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.

First Doll Show of 2022!

  Happy Place. Happy Place. Let's forget the world right now and be happy for a while.

  We recently had quite an ice storm. That was the week before this past week. It looked like this out our landing window.

All our bushes at the side of our house sagged into the street with the weight of the ice.

They also sagged over into our driveway so far the postal person didn't deliver for two days because they would have had to stoop under them to get to the mailbox.

 One trunk of the dogwood even fell over! Unfortunately it fell ONTO our glass patio table and a chair. Oddly enough, It doesn't seem to have caused any damage to the table! We may find that's not so when we try to move it. Fuzz imagined a scenario where we think all is well until we set food on the table this summer, and the whole thing shatters. Anyway, the whole town and far around had looked like a shimmering silver Winter Wonderland for the past few days...until last Sunday. The weather warmed up,  so you can guess what happened. I left a beautiful icy fantasyland Sunday morning to head for the first doll show of the year, and came home to a muddy old town. Here's what everything looked like as I left:

  Everything sparkled!

Grass, trees, and bushes were all covered in a shiny silver coating of ice.

Even the fields were a sparkling silver.

  I took these pictures n the way to the doll show. It was a great one, with plenty of great things and great deals! Here are some of the things I saw.

  Well the first thing I saw when I walked into the sales room was this table, and the little naked Tiny Betsy McCall. (On the upper tier, below the dolls in the white dresses.) She was only $40, and had red hair! That's a really good price for a Tiny Betsy McCall, (And I've been wanting a red haired Betsy), and it seemed to be mostly because she had a crack in her torso, which doesn't really bother me. But I thought,  'I've only just walked in, and I have the whole room to go. I'd better not spend that yet.'  This show had so many really interesting and nice dolls. And I brought less money than normal! I also spent part of what I had, buying dolls for other people! They're going to pay me back, but it meant I used a lot of my money for the day before I had barely gotten started. I couldn't pass up what I bought though. I'll explain that in future posts. Betsy was still there when I left, but I didn't have enough money left. 

  I really loved this American Character Whimsies doll, Tillie the Talker, but she was $50. She was all original and in great condition, and that's a good price, but that was too much for me.

  This guy was made by Rushton, who made the original 'Jill' doll that was used for Mrs. Beasley before Mattel made theirs.  I've seen pictures of him, but I'd never seen him in person.

They'd never make a doll that was smoking a cigar for kids these days!

  These cute, tiny babies may be perfume bottles. Any other ideas?

  I like the kid in the middle.

  Here's a bunch of pretty girls.

The girl bottom left looks happy, but her friend looks very suspicious. 

Here's a close up of the two small girls in the picture above. They were so small, and so cute, with such delicate dresses.

  These three were from Russia, but you can't hold that against them. Very colourful and cute.

  This set of mid century furniture is by Arco. I love that TV!

The dealer had the other lamp, but it was missing the base.

  This is a lion tamer and his lion, by Steiff. Why does his mustache grow out of the corners of his mouth?

I am getting a 1930's, sort of Mae West, thing from these ladies.

  I don't know if I've ever seen a real Blythe in person either. But there she was. That clear plastic box she's laying in made me think of a glass coffin! She was $325!

  This kid is Terri Lee's little baby sister. She had a rubbery texture, but she didn't look lumpy and mumpy like Terri Lee.

  This doll was made in France. She looked a little inexpensive, but I thought she was pretty.

  I found I kept getting drawn to Toni dolls. This one was gorgeous.

  Aw! Look at that baby! The girl with him has a nice head, but it doesn't look like it goes on that body. I mean, I'm sure it does, but it looks weird. The kid in pink is cute too.

This little guy has a wonderful coat. The dealer said she gave him the ship in a bottle she found somewhere, because he looked nautical. He looked good with it.

  The same dealer had this guy. He had no feet. He was a torso on a stick. She said he originally would have had a bellows of some kind under the 'dress', and when pushed upward it would have made a sound.

You can see him again below, with some other wonderful antique dolls

That dealer also had this strange looking kid. Guess what: it's a muff! It's for keeping your hands warm...and it has a head and strange bear limbs.

  More lovely girls.

Look at the personality in this kid. She looks like she's dancing too, which I'm sure was an accident of her placement. but I got a kick out of it.

I recognized this doll as a Roddy doll right away, because it' a bigger version of the one I have.

This doll was so beautiful. The colouring of her face and clothes, and her cute face really appealed to me.

I liked both of these. The little guy in the chair was so cute, and had very realistically painted lips and eyes.

He is a doll made by an artist named Dianne Dengel in 1989.  

This kid appealed to me as the type of doll I would have had as a kid. The green wings seemed to have been added later, and not original.

I liked this Klumpe lady, needle pointing.

This Italian lady was so pretty.

  This dealer had quite a range of Betsy McCall dolls. (The three on the right.) The kid in black is a reproduction Penny Bright.

Bitty Baby looked ready to sumo wrestle.

I think I showed you this girl in  a previous doll show post. She's Maggie by Madame Alexander.

Lots of pretty kids, including some Shirley Temples on the right.

What stands out in this picture is the angry kid in pink!

I think the girl in red and white is a Deanna Durbin. The baby on the right, in white, is a Dimples, I think.

  I don't know who this girl is, and neither did the dealer. Pretty though.

Another Toni that drew me in.

This doll in the flowered dress was on the same table. She seemed to be all original, and has red hair. The dealer didn't know who she was, and asked $15. I said yes, and then they seemed to realize something, and said, "oh well, she told you 15, so..." I think they realized she was worth more. Does anybody know who she is? If you do, leave a comment.

  These two ladies  were very different, but equally nice dolls. 

  So many beautiful dolls.

  Soon I'll show you what I bought. I will tell you I got something that I had really liked at a previous show, which, thank goodness, showed up again.

  I had also arranged to meet Barb from My Little Doll Corner while I was there, because I had promised her some Ever After High dolls. In the parking lot I remembered suddenly that we should take a picture together, like we did the last tie we met up at a doll show. (I guess I only posted a picture of Barb. She posted our picture together.

Barb, on the left, and me.

  So that was the first doll show of this year. If they are all like this I'll be happy...and broke.