Cavalcade of Dolls: Basic Source Book for Collectors

Small smudge on rear jacket panel. Binding tight and square, text clean and unmarked. 1978 Large Hardcover. 362 pp. After years of exhaustive research, Ruth S. Freeman has put together the origins of various doll types, along with whatever company files, patents, and advertising and dates of origin were uncovered. Provides a well illustrated and comprehensive encyclopedia with eighteen chapter covering basic doll types and which charts and lists dates, place in chronological or alphabetical order. Here are the companies and countries that made the early commercial rag, china, wood, and papier-mache dolls down to present day composition synthetics. Descriptions of distributors, designers, trade-names, and patentees are charted from previous centuries down through 1976. One can find the years of manufacture for hundreds of collectible dolls, along with methods of making complete dolls and parts such as wigs, eyes, teeth, feet, and joints; also information on clothing, sizes, and original prices for many specific dolls made in various years. Lists and analyses fourteen chapters covering basic doll types (rag, wax, wooden, china, bisque, paper, gutta-percha, rubber, leather and metal composition, celluloid, synthetics plastics, and mechanicals). In addition, there are chapters on manufacturing and marketing methods for foreign and domestic makers; also company listings and logos (1807-1977) for selected doll manufacturers. These chapters are followed by chapters on doll clubs and sources of supply, chapters on dressing dolls and special doll artists, followed by a final chapter on doll museums, pricing and preservation problems. An extensive bibliography (covering doll books, also supplementary reading materials) is concluded with lists of periodicals and a subject index.…