Maine-ly Dolls Club Meeting 04/12/14

Our meeting was held at Carolyn’s home in Bangor.  Guests included Anne’s two daughters, Kimberly and Beth, who were visiting from out of state. Lorraine H from Penobscot who may be interested in joining our club and Achsah’s mom, Christine C.

In addition to the regular items for discussion it was noted that we need more babies

(soft vinyl 16″-20″  dolls with stay open eyes and no hair) for our Care and Share project (http://mainelydollsclub.org/care-share-project/). Used ones that we can clean and redress are acceptable.  K-Mart sells the smaller 16″ size for a reasonable price of $16.99 if anyone wants to purchase new to donate. We have plenty of clothes and blankets for the project.

 

The program was presented by Carolyn who provided us with a delightful DVD presentation on Martha Armstrong Hand.  The DVD is one of the programs available through the UFDC Library and Shop.  Martha began her career making dolls and figures for View Master toys, moving on to making numerous dolls for Mattel.  Alot of the dolls she made for Mattel were familiar to many of us, Drowsy, Baby Secret , The Sunshine Family and Love n Touch Baby to name a few.  She later moved on to produce artist dolls of her own design.

 

We also welcomed some visiting dolls.  Vicki’s Myrtelle, Sheila’s darling baby and Ruthi’s newly acquired antique doll were available for us to ooh and ahh over.

 

Myrtelle’s story.

  In the 1980′s Vicki and her grandmother, Myrtelle were shopping when Grandmother Myrtelle spotted this adorable doll. She wasn’t a doll collector but she liked this doll so she bought it. She kept her in a chair and called her Vicki. After her passing the doll went to live with Vicki who changed her name to Myrtelle after her grandmother. Since Myrtelle can wear infant clothes she has acquired a wonderful wardrobe. On occasion, Myrtelle visits our meetings. She attended our April meeting dressed in her Easter finest.

 

 This is Sheila’s baby. She is unmarked. Sheila’s baby originally was her Aunt Phyllis’s childhood doll. She left her in Sheila's care, after her passing at age 85.  The doll's head and finger needed repair and thanks to club member Cindy, the repairs were done. She’s in wonderful shape for her 80 years. 

This beauty belongs to Ruthi who recently acquired it at a doll auction. 10" 1900's German, Simon & Halbig, mold 370, Composition body, Bisque head.

A friendly meeting

Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting a very sweet lady in Corinth. The circumstance was due to her husband's death and her desire to downsize and move to Southern Maine to be closer to family.  When I was contacted via my doll club's website about her wanting to sell her husband's small porcelain doll collection I replied that I would share the information with other members of the club if she could provide more information and photos of the dolls.  She explained that there were 15 dolls from her second husband's collection, she knew nothing about them and she did not have the means to send photos. 

This is not something that I or other members of the club normally do, but for some reason I felt compelled to help this woman. Curious as I was to find out what type of dolls she had and if there were any I wanted for my own personal collection, I offered to stop by one evening after work to take photos.  

On the day I was scheduled to visit I began to feel anxious. I asked my husband, "What was I thinking? Why would I tell a stranger I would go to her house to look at her dolls by myself?" Yet, why did I also have this uncontrollable urge to visit this woman? I told him that if the outside of her home made me feel uncomfortable in any way I would not go in and that I would not do something like this again.

I arrived at her place, the neighborhood looked nice, her home, along with others in the area, looked nice and well kept.  I knocked at the door (with my cell phone in hand ready to make a quick call if needed) and was met by the sweetest, tiniest, 79 year old lady.  What a relief!

Before she took me to the spare room to see the dolls, I told her she needed to understand  that I was not a doll dealer or a doll appraiser.  I would give her an opinion based on what I have learned over the past two years while downsizing both mine and my mother's collections. She said that was agreeable and took me to the room where the dolls were kept.  After telling her some history about the dolls and what I felt a fair price range would be I offered her some money for two of the dolls.  She then asked if I would just take the dolls, if I sold any I could send her a check, if I didn't sell any to donate them to someone. She wanted to get them out of her home so that she could continue with her packing and to clear out the home in preparation to sell it this spring.  I agreed saying that if I didn't sell them in a reasonable amount of time I would divide them up and donate them to two of my favorite places.

We spent an hour and a half talking about our lives. How her first husband developed Alzheimer's and died a slow peaceful death.  I told her about my great aunt who also had Alzheimer's. We shared Alzheimer's stories.  She told how her second husband died of COPD, about the last four years of being mostly homebound, and the slow, painful death of the disease.  I shared my story of my mother's recent death and how grateful I was that she had a peaceful passing.  She shared stories of her life, children and her accomplishments.  I shared the same.  She told me she moved to the area after meeting her second husband and has spent 16 years here. Southern Maine was her home, that's where her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren are and she just wants "to go home."  As I said good-bye I wished her well and hoped that her home sold quickly.

On the drive home, I knew in my heart that I was meant to visit this woman.  If I don't sell the dolls, they will go to a good cause (maybe that's where they belong).  It was good for us to share stories that needed to be shared in a way only we could understand.  I was meant to take those dolls off her hands so she could move forward with her life.  Things do happen for a reason.

Below are photos of the dolls.  They are in good condition. Even though they were kept in a glass display case they still need some cleaning as many of us know that dust does get into these types of display cases.

Two Angel Dolls By The Georgetown Collection and a doll by Seymore Mann.

Most of these are unmarked or unidentified.