Today we have another readers doll to investigate. This email was sent to me by Donna on behalf of her mum Joan. Joan has been a collector for many years and is now selling most of her collection. She has a Facebook page called Joan’s#DollHouse if you want to check it out. Joan is in Canada.
The doll we are looking at today is a 36 inch unmarked walker with blue-green sleep eyes and lashes. She is very well made, plastic body, vinyl head with dark rooted hair. She is most likely from the 1960s as she has the transitional vinyl head/plastic body combination. Joan thinks that she looks like a Debby Eve Walker. I’m not familiar with these dolls but after looking for a few online I am inclined to think that Joan is correct.
Debby Eve was manufactured by the Skippy Doll Corp. of Brooklyn, New York in the 1960s. I have found a few other pictures of dolls they made but so far nothing about the company itself. I have emailed a fellow blogger who lives in New York to see if she can point me in the right direction to research a bit more.
A bit more googling turned up some photos of Debby Eve or Debbie Eve as some spellings have it on WorthPoint. I can’t show you the photos here as they are copyright but here is the link if you would like to take a look.
https://www.worthpoint.com/inventory/search?query=Debbie+Eve+doll&category=&categories=
The dolls were sold in a cardboard box and had a cardboard swing tag on their wrists which may be because the dolls themselves were not marked. Some of the listings on WorthPoint made mention of a serial number on the back of the dolls head but as we know over time these can become hard to read as the molds get old.
Joan’s doll has the same type of curved hands that Debby Eve has as you can see here.
According to the information on WorthPoint the Debbie Eve dolls were made from the 1950s onwards and there was also a baby version. There were several sizes and other types of dolls were also made by Skippy.
I think we can make a good case for this doll being a Debbie Eve as Joan believes. I would certainly not ignore the thoughts of a collector of more than 50 years. Of course there were Canadian made walking dolls of this size during that era as well and quite a few of them are unmarked. Canadian doll collectors are constantly running into this problem. Ideal’s Patty Playpal made these large dolls very popular for a while. My own big walking doll was made by Regal.
If I learn any more about The Skippy Doll Corp I’ll post the information here as I’m sure that American and Canadian readers will find it of interest. I’ll finish up with a couple more links I found to pictures of Debbie Eve and other Skippy Dolls.
Links:
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-patti-playpal-style-debbie-132059754
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/little-debbie-eve-rubber-bride-doll-176190298
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-12-little-debbi-eve-skippy-1880830019
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-debutante-vinyl-fashion-doll-522978538
Joan’s Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/joansdollhouse/
