My Auntie Lorraine collected dolls all her life. She lived on the farm with her mom and dad and her unmarried brother and took care all of them as they aged. She never married but was surrounded by and endlless range of neices and nephews. Somewhere along the line she decided to collect dolls enough so she could give one to each neice and nephew. As familes and things do, this goal grew and it soon became grand neices and grandnephews, of which there was also a never ending range. As families do.
My doll from her is a sweet little first Communion doll.
The photo is a bit fuzzy but it was a zoomed picture and I am not so steady as I would wish.
She had one for each of us as well as her favourites that she kept for her own enjoyment. She had enough to give her sisters each one or two as well. On her passing, her sisters split up what remained between themselves and as special things do, they become part of the family lore that parents will pass on to you. There is no real fancy furniture, there are no jewels, only lovely sweet dolls. And so my mom spread her collection among us.
There is this lovely Bride Doll, which according to the blurb attached in the paperwork for her, inspired by Beauty and the Beast. She is a pretty thing I grant you, though the story, not so much. It does not seem to suit what I think we should be teaching our young things. I will make a better story for her even if my hair is grey and the child in me is slightly older than playing with dolls stage.
Then this sweet thing. It is Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep and is one of the prettiest dolls I have ever seen. A tiny sleeping baby with sweet feather wings.
One of very few dolls that I suspect is in the wrong box. Auntie was pretty careful about keeping the boxes and paperwork so this may be one of her older porcelain dolls where she did not know the value of keeping all the parts it was sent to you with. I particularly like this little one because she has perfectly tear shaped eyes. She may be mournful with her eyes filled with but she offers you her full heart.
And then there is this ever so pretty little doll.
She was tucked in with the sleeping doll and she does not belong. If there are any of my sisters reading this, and you remember mom saying something about it at some point in the past, or if one of you or mom has a antique Victorian period doll who might be missing a dolly. I will keep her safe but she belongs to something surely.
All the dolls that have come to me have white dresses which strikes me as an oddity. They often were brilliantly coloured and lavishly dressed but maybe it is like my collection of Christmas music boxes, accidental but kind of neat. they almost all play the same song and no it isn't Silent Night. Some gifted, some given, one bought, but all were collected with love by my auntie and her little sister, my mom.
I do have two others. One made fully by one of my father's sisters, Auntie Suzie, using bits of my bridal gown and matching my veil and headpiece. She did such wonderful work, and another which was the last doll she dressed, long after she could no longer paint a doll face well enough. These two are also dressed in white. All white collection!
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