Doll Show Haul Part 1: Lotte Sievers Hahn Boy and a Lovely Lady

   As usual, I am behind in things. I haven't shown you what I got at the doll show yet. I didn't get many things, since I was trying to be good, both with money and space. I was trying to make it all the way around the show before I bought anything, because I had a limited budget and you never know what you might find farther on. (Of course, you risk it not being there when you go back for it too.)  But I found this beautiful little guy for only $10. I had to snap him up!

  He's a Lotte Sievers Hahn doll. You may have seen my others HERE, HERE, and HERE. This guy is a different size from any of my others. Most of the Lotte dolls I have are 5 inches tall. I also have two 8 inch ladies. This guy is somewhere in between, at about 6 inches.

  Lotte Sievers Hahn dolls are made in Germany. The company is very well known for their carved wooden nativities. Like the other Lotte Sievers Hahn dolls I have, he's carved from limewood, with hand oil painted eyes and mouth.

  He originally had a hat. I don't mind him being hatless though. I can always make him a felt hat. 

  His clothes are felt and his hair is what I would call embroidery floss.

    His clothes are made of felt.

 

    The arms on these dolls lift up, but can't hold the pose. 

The originals had strips of leather that connected the arms to the shoulders. I don't know what they use these days. Yes, they are still making these dolls. While my others are probably from the 1940's, I think this guy is recent.

    They have 'mitten hands'.

  Their legs are pin jointed at the hips, so they can move their legs and sit down.

  Isn't he sweet?! I fell in love with these dolls the first time I saw them on line. That's when I bought the batch of little ones. The dealer I got this one from always has very beautiful and interesting dolls. They're mostly very expensive, and often museum quality dolls. She had this little guy, and two Lotte Sievers Hahn finger puppet girls. The girls were tiny, and looked brand new. They were only $10 each too, and I would have loved to have had them. But as I said, I was being good. I had a limited budget for the day, so I had to be choosey too.  

  After I got this guy I didn't get anything for quite a way around the show. I looked, but passed things I liked. I was trying to see everything before I spent my money. That's a good idea in one way, but on the other hand, if there's something you can't live without, you'd better get it, because it may not be there by the time you get back to it. The next thing I bought was quite a way farther on, and it was only a dollar. It's a pretty, antique, real baby dress.

  Don't ask me what I'm going to do with all these antique baby dresses I keep buying. I probably have some dolls they'll fit.

  The next thing I bought I actually passed, and got on my second trip around, not long before I left. I went all the way around, having only spent $13. (I paid $2 for a doll so I could steal the jeans for Tammy World.) Then I decided to go back for one doll, and all my reserve began to crumble. Here's the lady that started it all.

  I just loved  all the colours and her outfit, and her cute face.

  Look at those chubby cheeks!

  Her hair is still nice, but the feather in her hat has seen better days.

  I just kept thinking how much I liked her, and would I regret not getting her? I also kept remembering a doll from a previous show that I didn't get, and how I wished I had. In looking back to find a picture of that doll in an older post, I found that she was THIS doll! Not even one like her, but. her The bent apron corner clinches that. This is her. She was the one that got away, and I caught her this time!

  She's quite old. I think she belonged to the dealer's mother. I might be remembering that wrong. They had tables full of travel dolls, from all over the world. They were trying to sell the collection. They were selling the dolls for very cheap prices. Some were worth much more than they were charging, but the wife said she didn't care. They just wanted to get rid of them.

 

She has stuffed felt arms, and they do move.

And her felt shoes come off!

  She's possibly a  Piemonte doll. Does anybody know? 

Well, that's it for this time. I'll show you what else I gave into in an upcoming post.  

Doll-A-Day #359: Chinese Sword Dance Doll

I love this doll. She's beautiful, and interesting. She's a doll representing Chinese sword dancing.

  She is actually from China, as her tag shows.

She has two swords, as they are Chinese hook swords, which are used as a pair.

 

Wikipedia says: "The hook sword, twin hooks, fu tao, hu tou gou (tiger head hook) or shuang gou (Chinese: 鈎 or 鉤; pinyin: Gōu) is a Chinese weapon traditionally associated with northern styles of Chinese martial arts and Wushu weapons routines, but now often practiced by southern styles as well."

  Click the Wikipedia link above to read the full article. There isn't much known for sure about hook swords. They may or may not have been used in the military, but probably not. They may be from this region or that.  They may be ancient, or more recent. Geez.

  Her pose, with one foot in the air behind her, is one typically seen in pictures of Chinese sword dances.

She is wearing a silk outfit, with top, trousers, and skirt.

There's a lot of decoration on her clothes. I'm not sure if it's painted, or decal of some sort.

 

She has little black shoes with white soles.

She's about 8 or 9 inches tall, and attached to a wooden base.

I'm not sure what her hair is made of. It's twisted into two buns and decorated with sqiggly gold thread.

It has a stitched part.

She kind of reminds me of Bernadette Peters.

She has a delicate little face, with soft sculpture features.

  Before I accidentally erased this whole post, (!!!), I had a link to a good site about Chinese sword dancing. Now I can't find it. It just doesn't show up when you search 'Chinese sword dance'. 

  Ivy and I both have some Chinese dolls with similarly made faces. In fact, this sword dance doll looks like an older version of THIS GIRL of Ivy's or  THIS GIRL. of mine. .They both have the same soft sculptured faces and hair made of the same stuff...whatever that is.

  359! We're nearly there! This may be the first Doll-A-Day to not miss any days at all! My sister keeps telling me I should just forget it and say, oh well. But I am so close to accomplishing what I said I was going to do, in spite of everything that happened this year. And I am going to do it! 

Doll-A-Day 2023 #351: Lady With Wheat

I'm not sure where today's doll is supposed to be from, but here she is. Maybe some of you can tell me.

She's about 5 or 6 inches tall.

She's obviously a doll representing a country, but which one?

She's carrying a shock of wheat, and a scythe to cut it with.

 

Her clothes are felt, but her face is a smooth, shiny fabric, like silk.

She has embroidered detail and blanket stitching trim on her skirt.

Her feet are flat, and are basically the way my dad described my feet: 'You don't even have feet, just a piece of your shin bone turned down.' (Because my feet were so small, before I got fat and they spread.)

Her hands are pretty much just the ends of her arms curled up too.

Her body is very strangely shaped.

  Her legs make my legs look long! And that would take some doing.

  Make sure to check out today's other posts. We're racing to catch up before the end of the year!