Monday, May 30, 2016

2 very similar baby dolls

Meg and May

The dress on the left is untagged;
the one on the right says "Dapperdo Originals."
I wonder if these were made by the same manufacturer
as the snaps are the same.
I purchased two sets of baby doll items during my trek of the US 50 sale last weekend (more about the sale in another post).  One was a doll wearing a dress that was too big for her; the other set of items was a bunch of baby doll clothes in a Barbie and Francie case (there were no Barbie clothes in the case, just baby clothes; I just wanted the case).

First, an explanation.  The doll you see on the left is a drink-and-wet doll, her eyes close and is 20 inches tall.  She is the doll I had as a little girl in the mid-1960s.  The reason she is in mint condition is that she was kept at my grandmother's house for me to play with there, and the doll didn't come home with me until I was in high school after my grandmother died.

I have no idea what the doll's name was or who the manufacturer was.  Her only markings on are the back of her neck, which say, "U 6V."  I have one store-bought dress for her, although I don't know if it is what she originally wore.  The beautiful white satin dress with the pink lace trim you see on the left is untagged but I have always had it.  The funky sandals the doll is wearing have also been around for as long as I can remember.  They have cardboard soles and the blue straps are cut out of what I believe is wallpaper!  But they have to be store-bought as well because of the push-in snaps.

I bought the smaller doll, 16 inches tall, during my sale-ing last weekend.  She is also a drink-and-wet doll and her eyes close.  Her eyes are faded and the poor thing is missing her left set of eyelashes.  I've given her a good bath which brightened her immensely.  Her markings on the back of her neck say, "Jolly Toys Inc." and there is also a logo just above her buttocks that says "3A."

She was wearing the other white dress when I bought her.  It's too big for her and has a tag that says "Dapperdo Originals."

I also bought a Barbie case with baby doll clothes in it; some of which fit the bigger doll and some which fit the smaller doll.  There were some Chatty Cathy clothes in there as well, which my Cathy has claimed.

What attracted me to the smaller doll was how closely she resembled my original doll.  Look at the moldings of the fingers and toes; they are identical.  The eyes are the same as is the hair.  They could be sisters!

What are these dolls' real names?  Was my original baby doll made by Jolly Toys?  Was her original dress made by Dapperdo?  Their secrets will puzzle me until the day I die!

As an adult collector, I named the bigger doll "Meg" after a friend of mine.  I have decided her "sister" will be named "May."

On a related note, when I gave May her bath, I noticed after I had picked her up out of the water that she had really gained weight!  I'm not sure how, but her torso had filled with water!  It's taken several days for her to pee out all the liquid!  I joked about this with another woman and she suggested buying the doll--who is probably 50 years old--some Depends!  Is there such as thing as Depends for old dolls?  Maybe I have found a new market for the adult diapers?!

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