Eatons Beauty repair.

This Eatons Beauty was brought in with a request to get it prettied up for her original owner who was now in a nursing home.
The request was for new hair and some clothes.

This doll has it's original slip, shoes and Eaton's banner. Her hair is original but very little remains.

Her head has been solidly  glued into it's socket...why?
Her eyelashes are mostly gone.

 After determining the head was undamaged, I figured it had been glued in because someone could not figure out how to restring the doll?
The glue put up a fight but I was able to remove the head. Unfortunately the socket came off the body in the process. But it is all reparable....

Here is the doll with the socket repaired, paint finishes matched and restrung properly. Her head now swivels again.
Oh, and she has new eyelashes.

 She is now decked out in a new synthetic wig. Mohair would have been preferable but the added expense was not in the budget.


















This is how she was presented back to her owner. Her original chemise is under the dress and her original shoes and socks were repaired and she wears them with pride :-)

Kid body repair.

This is a typical kid leather body with composition lower arms and legs
His body is in decent shape but the arms have issues. They have been taped up at the shoulders and elbows and the normal articulations  are missing and/or broken. A thumb is missing. The tape is dried out and the arms are leaking cork stuffing.

The plan is to remove the tape, dismantle the arms and then repair them closer to the original form. No tape allowed!
Leather can be repaired and patched. Tape is never good for repairing dolls.

The legs have some finish issues but are sturdy and free of chips. They will not be touched.

What the tape hid...

Smashed ball hinges at the tops of the forearms and a big hole in one shoulder.

Kid body shoulder joints often develop these problems. The zinc button holding the wire wears at the kid and holes develop. One original button was found inside the sawdust stuffing. The other was missing and will be replaced with a similar vintage button.

These are the arms with the kid leather patched. The composition arms have been rebuilt and the repaired areas have been painted to match the original finish.

The repaired arms have been reattached and have their proper articulations at the elbows and shoulders.