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.