1939 Hand Made Cloth Doll

Dolls : Hand Made

 

Just 10 years ago, in May of 199, a very elderly lady, brought by her daughter, came into my walk-in nuts'n'bolts antiques and collectibles store, named Many Little Things Antiques and Collectibles, and told me the following story and handed me a beautiful, obviously hand-made doll. In June 1939, a stay at home mom who needed to do something to help make ends meet for her family decided to put her sewing skills to work by making dolls. This is the very first doll that Millie Zlesak made, but it was extremely well done and began her career of doll making. The doll stands just about 14" tall and 7" wide, hand to hand. Over the years Millie has made hundreds, perhaps thousands of dolls, but this is her first one, proudly signed and dated on her little butt. This doll has been lovingly cared for over the years, kept out of sunlight, kept in a non-smoking environment and kept under a plastic sack to keep the dust off. Her clothes are as crisp as the day that they were made and her yarn hair has been hand stitched to her head. Her stuffing is nice and tight. I do not know what she is stuffed with but I can say probably cotton or wool batting because it is smooth, not lumpy and not crinkly like straw. Her face is hand embroidered. I can't say enough about how mint this doll is, right down to the bows that hold her shoes on her feet. This is just a wonderful item to add to your collection of dolls or folk art!!!!! Consider yourself lucky indeed if you end up owning this wonderful doll! By the way......When I asked Millie how I could know and be able to prove that the doll indeed had been made by she, herself and how old the doll was, she said in a very cute and sassy little voice (she was a little lady, all bent over with age and arthritis and one could tell that that devastating disease had taken many many inches off of her stature over the years), said "Well, I thought it might be important some day so I signed her and dated her!!" and she proceeded to bare the doll's butt to show me!!!! I'm sorry that I did not keep a home address for Millie or a name and address for her daughter, but they only had a few items to sell to me that day, and did let me know that what they had brought in was all that they owned that they were interested to sell at that time and let me know that if they ever changed their minds, that they would come back to me. I am never pushy in such situations as many come back to my store as customers if I don't push even if they never bring another item in to sell. In my conversations with Millie and her mother, I did find out that they lived no more than 2 hours away from my store and that Millie sold most of her dolls over her career through word of mouth from her home, at church bazaars, and later, her daughter sold some for her, but always in casual settings. She never licensed what she did nor did she wholesale anything. She just did what so many ladies of her era did. She realized that by staying at home and raising her children she was gaining so much more than just the cost of a full time baby sitter that she would have had to hire had she 'gone out' to work. Her children benefited like so few children do today and are better, well rounded adults for it. I say this, not to try and sell the doll but to make a point. Mothers today, can benefit so much by , learning the antiques and collectibles business or learning a craft such as sewing, jewelry making, quilting etc, and marketing their crafts that they can make while they are being a stay at home mom and if they would take the time to do the math, they would many times find out that they can come out better financially than they would be taking an outside job, having to invest, not only in child care, but in professional clothing to wear at the job, and transportation to and fro. Also, the children as they get older, can take part, learn the craft and gain their first experience's in the art of entrepreneurship and dealing with people. I saw this first hand during the 1970's and '80's where many mother's opened up ceramic shops in their homes, made finished pieces to sell, and conducted classes and taught others how to make ceramics. It was not unusual for these mothers to net-profit from $50 to $100 per day on a consistent basis. I know, I did it myself for 15 years and then got nerve damage in my brush hand and found out that I could hold my hand up at an auction much quicker than I could paint, anyway!!!! lol Happy Collecting!!!!! ,

Item ID: vlo41

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consider lay'away, always check to see if First Class shipping is cheaper, if offered, and ask for confirmation to be added so that the package can be tracked.