$900
Sold
sold
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Description
9" (23 cm.) -12". Each has hand-carved wooden head, hands and feet, with unique facial features on each creating a wealth of personalities and moods, some tinting of facial features to enhance the carving, carved hair or mohair wig, firmly-stuffed cloth bodies, artist-made original costumes. Condition: generally excellent, some surface dustiness. Marks: Avis Lee (ink lettered on feet, with date) (original paper labels on ten dolls describing the name and theme of the doll). Comments: the American artist worked from her Chicago home "ten or twelve hours a day, six days a week", according to an article in the Chicago Tribune on October 22, 1944, carving each doll by hand; her work spanned the 1941 to 1951 according to the labels on this series of dolls. Value Points: included in the rare group are historical figures such as Carrie Nation and Chicago street people such as Pigeon Annie who "roams the Chicago Loop daily feeding the pigeons from a heavy shopping bag" according to the Avis Lee 1941 note attached.