Well,, I was the only girl with two brothers and three male cousins in my immediate family so I know how that is !! I am still betting it was hers !! Sadly there is little value other than with your family !! Most of the traditional bed dolls were larger but I can remember these smaller ones from the 1950`s !! Many adults had them just as decoration and I was not allowed to play with them being the rough and tumble counterpart to all the boys !!
Hope I helped a little in your search !!
Thanks for your reply. I believe you are exactly correct about this being a bed doll. I began to examine the clothing more closely, and lo and behold, the clothes were not glued on but tacked on with tiny staple-like brass pins! I pulled the pins out with needle-nosed pliers hoping to find some mark from the manufacturer. But there in no marking whatsoever anywhere on the body. The glue under the hair is yellow so it must have been old glue. My aunt was the only girl of the family with four brothers. She married in her twenties. I am thinking this doll does not have much value.
From what you sa it is likely a composition doll made somewhere between 1910 and 1920 !! Composition material is basically sawdust and glue with a few other ingredients added,, cornstarch ect !! They were the least expensive dolls to make !! None of the mfrs ever glued clothes on that I have heard of !! Look at the glued on parts and see if the glue has a yellow tint !! That would indicate an older type of glue mostly made of animal hide !! More modern glues are clear when dry !!
No way to know who made the doll without a name !! They rarely had one !! They were not expensive and many people bought them and made the dresses and sold them !! I remember similar dolls from when I was young !! I am 70 years old !! So the doll may be an older one but may have been dressed later !! These were just to sit around the bedroom and look nice,, not for a child to play with !! Was your aunt a single lady ?? I could imagine her having this doll from looking at the clothing style !!
Thanks for your reply. I am new to this so please bear with me. The doll is 11 inches tall. It is made of something like very hard plastic. The arms, legs, and head are movable. The eyes are painted on. The doll belonged to either my grandmother (born in 1883) or my aunt (born around 1912). I raised the hair to look on the back of the neck but there is no marking anywhere on the head. The hair is coming loose on most of the head. Under the dress, the underpants are glued on so I didn’t try to remove them to look at the back. The upper part of the dress is also glued onto the body. The only removable things are the shoes and socks so I took them off but there are no markings on the soles of the feet. The socks look to be made of gauze and the shoes some type of thin material, almost like paper.
