Collection of Twelve American Cloth Dolls Known as "Maggie-Bessie", with Pfohl Provenance

Live Auction

The collection is being sold directly from descendants of Maggie and Bessie Pfohl in whose possession they have remained until this time. They were the original dolls of Ruth Whittington Pfohl, the youngest niece of Maggie and Bessie, and were played with by her when growing up in the Moravian community of Salem, North Carolina. Later, the dolls moved with Ruth to California where they lived "in a box in Nana's closet", according to Ruth's granddaughter who later inherited the dolls, where "we were allowed to look at them, but were only allowed to play with a couple of small bisque-head dolls, never the Maggies". The miniature Benigna dolls came originally from the Moravian community of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and, according to family history, the pair of dressed dancing dolls were also made by "the aunties" Maggie and Bessie for the entertainment of Ruth and her five siblings at the Moravian parsonage. Highlighting the collection is the 18" all-cloth classic doll known as "Maggie-Bessie" with oil-painted facial features, hair and lower arms, the facial features artistically rendered, stitch-jointed body, along with her original trunk with a large bounty of costumes hand-sewn by the "aunties" as they were known in the family, and with three additional dolls in various stages of completion. There are eight 5"-6" cloth miniature dolls that were created in the sister Moravian community of Bethlehem, each carrying a little miniature cloth bag containing a history of herself such as the significance of her costume color (e.g. blue signifying a married woman); the dolls were named after Countess Benigna, the 14 year old daughter who accompanied her father to Bethlehem in 1741. Also included are a pair of 18" dancing dolls, made by Maggie and Bessie, with stitched-on hand-painted faces and applied cloth costumes with elaborate detail, and two photographs from original family archives. Good to excellent overall condition. An important document of American doll culture and history, preserved in its entirety as one collection.