American, 1920s
Composition, wool trade cloth, horsehair, wood, leather
11 1/2 to 13 1/2 inches (29.2 to 34.3 cm)
Provenance: Private collection, New Hope, Pennsylvania
Six dolls stand together, five adults and one child, each with a molded and painted composition head, dark hair worked in loose lengths or in wrapped braids, and a body draped in wool trade cloth patterned in stripes and bands of rust, green, cream, and brown. The three at the left and center wear the blanket closed across the chest with printed cotton skirts and beaded necklaces showing beneath, one carrying an infant against the shoulder, while the tall figure holds the blanket open over a dark under garment. The child at the center wears a fringed buckskin shirt and a beaded headband and stands beside a small painted tipi of bound rods, and the figure at the right differs from the others in a light shawl and a tall ornamented headdress rather than the trade blanket.
Skookum dolls were made from 1913 onward to a design patented by Mary McAboy of Missoula, Montana, and sold through souvenir and department store trade, with the wool blanket wrap and the sidelong glance of the painted face as the constants across the range. The heads moved from dried apple to composition in the early years, so a composition head places these in the commercial production rather than among the earliest examples. The figure at the right sits outside the Skookum pattern in both dress and headdress and is likely a different maker gathered into the group.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
American, 1920s
Composition, wool trade cloth, horsehair, wood, leather
11 1/2 to 13 1/2 inches (29.2 to 34.3 cm)
Provenance: Private collection, New Hope, Pennsylvania
Six dolls stand together, five adults and one child, each with a molded and painted composition head, dark hair worked in loose lengths or in wrapped braids, and a body draped in wool trade cloth patterned in stripes and bands of rust, green, cream, and brown. The three at the left and center wear the blanket closed across the chest with printed cotton skirts and beaded necklaces showing beneath, one carrying an infant against the shoulder, while the tall figure holds the blanket open over a dark under garment. The child at the center wears a fringed buckskin shirt and a beaded headband and stands beside a small painted tipi of bound rods, and the figure at the right differs from the others in a light shawl and a tall ornamented headdress rather than the trade blanket.
Skookum dolls were made from 1913 onward to a design patented by Mary McAboy of Missoula, Montana, and sold through souvenir and department store trade, with the wool blanket wrap and the sidelong glance of the painted face as the constants across the range. The heads moved from dried apple to composition in the early years, so a composition head places these in the commercial production rather than among the earliest examples. The figure at the right sits outside the Skookum pattern in both dress and headdress and is likely a different maker gathered into the group.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
