Curious Collector
By A. Glenn Mandeville
Madame Alexander Scarlett
Q A
I can’t believe it! I recently attended a small doll show, and when I walked in, I saw this amazing and perfect Madame Alexander Scarlett doll. Can you tell me more about her? Amazing is right! Your doll dates from the late 1930s and uses the Wendy face, which is not often seen. I couldn’t find your doll in the Alexander catalogs, but she appears in a still shot from an F.A.O. Schwarz window. My guess is that this doll was part of the line when“Gone with the Wind” opened in 1939-40. She’s all-composition with a glued-on wig and gorgeous sleep eyes. One of the factors that makes your doll special, besides the condition, is the wrist tag, which one rarely sees. I think your doll might be 18 inches tall, which is a great size for display! Madame Alexander once told me at an event that when the book came out, she did nothing else until she had finished reading it. Some Scarlett dolls are called “pre-movie,” meaning they were not fashions used in the movie. I believe your fashion is from the film. The entire main cast of “Gone with the Wind” was made into doll form at some point since 1939, and to this day, there is a Scarlett doll in the Alexander line. I would value your doll at about $500 and up, but it could be worth more to the right collector. She is gorgeous — thanks for sharing!
Ideal Toni
Q A
I recently acquired this unbelievable Ideal Toni doll. She is very large and in a much different box than the smaller ones. What else can you tell me about this amazing doll? You are so lucky to have found a larger Ideal all-hard-plastic doll mint in the box with all the accessories. Most of the dolls are the 14-inch size and marked P-90 on the back. The larger, more elusive dolls were 21 inches tall and marked P-93 on the back. The main feature of this doll was the use of the new hard-plastic material and the nylon wig, which could be water set into lots of different hairstyles. Getting water on the older composition dolls would damage them, so styling their hair was impossible. The whole way dolls were made was changed by the hard plastics available after World War II. The first Toni dolls came out in 1949. In the mid-1950s, Ideal added a walking mechanism, but in my opinion, the early strung dolls are just spectacular. Ideal was fortunate to have made a doll whose name is well-known decades later. 16
March 2014 • DOLLS
Finding a doll this size in this condition is extremely rare. Not many examples like this have been offered for sale recently, but I would value your doll at $500 and up at the very least. She is absolutely fantastic! I would like to thank longtime friend and collector Marge Meisinger for her lovely note regarding Shirley Temple pins I mentioned in a past column. I said that there were two different styles, and Marge pointed out that there are actually three. One shows Temple in the classic pose, with her finger to her face. The other two feature a head shot of Temple wearing what appears to be overalls. The difference is that one version has “An Ideal Doll” on the edge of the pin; the other doesn’t. Thanks again, Marge!
Send your queries about vintage and modern dolls with photos to aglennmandeville@aol.com or mail them to Curious Collector, c/o DOLLS, P.O. Box 5000, Iola, WI 54945-5000.