In one of my very early posts, I wrote about the dolls that our mum had as a child. She often used to tell us about them and how she wished she’d been able to save them for Naomi and me to play with. She was sure she’d have daughters one day. Naomi and I don’t have children ourselves but we do have some of our childhood dolls and as collectors, we have focussed a lot on replacing beloved childhood dolls and toys that we gave away when we were younger. It’s always a bit special when we find one of these.

These three dolls belong to Naomi. Brigitte and Colin who is on the left are childhood dolls. Peter, the Kader doll is a replacement. Naomi and I both had Kader babies as children. I gave mine away as a teenager but I now have a replacement as well. We don’t know much about Colin, he is made of an unusual hard vinyl. I know our cousin had one like this as well and suspect that they probably came from somewhere like Marks and Spencer.

Theresa is another of my childhood dolls that I don’t know anything about. She has a hard plastic head and a soft vinyl body similar to the Kader’s but her arms are more rubbery. Of course, she is unmarked. She was a present from an aunt and uncle so again I don’t think she is an expensive doll but I never saw another exactly like her.  I think that Theresa has a pretty face and always liked her the best of my large dolls. The rag doll is no mystery. Mum made her for me out of a dust cloth and some orange wool. The teething ring was mine as a baby. Theresa has lost her plastic eyelashes but if replacing them meant a new set of eyes I wouldn’t do it. I love her eyes. She has a crack in her head too which might be repairable.

Naomi’s Baby Ada

Naomi’s Baby Cocoa by Rosebud.

Ada and Cocoa are Rosebud Suck-a-Thumb dolls. Naomi had two like them when she was little and these two were bought as replacements. Naomi remembers that Cocoa was broken in mysterious circumstances. As neither of us got into trouble over it she suspects that mum was the culprit.

Finally here are our two BND Doll[e Walkers, On the right, Christine, my childhood doll and on the left Caroline the doll Naomi brought back from Adelaide last year. Of course, there are also our dolls houses, dolls house dolls, teenage fashion dolls, and paper dolls and perhaps I’ll write something about them another time.

I don’t believe any of these dolls were especially expensive or uncommon at the time they were given to us, they are probably rather typical of the dolls that English children played with in the early 1960s but we are very happy to have them in our possession.