Doll Oddities - Sunny Orange Maid Doll

1924 Amberg Sunny Orange Maid doll or Sunny Orange Blossom doll, 14" tall, composition shoulder head, arms & partial legs, cloth body with stitched shoulder & hips, squeaker in body, short arms, painted blue eyes and lashes, closed mouth, shown dressed in her original orange dress with short jacket, and a matching cap.  Marked:  L A & S 1924.

1924 Sunny Orange Maid doll, 14"

Sunny Orange Blossom Doll - Louis Amburg & Sons

Sunny Orange Blossom. This doll manufactured by Louis Amberg & son.
These dolls were made in two sizes. The larger doll was 14 inches
tall and had a ribbon across its chest that read: "Sunny Orange
Maid - Copyright/Louis Amberg & Son 1924. Design Patented."
Sunny Orange Maid was dressed in an orange dress with white and green
lace trim. Her uniqueness came in the hat on her hear this is shaped
and painted to look like an orange. She was made of composition and
has a sound mechanism that was advertised to make a sound like a
squeezed orange.
The smaller doll is 8 inches and is made of paper mache and has her
orange shoes and green socks molded on her feet. She is marked "LA &
S NY. //DRGM". On her back is stamped "Germany". On her head is
also a hat mold painted to look like an orange.
In the early part of the 1900's, it was suggested by the March 1916
issue of Toys and Novelties, a trade magazine based in New York City
to "Make the fourth of July another Christmas". During the summer
when the toy business was slow it became a common practice to offer
novelty dolls in the hope it would increase sales. Many of these
dolls were advertising dolls. They became perennial favorites and
are still very popular with doll collectors today.
Here is a section from a site featuring the Louis Amberg dolls.

1924 Sunny Orange Maid or Sunny Orange Blossom, 14" tall, composition
shoulder head, arms & partial legs, cloth body with stitched shoulder
& hips, squeaker in body, short arms, painted blue eyes and lashes,
closed mouth, shown dressed in her original orange dress with short
jacket (not shown is her matching cap). Marked: L A & S/1924. 1924
Sunny Orange Maid, 14"

Making Doll Socks

Need socks for you doll?  They are a simple accessory to make. Take some # 10 cotton thread or whatever size thread you want.  A smaller thread makes a finer sock.  Use a crochet hook (I used a size 1) to get the mesh size you want.  You can use any stitch, but I prefer just a single or double crochet.  Measure your doll from her toes, up the bottom of the foot, over the heel and up the back of the leg to the height you want the sock. Crochet a chain that length.  For a P90, 14 inch Ideal Toni I made a chain 27 chains long. 

I made a length 27 chains long.  Then in the second chain from the hook I did a double crochet and in each chain to the end. (25 double crochet).  Second Row: Chain 2, turn and double crochet in each chain.  Repeat until you have a wide enough rectangle to fit around the dolls foot and leg.  Tie off. Then get a sewing needle and thread with the crochet thread, fold the rectangle in half and sew across one end for the toes and up the sides to the end.  Turn right side out and your sock is made.

A finished pair of socks.  Doll socks are hard to find and expensive to buy.  You can also take the top of a pair of white pantyhose and cut a rectangle and sew them up to make socks. You can add lace to the top edge of the socks to make dressy socks.  If you want a  more tailored sock just make a row of single crochet in a contrasting color at the top of the sock. A simple accessory to make and it completes the outfit.  

Norman Rockwell Painting "The Doctor And The Doll"

This is a copy of the painting, "The Doctor And The Doll", by Norman Rockwell that was on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in 1929 of the little girl and her broken doll she took to the Doctor to fix.

 

Little Girl and Her Doll

 This is the doll by Mary Moline from the Norman Rockwell painting.  I have owned this doll and she is adorable. If I had room I would have a collection of all twenty dolls in this series.  All the dolls were designed from the characters created by Mr Rockwell in his paintings.  Mary Moline did a good job of designing the dolls, but they were made in China and therefore the quality is only fair..  Mrs Moline did capture the spirit and humor of the paintings in the dolls.  As a lover of older dolls, I usually do not care for the newer dolls, but I do like these little dolls a lot.  Shown here is only the little girl and her doll.  I have also seen the Doctor made as a doll to accompany her. 

Norman Rockwell Dolls

Norman Rockwell Dolls. Norman Rockwell is perhaps the most prolific
illustrator of recent times. We have all seen and enjoyed his
wonderful covers on The Saturday Evening Post. The wonderful
characters brought to life in his illustrations are heartwarming.
Starting in 1979 and ending in 1984 a series of fine quality
porcelain dolls was produced representing the most notable of the
Rockwell characters. The twenty dolls made of porcelain and had a
limited production of 20,000 dolls each. Each doll bears the
production number on the nape of its neck and the name, "Mary Moline"
on its back. The dolls sold originally from $130.00 to 250.00 a
piece. Some of the dolls are eight inches tall with most of them
being ten inches tall. Mrs. Moline designed them in a small size so
they would be displayed and not packed away. There were four dolls
released each year for five years.
Mary Moline was a doll collector and had also restored many dolls and
made clothing for them as a hobby. She had also been a writer and
was associate editor of Ford Life Magazine. She was assigned to
write an article on "automobiles in art". Through the research she
discovered that Norman Rockwell used many autos in his art and most
of them were Fords. She contacted Mr. Rockwell and asked his
assistance with the writing project. At first he was surprised, but
then he became intrigued and gave her a lot of assistance. After the
article was written, Mary discovered her interest in his work was
great. She spent over eight years searching bookstores and libraries
and discovered most of his work. The result of this research was a
book titled "The Norman Rockwell Encyclopedia" published by the
Saturday Evening Post Curtis Publishing Company.
The book was published in 1978 which was also the year Mr. Rockwell
died.
Mary in that year was searching for a doll for a gift to her daughter
and she got the idea of a Norman Rockwell character doll. She knew
none existed and she determined to bring them into existence. Mary,
having collected and restored dolls did not have the professional
doll making experience. She immediately faced some reluctance from
Saturday Evening Post officials, but they did trust her knowledge and
respect for Norman Rockwell's work.
Mary commissioned Mimi Weingarten to create a prototype of the first
doll in the series. "Mimi" was modeled from one of Mr. Rockwell's
most loved works, "The Doctor And The Doll" from a 1929 cover of the
Saturday Evening Post. This reproduction persuaded Post officials to
grant to Mary exclusive rights to reproduce all of the Rockwell
characters from Post covers as dolls. Those rights were to last five
years.
These adorable dolls, all twenty, are made of quality porcelain and
their clothing meticulously designed. After the five years of rights
ended, Mary destroyed the molds because she did not want cheap copies
of the dolls to flood the market.
These  dolls are a truly unique collectible. Now is the
time to buy these dolls, as the doll market is very depressed.
Prices will most certainly rise again due to the great popularity of
Norman Rockwell's beloved works.

Deanna Durbin Doll

 

 

Beautiful Deanna Durbin Dolls