A Mystery Doll - Who Is She?

I purchased this doll recently.  She appeared in the picture on ebay to look like a Pre-Toni.  I knew immediately when I took her out of her packing box, she was not a Pre-Toni.  But, Who is she?  Pre-Toni's  are unmarked and so is this doll.  Following are more pictures of her.  If you know who she is, please let me know. 

More Pictures

My mystery doll now has legs.  Beside her are two Ideal Toni heads that I need bodies for.  The body on my mystery doll has a body that looks like a P-90 Toni body, but is not marked.  All Toni P-90 heads and body parts are marked.

Now my mystery doll is all together.  She is very pretty, but has no identity.  WHO IS SHE?

Identifying Dolls

Can you help me identify my doll and what is it worth?
From time to time I visit many of the doll web sites, chat rooms,
usenets, and hobby forums. This is a question I see posted many
times. There usually are not many answers.
Usually there are questions asking for more information. It is not
that people don't want to help, but the descriptions are usually not
clear and the doll marks are almost never given. Usually the person
does not know what the doll is made of or if the clothing is original
to the doll. To help identify a doll, you have to know the size of
the doll, what the doll is made of, all the markings on the dolls
head and body, a description of the clothing. It will then take a
lot of time going through books  looking for the doll marks, as they are
most important when identifing a doll. The best thing to do if you
have a doll you cannot identify is to go to the library and look thru
all the doll books and familiarize yourself with materials dolls are
made of.  If you collect dolls it would pay you to buy doll books that
help identify the kinds of dolls you collect. I have over a period
of many years amassed a large collection of doll books. You will be
more accurate by looking up the information yourself than relying on
someone else. It takes time to identify most dolls.  Some dolls can
be identified by a description and a lot more by a picture. But that
is usually the newer dolls. I have dolls I cannot identify, some I
have been looking for years to find out who they are. Dolls were
made by the manufacturers as playthings, not as collectors items. 
Therefore no accurate records have been kept on them. 
Ebay is another source to identify dolls.  Go to the doll listings and
look at the pictures.  All this takes a lot of  time, but there is no easy way to find
the identity of a mystery doll.  But AHHH!  The excitement when you do.

Mystery Dolls Awaiting Restringing

 

Another Mystery Doll

This pretty doll was purchased at a local antique store.  She is hard plastic with a mohair wig.  She is approx 11" tall.  She was also unstrung when I purchased her.


Here she is all together again.  Isn't she pretty?  But
WHO IS SHE?
Another mystery unidentifyed doll.

 

I Went To A Few Garage Sales...

Look at what I bought.
This sofa was intended to be used as a door stop.  No, it is a
perfect doll scale sofa.  I even found some dolls to sit on it. It is covered in chintz and the pillows
and throw are in cotton.   The skirting is ribbon.
 

I Found dolls

Surprise!  Surprise!  I found dolls.  I found three of the cutest porcelain dolls, a mama, little sister, and baby brother. These are some of the newer porcelain dolls, but cute.

 

 

An More Dolls

This is an adorable tiny porcelain baby.  He is just as I purchased him.  He still has his tags attached.  He is a Victoria Ashley doll,   A lot of the Victoria Ashley dolls were sold on QVC.  He is dressed in a satin dolll gown and came with a satin pillow.  He is a little larger than the other baby.



 

Look At What Else I Found.......

I found two adorable iron antique doll stoves.  The one pictured here is the newer of the two. It is about 1/3rd lighter than the other one.  These stoves were originally made as salesman's samples to take on the trail with them to show the customers the exact stoves they were buying, as they are exacr replicas.  This one has the smoke atack missing, but is in very good conditionn
 

Older Antique Metal Stove

This is the older of the two stoves.  It is heavier and more detailed. 

New Toni Dressed In Pink

Dressed At Last
One of my new platinum Blonde Toni's is wearing a pink crocheted dress.  I have used this dress and hat pattern before for Toni.  The only pattern adjustment that has to be made is to add one row at the waist and several rows to the length.  The hat fits good as the ribbon adjusts the hat to her head. 

I used Crochet bedspread cotton and a 00 crochet hook.
Lace was addded to the neck of the dress 

 

Toni has on crocheted socks to match her dress and hat and
lace has been added to the cuff of the socks to complete
the outfit.


Toni is a beautiful doll.

Coming Attraction........

 .  Currently I am very busy dressing my other Toni.  I will post pictures as soon as I am finished.  I don't want to give away how she is being dressed, but she is almost ready to show off her new clothes,

Trouble, Trouble Trouble

Did I say trouble?  I have trying to post new articles and pictures to Doll College for about two weeks, but I couldn't.  I don't know what the problem was but, it was either a picasa or a google problem.  When I would try to post I would get a screen that only blinked and made a bumping noise.  Then a screen would come up telling me I was using the wrong web address.  I was using the google blog it button.  I tried several times a day to post for over two weeks. In checking the google message boards, I was not the only blogger having this problem.  I don't know what the problem was.  I even reloaded my software, GRRRRRRRRRRRR it did not help.  I tried another computer and that didn't help, so the problem was not mine, but I spent a lot of doll time(time I could have been playing) in trying to make sure I didn't have a glitch in my system.  Well... today it seems to have been fixed.  It has been very frustrating.  Well the good news is I have a good deal of new info, and some new dolls to talk about, so here goes............

I've Been Shopping...The Packages Are Arriving!

I had a birthday a while back and  decided it was time to buy some new projects (dolls) that I wanted.  I have been making a few doll clothes and  didn't want to undress any of my Toni's at present, so I decided more dolls.(What else would a collector decide?)  I am fast running out of room for any more, but I think I can squeeze these in.  If not and it looks too crowded I have already decided which dolls I can part with.  My reason for saying new projects as many of you know that have read this blog for a while, know of my love of taking a basket case doll and making her beautiful again. Looking through ebay I spotted a doll in the hard plastic section that I thought perhaps could be a Pre-Toni. No one was bidding on her as she needed restringing and a good cleaning and a few touch ups, so I bid and won her.   She is marked:  "Made in USA".  Her hair appears to be in her original style , but it is a little matted and will have to be combed out and shampooed.   She needs only a minor cleaning and when restrung she will be a very nice doll.

I am eagerly awaiting another package of two toni's,  both platinum blondes.  My childhood Toni was a platinum blonde and one I bought previously my daughter wanted,, so she left.  These are going to need a little restoration, but they have not had haircuts. It is hard to find  a Toni that has not had a haircut as in real life when we get our hair done we get haircuts. My childhood Toni had a hair cut. There will now be in my collection of Toni's, eight Ideal Toni's, and two Pre Toni's, one Princess Mary.  

I Opened My First Package

I thought this doll was perhaps a Pre-
Toni when I purchased her.  When I took her our of the box, I immediately knew she was not a Pre Toni.  I don't know who she is, but she is a very pretty doll and certainly a keeper.  She needs a little restoration, but she is a beauty.

Restring My New Doll

My new doll that just arrived needs restringing and the one I bought a while back needs to have her arms restrung.  It will be easier now to restring as I have replaced all the things needed to do the job.  You just cannot do a good job of restringing without hog rings and the pliers to close the rings tightly.  You also need clamps and sometimes a long strong crochet hook. And last of all you need the right size elastic for the doll. the bigger the doll the bigger elastic you will need.  You can buy these items easily on line.
To restring a doll I get everything out I will need to use and the doll parts.  I measure and cut the length of elastic I need and join the ends together using a hog ring.  I put the head on first and bring the elastic through the body to the legs and attach the legs.  You want a very tight feel after the legs and head are attached.  If the elastic is not tight the legs and head will flop.  Also sometime in working on a large doll you need the crochet hook or a long handled pair of forceps to pull the elastic through the body.  Cut a smaller piece of elastic to join with a hog ring ti attach the arms.  Put the hook in the arm around the elastic and using forceps pull the elastic through the body and attach to hook on other arm.  If a little loose twist the arm around once or twice to take the slack out. It needs to be very tight for the arms to hold a pose. You have now painlessly given birth to a new doll.  It will take practice to cut the elastic and place the hog ring correctly, but it is well worth the time to do so. If you are restring a porcelain doll, you have to be very careful not to let the elastic snap one of the limbs in place.  Porcelain especially old porcelain can have hidden cracks that just a tap can open.   Also if working on a porcelain doll work on a padded work surface. Composition dolls are also be be treated very gently as they can crumble.   

WOO HOOOO!!! Second Package Has Arrived!

My second package has arrived and the two blonde Toni's are gorgeous!  These dolls are both 14"
 P-90 Ideal Toni's.   I just love to get packages in the mail.  It makes me feel like a small child on Christmas morning. After taking the dolls out of the package  and inspecting them I find they need little or no restoration and are clean as can be.  One doll has a blemished cheek which will have to be worked on, but beyond that they look good.  The hard thing was deciding which new doll to dress first,  I tried one of the new dresses I had been making on the dolls and it looked best on one of the platinum blonds.  The dress is done in pink crochet with matching socks and hat.
Usually I want my dolls dressed in either original or original looking clones of their original clothes, and this Toni may be dressed like that at a later date.  But, for now she is beautiful in the pink crochet dress, socks, and hat.    I will be dressing the other dolls in the coming days.
In looking around there are suddenly many doll projects to be done.  I have crocheted two doll dress bodices, one in green and one in blue.  I think instead of crocheting the skirts to the dresses, I will put a fabric skirt on them.  I need to make socks to match..... 

The Second Package is Open

My Two New Toni's.
Both are Ideal P-90 Tonis.  This is what they looked like after I took them out of the package.  They came wearing only panties.  The one on the right has no blemishes and is a nice clean doll.  the doll on the left has a red spot on her cheek that I will take off.  These two dolls look like my childhood Toni .