DIMPLES & SAWDUST

Saturday, October 11, 2008Lots 1-355

October 11, 2008 in Half Moon Bay, CA


The legendary doll collection of early doll author and connoisseur, Madaline Selfridge, is presented in rich colors, against a background of delicate early valentines and paper ephemera also collected by her. 8.5" X 11". Softbound. 148 full-color pages.

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Showing 1 - 355 of 355

All-Bisque "Birthday Dolls" from the Estate of Original Designer Stella Webster

All-Bisque "Birthday Dolls" from the Estate of Original Designer Stella Webster

Lot #70

Each of 12 dolls is pink-tinted all-bisque with glass sleep eyes,loop-jointed arms and legs,mohair wigs. Condition: generally excellent. Marks: 345 14 Germany.. Comments: California artist/teacher Stella Webster conceived the idea of "Birthday Dolls" about 1920,the concept being a doll costumed in the flower of the month that represented that doll. Working with un-costumed all-bisque dolls from German firms (later,Japanese),and custom boxes ordered from a Los Angeles box company,she created and made each of the costumes and wigs for her Birthday Girls. On December 22,1923,Stella Webster applied for a trademark for the term "Birthday" as pertaining to dolls,which was approved and rendered to her on July 22,1924 for a period of 20 years. The dolls were referenced in Coleman's Encyclopedia of Dolls although no photographs of the actual dolls have been published until now. Value Points: being presented from the original family estate of Stella Webster,the collection includes 12 dolls,each costumed for a particular month,each with original ink-script month label and original box and stand. Along with the dolls is a large scrapbook of important documents related to the dolls and Stella Webster,including her original watercolor drawing of each doll,her original trademark with seal,correspondence with Borgfeldt and other doll manufacturers seeking both a supplier of un-costumed dolls and a distributor of costumed dolls,photographs and biographical information about Webster,later family correspondence with Dorothy Coleman (the latter evincing great excitement at the find),and more. The dolls and album have been preserved in the original family until now and are a valuable addition to American doll history in the early 20th century.

 
An Exceptional French Bisque Bebe Bru Jne,Size 2,with Provenance

An Exceptional French Bisque Bebe Bru Jne,Size 2,with Provenance

Lot #216

12" (30 cm.) Pressed bisque swivel head on kid-edged bisque shoulder plate with modeled bosom and shoulder blades,brown glass enamel inset eyes,dark eyeliner,painted lashes,brush-stroked and multi-feathered brows,accented eye corners,shaded nostrils of upturned softly rounded nose,closed mouth with suggestion of tiny stuck-out tongue tip,outlined lips,slender kid bebe body with gusset-jointing at hips and knees,kid collarette at upper torso,kid over wooden upper arms,bisque forearms with sculpted bisque fingers. Condition: generally excellent. Marks: Bru Jne 2 (head and shoulder plate). Comments: Leon Casimir Bru,circa 1885,included with the doll are a doll trunk and additional costume. Value Points: exceptional pristine condition of the petite bebe with beautiful and perfect bisque head,shoulders and hands,very sturdy body,wearing antique first communion dress and veil,carrying antique rosary,leather shoes signed Bru Jne. The doll was purchased in Paris in the mid-1880s for young Genevieve Clarke of St. Joseph,Missouri,and a note included with the doll states "A French doll...she lived her early life in the City of Paris; her address 56 avenue Malakof,not far from Place de l'Etoile where with her Maman she witnessed the passage of the first automobile ever seen in Europe - the year was 1888". Also included with the doll is an 1892 photograph of the original owner,Genevieve Clarke,taken in Paris at 1892 when she "received her First Holy Communion from the hand of Pope Leo 13th". The photograph shows his cap which he presented to Genevieve after she presented him with a new one which she had made for him. Genevieve Clarke became a nun,eventually Mother Genevieve Clarke,librarian at the San Diego College for Women,where she displayed her doll and its trunk in the Museum of Americana at that college until 1970; the doll has remained in the Conrad family until now.