Congratulations to all of you who guessed the right doll from using the clues in my riddle yesterday! She is a Sylvia Natterer doll! Do you have one? Here she is (all naked) and sweet! Her name is actually Madleine and her face mold was sculpted in 1989, but she was introduced for sale in 1990. I don’t have a stand for her, and she’s a bit top heavy so I have her leaning against my backdrop.
Here is the stamp on the back of her neck.
This is the page from the booklet showing her in the dress she came with originally. If you click on the picture, you can see it much better.
I’ll add a link to a blog post about the Sylvia Natterer dolls. I learned the most from her post…
Here is a picture with my flash so you can see the paint on her face a little better. It’s very nice!
Two more of her face…
Her hair is very long and silky. It hasn’t been brushed so it’s not frizzy at all and would look wonderful in many different hair styles.
This is the fabric she picked out for her dress… I had a pair of mint green shoes that Nyssa said she’d “give” to Madeleine, so the fabric had to have at least a little bit of green in it…
I used some vintage tatting and 3 tiny green buttons on her dress.
I still have to finish the back of the dress and make something for her hair…
This is the link I mentioned above that explains more about the Sylvia Natterer dolls…
Doll Diaries Post about Sylvia Natterer dolls
I hope you enjoyed this…I’ll keep working on her set and let you know when it’s finished…
I also received a very nice email from Clara with information and links about the Elfriede Herse dolls that you might like to read. I tried to open the links and a pop up ad came up and stayed. I decided not to put the links in my post. But thank you Clara for sending us this information all the way from Germany! :o)
Hello,
I found something about the Elfriede Herse doll in a newspaper archive:
Maybe some of you are interested:
Elfriede Herse dolls were manufactured in Malente (a little town in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany) from about 1945 till 1953 by Elfriede Herse, a sculptor and woodcutter.
The biggest challenge was the procurement of material, which Elfriede Herse mastered with great imagination: for the body, fabric remnants and as a filling deer hair were used. Herse made her silky shiny hair out of sugar sacks, which were painstakingly disintegrated into threads and then made into wigs. – Source:
Kind regards from Schleswig, another little town in Schleswig-Holstein
Clara
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
Well, I was Partly right, I guess, because I said “Gotz” as one of the two brands I could think of, and Gotz is on the neck of your Madeleine, next to the “SN”.
I should have thought of Sylvia Natterer, though, as I have several of her dolls, including the red-headed Fanouche type doll. They are packed away at the moment; I’ll have to get them out and take some pictures. I’ve always thought they were lovely, sweet dolls.
I really enjoyed the link, too, Jeanne, and all the pictures therein! Such fun to see these “old friends” once again. In fact, I may have some older Gotz catalogs with them in, too, down in my “archives”!
That was very interesting, about the Elfriede Herse dolls–I had never heard of them before! So thank you to Clara for sending it along!
HI Charlotte,
There are so many dolls I really know nothing about. I’ve learned as much as anybody on my blog… you all are SO knowledgeable about the different new and old dolls. I’m glad to be in your company!
Thanks Charlotte,
Blessings, Jeanne
Dear Jeanne, bonjour, just checking in from Paris (chuckle).
Yea, I was right. I am not sure why I thought Natterer was the answer as I don’t have any of these dolls. I do have two Gotz Happy Kidz dolls that I adore.
What a cute dress. She looks very festive.
Today Charlotte Noelle and I went to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa. She was stunning.
Jusqu’à la prochaine fois (until next time).
Bonjour, mon amie. The Louvre! I’ve been there and loved it! If you can delay your return from Paris a few days, and if you are interested, you might be able to have some pictures. American Girl Photo Shoot! I saw yesterday there are a ton of them on ebay. That is where I got my Eiffel Tower poster and a couple others. But you would have to make sure the posters are included and if it does include the Eiffel Tower. There’s a picture in the booklet of kite flying but I don’t have that one so maybe the packages are different. Anyway, just being a good friend and trying to help you out of a potentially embarrassing situation.
Please send pictures of your Gotz dolls. I love those dolls but they are bigger than I normally collect so I must live vicariously.
Bonjour Miss Dorothy,
I almost bought a Happy Kids Gotz doll once. I don’t remember who she was now, but I sure was smitten with her at the time.
Did you and Charlotte Noelle “smile” at Mona as you passed by? Just wondering… :o)
Blessings, Jeanne
Very nice dress you are making for the lovely Madleine. Off hand, I think I might have 12 Natterer dolls. Girls and boys. Love them. Especially the older ones and those produced by Kathe Kruse which have not joined the others. Maybe one will come my way someday.
I would love to see Charlotte’s girls/boys and her prized catalogs emerge from the archives. 🙂
Bonjour to you too Dorothy. Glad to hear the Paris adventure is going well. 🙂
Thanks Jeanne for the great info on Natterer’s.
HI Joy,
You might have TWELVE Natterer dolls???well then you are the resident EXPERT here!
Are they tucked away somewhere? Oh those poor kids! :o)
We’d love to see YOUR dolls too… if and when you ever unpack them.
Thanks Joy,
Blessings, Jeanne
Thank you Joy! I’ll see what I can do about that.
TWELVE?! You are way ahead of me on the Natterer dolls! I think I have 3 or 4.
What a sweet little dress for Madeleine. And how generous of Nyssa to give her a pair of pretty green shoes to complete her lovely outfit.
I came to doll loving later (much) in life. As a little girl I was more into paper dolls. As well as being less expensive to own, you could complete a scenario (day) in less time and I was impatient. I loved to design clothes for them and “making” them was definitely easier than for a doll, especially since no one supported my wanting to make clothes for dolls. I once had an aunt (my mother’s sister) who told me I was wasting my time making clothes for dolls and should be making clothes for me. I eventually did, but when she said this I was about ten. The elders in my life were raised during the Depression and considered any type of creative expression frivolous. They thought you should sew, knit, crochet, etc., out of necessity and not for enjoyment and satisfaction. Very sad indeed.
I am shocked at how much doll stuff was going on around me as I was growing up that I didn’t know about and how much catching up I have to do. I thought Betsy McCall was only a paper doll and never saw a Betsy McCall doll until the past few years when I started collecting. As a child I had a Ginger (Ginny) doll, a Madam Alexander ballerina, a Tiny Tears and a 10″ doll my mother bought from Jewel Tea that was about the size and shape of a Miss Ginger. I loved sewing for her. When I see how many others were out there that I did not even know about, it’s quite surprising.
As for the Elfriede Herse dolls, it’s hard for those of us who have stashes of fabric, trims and notions to realize the difficulty of creating when these things are not readily available. What a passion Elfriede must have had for making her dolls to go to such effort to create them. No JoAnn’s or Hobby Lobby available to her. I once read a story about a young woman in the Ukraine who creates the most amazing ribbon embroidery pictures. She said her biggest challenge is finding material. But that doesn’t stop her. Etsy has been a boon for people like her I’m sure. Several years ago, after reading stories like this, I began to realize how spoiled I have become and starting doing “what ifs”. I once told my family that if things ever got difficult in this country, I could provide them with clothes for several years, even hanging on to old blue jeans. And to make sure I would be able to sew, I bought a treadle machine. Something hubby can fix if need be. With my new machines he just asks if he can put it in the car for me so I can take them to the repair shop.
Thanks for sharing so much dolly history. I’m looking forward to more.
HI Barbara,
Thanks for your kind compliments on Madleine’s dress… She loves how she looks in it and was SO glad to get out of those pajamas! :o)
I’m right there with you on not knowing about all the dolls that were around me at the time when I was growing up. I played with my Barbie and friends and even had one of those first Betsy McCall dolls when we lived in Italy… Too bad I didn’t keep her… :o(
I still seem to be a bit behind on the new dolls that are popular and who’s coming up next… I rely on Joy and some of the others on here who JUST SEEM TO KNOW!
Like Clara mentioned, I knew nothing of the Elfriede Herse dolls… now I know a little more than I did yesterday! :o)
Thanks Barbara,
Blessings, Jeanne
Oh this doll is really sweet. She has a nice shape for all sorts of cute clothes.
She looks in stellar condition.
I love her jeanne. I hope you have a very nice weekend
Thank you Rosemary,
Madleine IS in very nice condition… I really enjoyed “getting to know her!” Thank you very much for your kind compliments on her.
I plan on having a nice weekend and hope you do too!
Blessings, Jeanne
That’s very interesting. I am familiar with the Sasha dolls, but didn’t ever know the history. I’m impressed that you just got the doll and have already made a dress for her. How tall is she and where did you find a pattern to fit her so quickly?
HI Carolyn,
I knew about the Sasha dolls but didn’t ever see one in person… I’m guessing this Natterer doll is the same kind of vinyl as the Sasha dolls… it’s very nice.
Madleine is 18″ tall and I used an old pattern I had for the 16″ Four Seasons Kish dolls.. I had to revise it just a bit but not too much… It was a pretty good fit. I made one bodice out of some scraps first just to see if I was even close and then did some revisions off that bodice.
Thanks Carolyn,
Blessings, Jeanne
I was partly right as well as I wrote she was some sort of Gotz doll even though most of my comments went to cyberspace. I was also commenting about the Engel Puppen dolls ( angel dolls). My maternal great-grandmother’s name was Engel. Jeanne, the reason I know about German dolls is because of my German heritage and those are the dolls my mom had. I have a vinyl Hummel doll from childhood and the majority of Christmas ornaments are wooden ones from Germany as well.
What a sweet little dress you’ve made for her. It works for fall or spring.
Wow, thank you Clara, for the information on Elfriede Herse dolls. Deer hair stuffing?Sugar sack hair? Fascinating! I guess she did have to be innovative in post war Germany. I did always notice her hair was very different than my Kathe Kruse. The one my mom had may be from 1945 as she was born in 1942 and recalls her always being there. I have to tell her the new information about her tonight. Whenever I can get a new digital camera I can finally share photos of her and my other dolls. I had just figured out how when the camera broke. *sigh*
HI Laura,
I’m so glad you enjoyed the post today. You already know so much about dolls so it must be fun when you find out a little more and can add that. How fun that you have a vinyl Hummel doll… My mom used to collect the Hummel figurines and she loved them very much.
You are our Resident German… besides Clara… :o)
If someone has a navy or peach-y colored sweater, that would fit Madleine, it would be cute on her for this Fall… Maybe someone will… :o)
Thanks Laura,
Blessings, Jeanne