Would I go to a Doll Show During a Pandemic?

   I have a confession to make. I have gone to a toy show and a doll show in the last few weeks. Don't worry. It was very safe. The toy show was held in three fairground buildings, where the big doors were open on both ends of the building, and the aisles were one way. The doll show, which was this past Sunday, was not very big, (in spite of advertising itself as "The best in the Midwest'".), and was held in a large fairground building, and was not crowded at all. And everybody at both events were wearing masks. I was in more danger going to the grocery store afterward, where it was more crowded, and some idiots weren't even wearing masks. I thought and thought about going to either. In the end, I went to the toy show, (which I will detail in an upcoming post.), partially because it was being held at a fairground, which usually means big, open buildings,and partially because my sister wanted to go with me! It was her idea! She has never done that before. Nobody has wanted to go to a toy show with me for years, so I thought I'd better take advantage of it. As for the doll show, I balked at first because I was hearing how the virus numbers were getting worse in many states. Then Ken said Ohio is actually one of the states where the numbers are not going back up. I thought that if they do, this might be the last doll show for a while. It was also one of the last of this year, and one of the few that wasn't cancelled, I told Ken I would go, see how crowded the place was, and if everybody was wearing a mask, and base my decision on whether or not to attend on that. 

  I was really happy to see that it was a big open room with not an excessive amount of dealers, (Most of the building was empty.), and not a big crowd. And as I said, everybody was wearing a mask. 

  I thought I'd take lots of pictures so those of you who have not been able to attend a doll show this year could live vicariously. I know we've all been missing the chance to get out, and especially the chance to go to things like doll shows. I took quite a few pictures, and then my camera battery died! But here are the ones I was able to take. I managed to photograph most of the best stuff.

  This baby looked a little sickly. Still cute though. I'm finding I am developing a love of shiny compo babies! (Although this guy might have been hard plastic.)

Then there were these beauties.

I thought this baby was cute, even if there is a slight resemblance to the one adult criminal pretending to be a baby in that one Our Gang/Little Rascals comedy. (You can see most of that short HERE.)

  I really love the kid in blue on the back row. What a sweet face! I kind of like the girl to the right of that one too, although she could use some colour in her face. She looks a little bilious. The Ginnys are nice too,and I've always loved the Campbell's Kids.

These are interesting.

I was tempted to ask about these two military dolls, but I had already spent a little by then, and was trying to not spend very much. They didn't have prices, and I let it go at that.

One of the first displays I looked at was this gaggle of Shirleys. I love me some Shirley.

  

  Unfortunately my camera battery ran out before I got to the HUGE compo Shirley from the thirties, in her original outfit and original BOX! She was gorgeous and absolutely mint. I think she must have been at least 30 inches tall. She was wearing the plaid "Good Ship Lollipop" dress.

  These Patsys were so nice! And look at the dolls below them. Madam Alexander Little Women? And I love the doll in green on the right hand edge of the picture.

There she is!

Sorry about the blurriness.

These are a bit older. I like them all, but look at the one in green.

More quirky babies.

Aw! Look at the little girl with the pink wreath. She's got some personality.

This was a cute pair.

  Can you guess which one of these was my favourite? If you said the girl with the red bow on her hat: DING DING DING! Good answer!

  I have always loved big eyed dolls, and goofy looking dolls. Check out these Googlies.

  A  lot of these pictures,like the one above, were taken at one dealer's table. She had some wonderful dolls. They were all out of my price range, but I can enjoy looking.

  Here's a bunch of beautiful girls. My favourite? The one in the red apron.

  One dealer was selling these  handmade pumpkins. I was tempted, but,as usual, I hate to spend money on something that I makes me tell myself, "I could make that."

  Now tell me something. Ivy threw a big fit about me saying,"I could make that." She says it demeans the talent of the person who did make it. I don't see it that way. I just mean, that's something that might be within my means to replicate, even if I might not do as good a job as they did. (But that takes a lot longer to say than,"I could make that.") I also can't see spending money on something I could make myself. My sister, who has also always 'made stuff', does the same thing. I have been at art fairs and things with her, and we have come across things we liked, and said to each other,"Yeah, but we could make something like that." Do you think it demeans the talent of the person who did make it to say something like that? Have any of you ever done that?

  Okay. Moving on. These ladies were one of a kind! The dealer told me that these hand carved wooden dolls were hand made years ago by an older lady from Kentucky, obviously long gone, named Helen Claxton. She wasn't a famous doll maker, or an artist. She was just a lady who 'made stuff'. Well she made some great stuff!

The first three dolls in that row were made by Helen, as well as some men I forgot to take a picture of, which were on another shelf to the left. My favoutite of all of them was the lady in the green blouse.

  I really couldn't send $45 on her though. I'll reveal why soon. But I also couldn't spend $30 on this girl, although I was sorely tempted! 

If Ken had been with me I would have asked for her for Christmas or SOMETHING! She's by Roldan, and would have been something of a replacement for the Klumpe girl with a suitcase Ken didn't get me from my Ebay watching a few years ago. (She was in there for about 2 years!) Here she is hanging out with her friend the shepherd, with his AMAZING sheep.

Zoom in on that sheep. It's awesome!

  I REALLY liked this standing girl with a teddy bear too. These two were made by Kathie Clarke.

  You're going to think I loved the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls, and I do. But look at the golfer in the striped socks!

I don't know why, but this little girl really appealed to me. She, along with the Roldan gardening girl, was this show's 'one that got away'.

The dealer had her at $20 I think, and kept coming down. She was going to let me have the doll for $10, but I was trying not to spend very much, considering I had gotten three dolls in the mail just the day before. If Ken had been there, once again, I would have asked for her for Christmas or something.

I spotted one of my neighbours, Cindy Maguire, at the show! Her youngest son went to school with Emma. I've seen her at other shows because she has a business making bears and other animals. I always forget the name of her business though! This time I made sure to get one of her flyers so I could remember. It's China Cupboard Bears. You can go to the website HERE.

Some of Cindy's creations:

They're all cute, but I love the pig!

These are sweet. Cindy uses all natural fibers now. I know this because she told me when I bought a big bag of her synthetic fur at her yard sale this summer. Ivy's still growling at me because I missed buying Cindy's surger for $60. Apparently that's really cheap and Ivy has been wanting one.  I didn't know what it was, and thought of asking, but didn't. I had to go home and get my money to pay for the fur, and when I got back a lady was buying it. I asked what it was then. When Cindy said it was a surger I thought,"Ut oh. I'm in trouble." I said, "Out of curiosity, and so Ivy can kill me, how much was it?" When Cindy said $60 I knew I was in trouble!

Look at the face on that...sheep?!

Another cute pig!

I told Cindy I would post some pictures of her creations. She said she has a new website, so I said maybe some of you will see her work and order something. She had doubts because she said, "When you tell people in town the price they just say,"How much?!" I assured her that you guys come from all over the world, and are more aware of how much beautiful hand made dolls cost than our locals! So check out Cindy's website, and if you order something from her, tell her you read about her here on the blog!

  Moving along, remember I said I'm getting to be a little obsessed with beautiful shiny compo babies?

How cute are those two?! And this gorgeous Dimples, below, is wonderful too.

I want to get my Dimples to look like that!

  This pretty girl was unmarked. She had a wonderful mouth with teeth. Anybody know who she might be?

I found this strange faced little lady interesting.

  One dealer had a stunning display of Schoenhut dolls. This is only half of them!

Here are the rest. Schoenhuts are more dolls I would be very interested in owning, if only they weren't so expensive.

More pretty girls and a carved wooden guy. Pinnochio maybe?

This girl, Toddles, has some personality.

   These are all nice, but I particularly liked the girl on the right.

This dog is in the picture above too. Isn't he cute?

This small girl appealed to me.

  I LOVED this girl. Little Red Riding Hood?

  This doll was so cute! She looks like a real child.

  So I said I bought a few things. What were they? Well for that you're going to have to wait for the next post. It won't be long. I'll see you then.

Doll Show Haul!

  Whoo Hoo! Sunday was doll show day! I almost didn't go because our one dependable vehicle situation meant that I would have to wait until time to take Ken to work at 10Am, to drive the nearly two hours to arrive about 12, at  a doll show that opened at 10,and had already let Early Birders in at 9. (I hate the idea of Early Birds. It's not fair and it's stupid.) It hardly seemed worth it. I was fuming, because it's been so long since I was able to go to a doll show,and this one was just going to slip through my fingers. In the end I decided to go anyway,because otherwise I was just going to simmer all day and be in a foul mood when Ken got home, feeling I'd been short changed.
  So I went. The last doll show I went to had lots of beautiful stuff,but almost NOTHING I could afford. I picked up a few really cheap fixer uppers,and a beautiful bargain Sample Skipper. But this doll show had all kinds of affordable goodies that were.amazingly,still there at noon and even later,since I was still finding things at 2:15,when I left.
  It wasn't a huge show,but there were all kinds of interesting things. 

Like these interesting,but expensive kids.

There were many beautiful antique dolls.

These Effanbee Patsy or Patsy type dolls.

This 'Grumpy' doll and his more pleasant friend.

This beautiful Shirley Temple,who wasn't a bad price,but was still out of my range. She was one of the first things I came across.

This was Shirley's neighbour.

This lovely and expensive lady and her cute,and more affordable friend.

These cute Ginnys.

But,yuck! These cats were made of real hair!

There were also a good amount of vintage Barbies, a Tammy or two,a few Penny Brite dolls,Crissy and Family,and a Tiny Chatty Brother,(You can see my childhood Tiny Chatty Brother HERE.), who was in a case and only $15! I even spotted two or three Deluxe Reading Dream Kitchens in box. (You can see mine HERE.) I considered this bendy Furga Vittoria at only $15.

I also was fond of this very affordable guy. The seller offered him to me for $24.

The seller had him marked as a 1920's doll by Madam Hendren. I didn't think he looked very 1920's. She also said she thought these were his original clothes, but looking on the internet now I see that the clothes belong to Madam Hendren's Sonny/Sunny Boy,but this guy isn't him.
  I liked this girl.
 

But I still had half the room to go,so I was reserving my funds until I had seen more. I really loved these Baps dolls,especially the little girl.

But the kids were $28 each. Just as well. It would have been a shame to break up the family!

You can see my only Baps doll,which was a rescue at the last doll show I went to,HERE.
This girl was nice, but what I really liked was her coat!

There was this great looking Alice marionette.

I was disappointed she was only plastic though,and too expensive for me.
  I made a note to maybe go back for this amazing Nora Wellings girl with glass eyes.

She was an amazing $15,but I was still trying not to spend too much money. I made note of this girl too. She was $10.

 I liked these HEbee SHEbee dolls,and I had been wanting one, but they were about $60.

I considered this doll. She was slightly smaller than a Pepper or Penny Brite,but could definitely live in their world.

In the end most of the dolls I bought were $1,$2,or $5. The most expensive were $18 and $10. Here's the haul.

The first thing I bought was this girl.

She was from the same booth as the Shirley I showed you above.

She was $5! She doesn't have any cracks on her head. She has a little damage to her fingers,but I can live with that. Her clothes are original,except her socks, and possibly her shoes. They are old though. I'm going to wash her dress and bonnet.She has a compo head/chest plate and arms, and her body and legs are stuffed cloth.
   I also went back for this girl.
 

She has a pressed cloth face like a boudoir doll,a stuffed cloth body, and ceramic arms and legs.Her hair needs some touch up. I'm not sure I can fix it,but she's pretty. I got her for $5,not 10. If she had been 10 I would have wavered more between her and the Nora Wellings,which I did not get. She's 'the one that got away',and I am now wishing I had bought her! I was trying to return home with some money though,and she would have pretty much cleaned me out.
  These 'twins' were from the same lady who had the Nora Wellings.

They're hard plastic and were only a dollar apiece. I couldn't break them up. I think they'll make for nice pictures in the Spring. So the prices on some things were pretty good. The seller was clearing out a lot of stuff before moving. That's why the twins were $1 each and the Nora Wellings was so cheap. She had a basket full of dolls for $2 each. I got three of the $2 dolls. One was this Polish artist doll.

I'm not sure about her. I like her, but in a way, I don't. Hmm.
She has her tag.

She was originally an expensive handmade doll.

Her shoes are made to look like the toes are coming apart and are signed on the sole.

   Besides this Polish girl she sold me these $2 dolls.

The boy does have arms. The coat is over his shoulders and his arms aren't in the sleeves.

And if these prices weren't good enough,I replaced a childhood Happy Herman doll for $1.

 He's a little sun faded,but that's ok.
Also $1 was this little ceramic girl.

I have some ceramic figures from when I was a kid that look similar to her. By the way,please excuse her somewhat unfortunately placed shirt polka dots.
And these two dolls were 25 CENTS each!

I have a whole group of these dolls from different countries. This is an older one.

This guy reminds me of a really old cartoon.

If 25 cents isn't cheap enough for you, I got these mittens for free.

At another table, I got this beautiful Todd for $4.

His arms and leg wires are shot, but he has great colour. I can always put the head on another body.
The little guy below Todd was so cute I had to get it to hang out with my other similar dolls. You can see him in the above picture of the twins too.
  I did go back and buy the little German girl.

She was $4. Her shirt and skirt are two separate pieces,and her shoes and socks are painted on. She also has cloth undies.
  She was at the same table with the Alice marionette and the HEbee SHEbee dolls. When I went back for her I noticed that there were also smaller HEbee SHEbee dolls,in box, for only $10. So I caved.

 

These were about 6 inches tall. This is a birthday one.
  One seller sold me this dress and hat combo for $2.

And there's that little knitted guy again. He's an 'amigurumi'.

 That's not bad, but she also sold me my most expensive buy of the day, this Horsman Dimples for $18.

That's pretty cheap for a Dimples. It's because he's been redone,and his lips aren't done very well. I figure I can touch them up though. Otherwise he's such a cute little...ok,BiG guy.

...even if he does somewhat resemble Curly Howard.

  While I was out taking these pictures on Sunday,I noticed my daffodils are coming up.

  I took the pictures as soon as I got home on Sunday,because it was fairly warm, and the forecast predicted rain or snow for the rest of the week. This post should have been up Monday at the latest, but Blogger keeps crashing! So, finally!