's parents are terrible!

  After that, Mary is so terrified of fires that her mother has to drag her past them. "And that is why her head has never been burned off again." Maybe she had a celluloid head. That would really be bad to get near a fire with, even if you didn't fall in head first. 

  See what I mean about this book? It's a weirdy! It was written by Helen Bannerman, who is more famous for being the author of the now controversial "Little Black Sambo". For the record, the Sambo of the story is an Indian boy, not a Black boy. Still, the title doesn't sound good, and the name became derogatory slang. The book is now generally banned, but other than the character's names, which all contain the word 'Black', there is nothing bad about the book. I loved it when I was little. Our copy had beautiful colour illustrations of the green jungle, the bright orange and black tigers, and Sambo's bright green umbrella and colourful clothes. I especially loved his curly toed purple shoes. I wanted those shoes! 

This is the version we had when I was a kid. It's a 1961 Whitman Tell-A-Tale book.

He was a clever little boy who saved himself from tigers by giving them his clothes and then watching as they fought over them, running around a tree until they turn into butter, which he scooped up and took home to his mother, who then used it on her delicious pancakes! Unfortunately, Helen Bannerman wrote a whole series of books about 'Little Black' such and such, and accompanied them with books about 'Little White' such and such. Why couldn't they have just been "Little Such and Such'? Worse yet, the name was latched onto, and the illustrations in some editions became more and more racist, changing the setting from the Tamil region of India to the Southern United States. It's a shame such an innocent story became such an ugly symbol of racism.

  Helen Bannerman was born in Scotland as Helen Watson in the 1860's. Her father was an Army chaplain, so the family moved often, to many parts of what was then the British Empire. When she was two she moved with her family to Madeira, and at ten was sent to Scotland to school. In 1889 Helen married William Bannerman, a British Army surgeon working for the Indian Medical Service. They moved to Tamil Nadu, on India's Southeast coast. For thirty years, Helen lived, and raised a family, in India, thus India being the setting of her books. She began writing illustrated stories on the trip from India to Scotland to visit her daughters at school there, in 1898. Friends convinced her to get the stories published, and a career was born. The books were published in miniature editions, because as a child Helen had always wanted 'a book she could hold in her own tiny hands'. "Little Kettle-Head" measures about 5 or 6 inches by about 3 inches. Helen passed away in 1946.

  You can read the whole "Little Kettle-Head" book HERE.

  Don't forget to check out today's other post for the doll of the day.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #24: Happy My Girl

   Today's doll is one that should have appeared in the last post on our trip. I photographed it the night of that last day I posted about. She's this lady.

This doll has more names than six dolls! She's Happy. She's My Girl. She's Angel. She's Beauty Doll. I'm still not sure which name she actually goes by. Nothing comes up when you Google 'Happy My Girl Doll'. On the other hand, when you Google 'Angel Doll', you get every angel doll ever made, and none of them are her.

"The new mainstream productsbeautiful bring you feel different!" "Come quickly to collect this new product with us together!" "Every girl dreams to become a beautiful girl!"

  She's obviously a Barbie knock off. She's the same size as a Barbie. She has jointed elbows and wrists, as well as the usual neck, shoulder, and hip joints. It looks like she probably has click bend knees.

  Her face is fairly pretty, and her face paint isn't bad although it's pretty simple. That hair looks pretty chincy though.

  I spotted this doll in a London souvenir and candy store. They had some toys, and socks, of which I partook. Socks seemed to be my biggest souvenir purchases during the trip! I got quite a lot of socks. Well, at least socks are useful.

  I also spotted this display in a real estate office window. I'm sorry. It was England. It's an estate agent.

It says 'homeowners', but the bottom floor looks like a dance club, the middle floor is a bar, and I'm not sure what the top floor is. Is that a billiard table or a piano? There is the word 'arcade' on the wall to the right. So, not a piano I guess.

 This was quite a big dollhouse too. It must have been more than 3 feet tall, maybe 4.

  That's the doll for today. Unless Ken manages to find my spare camera battery charger today, I'm reduced to using my phone for pictures after this. I know people do that, but I hate it. I have a much easier time with my camera. In any case, see you tomorrow for another doll.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #23: Pepper

   Today's doll is one I forgot I had, and I have no idea where it came from as far as the fire! I remember getting her at a doll show, but I swear I put her downstairs with the rest of the Tammy collection, She's Pepper.

  Pepper was made by Ideal.

  She was the little sister of Ideal's Tammy doll.

     She stands 9 inches tall.

Pepper was produced from 1963 to 1965, longer than any other member of Tammy's Family.

This Pepper is a little more unusual because she has strawberry blonde hair.

The most common Pepper's came with brownish blonde hair.  

Like this Posin' Pepper that belongs to Emma.

  What I really want is the Pepper with the carrot orange hair. She's super expensive though, so at the moment I am settling for this girl.

  Pepper also has cute freckles.

She has standard jointing, at the neck, shoulders, and hips.

She can sit, but it's a bit awkward looking.

  Pepper had her own wardrobe, and lots of really fun accessories.  Some of the accessories in the Tammy and Family line were so cute and realistic. I think my favourite is Pepper's reel to reel tape recorder. If I was at home right now, I would show you mine.

  When I bought her she was wearing this dress. It's not a Pepper dress, and it might be home made. It looks all right on her though, for now.

  You can see my posts on my other Pepper dolls HERE, HERE, And HERE. And you can watch a vintage commercial for Pepper HERE.

  That's the doll for today. Hopefully tomorrow we will be retrieving my camera battery charger from the house, so I can use my camera and continue this without having to use my phone. I still don't work very well with that thing. I am not a modern person at all. I'm lucky I can do this! In any case, I'll be back tomorrow with another doll.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #22: Roldan Gardener Girl

   Today's doll is one from a small bag I had Ken bring from home so I'd have dolls to post while we are here at Emma's, without bringing a houseload. She's this girl.

  She was made by Roldan, probably in the 1950's, or 60's.

  Roldan was based in Spain. This girl still has her original price tag on her back.

    She has a pressed felt face, and felt clothing.

The hair is supposedly floss or mohair. Hers doesn't feel like mohair.

Even her flower pot and plant are felt.

  Her wheel barrow and rake are made of wood. 

  She's wearing her ballet slippers, because, who doesn't garden in toe shoes?

She has a flower in her mouth. These dolls are always amusing and full of personality.

Roldan dolls are very similar dolls to the ones made by Klumpe, who was also based in Spain. In the 50's and 60's these dolls, made originally for the tourist trade in Spain, and later imported to America by Effanbee and Kimport, were at their peak. I have read that at one point there were about fifteen companies in Barcelona, making dolls like these. Roldan dolls, and also Nistis dolls are often mistaken for Klumpe dolls, because Klumpe is more well known. But Klumpe dolls are usually a bit more expensive than Roldan or Nistis dolls. You can see my Klumpe doll HERE, and my Nistis doll HERE.

  She seems like she would be about ten inches tall, if she were standing up.  Of course, she can't. She's stuck in this position. At least she looks happy about it.

Most of the Roldan dolls are between nine and ten and a half inches tall. Most Klumpe dolls are a bit bigger.

There was just something about this girl. She has some damage and soiling, but that's what made her affordable. She is sort of my cheaper substitute for the red haired, suitcase carrying  Klumpe doll I want.

  I saw this girl at a doll show in the Autumn of 2020. I really wished I had bought her, but I had just bought  three dolls from Emily over at The Toybox Philosopher, so I felt a bit bad spending money on more dolls. There were two dolls at that show that I considered 'ones that got away', and thanks to the dealers having them at later shows, I now have them both. 

  That's today's doll. Today my camera battery died. I don't have a charger or more batteries here at Emma's. When we came back from the trip I cleared out the bag I carried my electronics in, and left the baggie of camera batteries and my charger on the landing. I hadn't needed them since, so they were still there. Of course, the landing got intense heat and smoke. A bunch of things on the landing got melted. The firefighters knocked things everywhere and trampled stuff. That's okay. They kept our house from burning down. But my bag of camera batteries and charger haven't shown up yet. They could be fine. Or the heat could have ruined all of it. Until they are sorted out of the rubble of wood and plaster and melted or soaked things, I won't know. It's taking forever for the landing to get sorted, because Ken and Emma were both working full time until Tuesday this week. And Ken is having to drive a half hour each way back to the house/work. He can't exactly dig around in the soot and then go serve food at a restaurant, so it doesn't do him any good to go early and work at the house first. And he closes, which means he gets off work well after midnight. That's a little late to start that stuff when he still has to drive a half hour back here afterward. He spent one of his days off this past week running around to various things about the fire, and the other online, filling out forms about the fire, and on the phone about stuff. I do have a spare charger that is in the bedroom. I could give Ken detailed instructions, and he still wouldn't find it though. I've already had that with my address book. It is dark in there. I'll give him that. Luckily I photographed several dolls today, so hopefully he'll find my charger, at least, before I run out of photographed dolls. If not, I'm going to have to resort to my phone for taking pictures. I don't want to do that because I still haven't figured out how to send the pictures from the phone to my computer without messaging them to Ken, and stealing them from Facebook messenger. (I know. I'm hopeless.) Ken managed to put the trip pictures from his phone on Google Drive, but we can't figure out how to steal them back and use them! (I'm not the only one who's hopeless!) So that's where we are with that. I still have the rest of the trip to post, and fire things to show you. See you tomorrow for another doll.