Friday, January 20, 2012

Sepia Saturday #109 - Duh! Dolls Dammit!

Please forgive my title, I promise this post is not going to be vulgar, but it got your attention didn't it?  You will just have to read further to understand.  This week's theme at Sepia Saturday is dolls and at first I kind of drew a blank. I don't know a lot about dolls, I was an unusual little girl, more of a tomboy and animal lover and I didn't really play with dolls much when I was kid.  So now I was worrying about where I was going to find a picture that fit the theme and then I started thinking and well, DUH! As you will see once I did start thinking I came up with a number of things.  I couldn't just pick one or two so I hope I don't bore you with all of these.

This first photo is a little girl holding her doll and toy horse - her name written on the back is Muriel Blair, no further information is known and she appears to be about two or three years old - isn't she sweet? Love the curls on the doll and look at the mane on that horse!  I don't know the year, but from the type of photo I am guessing 1920 's or 1930's:


The second photo is one that I forgot that I had posted previously and how could I have?  She is the most adorable little thing in her bonnet and holding her dolly.  I have no information on this little doll or her doll, but click here to read my original post which has information about the photographer George Dresser, from Winfield, Kansas.


Next, I was browsing around in an antique shop a couple of years ago and found an old cardboard box marked "Mother's Dolls" with over one hundred pieces of Victorian paper dolls produced by Lion Coffee and a number of what I believe are Dollie Dingle paper dolls.  I normally would never have bought something like this (please don't tell my husband), but for some reason I just had to and so added them to my ever-growing ephemera collection.  At the time I had no idea what on earth I would ever do with them -  perhaps I was thinking to use them on scrapbook pages, but at least this is the perfect reason to use them.  I thought this one was particularly fitting as it pertains to photography:

Lion Coffee Paper Dolls circa 1895 "Photographer's Studio"

Here is a cute, what I think is a "Dollie Dingle" paper doll, holding her dolly.  Dollie Dingle was created by Grace Dayton an illustrator in the Edwardian age.  In 1904 she created Dollie Dingle for Campbell Soup and continued doing so until 1933.  She died in 1934.

And finally, this is a picture of a doll my aunt bought me some years back when I was going through a rough spell.  Now I'm not one much for cursing, but it's called a "dammit doll" and when you're mad you take the doll and hit something with it like your desk (no people or pets, please) and say "dammit!"  I think it works pretty well. 



21 comments:

  1. I'm glad I read to the end - thanks for the laugh!

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  2. I like your photos. I used to see those Dammit Dolls at craft shows. They always seemed very popular. Whoever invented them had a great sense of humor!

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  3. The old photos are adorable. I especially like the Lion Coffee things. I didn't know they made things like that. I collect trade cards with cats, so I especially like the girl with a cat.

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  4. I am also enamored with the Lion Coffee paper dolls, especially since they include a camera. Wonderful.

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  5. Oh thank goodness all was explained in the end. I thought I’d had incurred your wrath of by suggesting this theme. The photos are lovely and the I really like the idea of a Dammit Doll. I know what I’ll be making for some people’s Christmas presents next year - and what a great fundraiser!

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  6. I need to carry a Dammit doll with me on the golf course!

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  7. Oh, what a great series of photos! I think that the first one is my very favorite.

    Hope your Sepia Saturday is going well.

    Kathy M.

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  8. I enjoyed all these photos. The Dolly Dingles remind me of the Campbells kids...The 2nd photo is very precious too. Oh the Dammit Doll is too much, I have to borrow that idea and make my own Dammits as well as some for friends,,,just what I need another project to start....of all the craft shows I've wandered through no one has had a Dammit Doll! Hope her stuffings are secure,,,I can imagine the words if one was beating her on a desk dammiting away and she lost her innards, :-)

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  9. For someone who was wondering how they could post to the theme of dolls you did pretty well: indeed you did very well. Like so many this weekend, a pleasure to read.

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  10. I'm with you, Teresa - I wasn't a "dolly" type of child either, and don't remember any. I still have Teddy though! I love the photo of little Muriel - and the extravagant bonnet in the following pic. Jo

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  11. Well, you did incredibly well in the end! I do love the dammit doll. :)

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  12. That second one is so priceless! She looks like she has a paper plate on her head and so happy about it.

    You sure it's a horse in the first one? I'm thinking lion. It is a funny little animal for sure.

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  13. What a find the Victorian paper dolls were, I wouldn't have been able
    to resist them either.
    The dammit doll is a hoot, I think that would definitely ease the work day frustrations:-)

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    1. I'm just glad I finally go to use them for something!

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  14. I think that, in the first pic, it is a lion rather than a horse. The tail seems to be saying so, and the shape of the legs, or even the snout...and what of that mane???

    I need a DamnIt Doll!!
    Are they still available?
    ;)~
    HUGZ

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  15. I stand corrected, it appears to be a lion. I may need glasses...oh wait, I do wear glasses.

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  16. Nice collection, but i will differ with you on the dating of the little girl at the top of this page. My mother was born in 1914, my father in 1908. i have a photo of my mother at age 2, (her first formal portrait). The furnishings in the studio where that little girl's photo was taken is clearly likely studio furniture and drapes that were en vogue between 1882 and 1916. Her clothing is closer to the the 1910-1918 than to the 1920s. i have quite a good collection of family photos dating as far back as 1842, and i can clearly see the changes in photographic styles by date of photo, and style of photo studio accoutrements. It may be as late as 1920, but i don't think so. Not fussin' at you about it, but just an observation based on the family photos i have in my own collection.

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    1. I thank you for your comments - I have such trouble dating children's photos and especially their clothing. And you are certainly allowed to differ with me! :-) I've actually learned a lot this year and probably would have dated it earlier myself if I had posted it today. I hope you will stop back by often and comment!

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