German bisque head doll restoration

This is a nice sized antique doll made by the Armand Marseille company. Their name sounds French but they were a German company.

She has some issues.....she needs re-stringing for sure.
Her body could use some repairs before re-stringing.

She has lost all her fingers and thumbs. I would like to know if there is a story behind this. It is not uncommon to find a couple of missing fingers on these bodies....but all of them?

The fingers can be rebuilt.

This is one of her body issues. The seam between the cardboard bits is splitting and some of the overlying gesso and paint is gone.

These cracks can be glued with a good carpentry glue and then the defects get filled in with epoxy.

This doll needs some dental work too.
Her middle 2 teeth have been broken.
This type of doll has porcelain teeth that are made in one piece. It would be hazardous to try and get the remainder of the dental work out so I will make her a bridge.

Her missing fingers are starting to be rebuilt.
I do one at a time on each hand and let each new finger harden before I start the next. That way I am not knocking a newly built and still soft finger out of place while I work on it's neighbour.

Right now each hand has 2 new fingers formed. The third fingers have gotten their supporting wires installed and I am waiting for the glue to harden before adding epoxy clay and forming the finger.

All the holes and cracks are filled and sanded. Her fingers have been rebuilt.
Next is paint.....

Here she is with her new fingers and her repairs disguised.
She is modelling a potential wig.....vintage mohair with rather impressive sausage curls.

Here she is dressed in an antique dress.

Rosebud by Horsman

This is 'Rosebud'. She was made by the Horsman Doll Co. in the 1930's.
She was a typical 'Mama doll' of the time. She is jointed at the shoulders, hips and neck. She has a voice-box inside her torso that no longer works. She has tin sleep eyes. She once had a nice wig.....now she has a nasty synthetic wig that does not suit her.

Her paint layer has mostly failed.
Someone has drawn on some eyebrows and eyelashes.

Her original cloth body has been recovered and one arm is taped up.

So we start by peeling off some of the nastier layers.

Here she has had the synthetic wig removed, the re-cover of the body has been removed and the tape on the arm is gone.

I see why the arm was taped up now.....but there are better ways to mend broken composition than tape.

Roadblock!
Usually I like totally dismantling a doll like this to wash and repair it's cloth body.
But Rosebud has less common joints at her shoulders. To dismantle these, I would have to grind off the post which would destroy the joint apparatus.
So the body will get a surface cleaning only. It is still sturdy despite it's slightly grungy look......the body will not be seen once she has clothes anyways.....

Her silent voicebox will get its bellows replaced so hopefully she will squawk again.
















The bellows have been replaced so it is time to hear a 1930's high-tech sound....

Here is Rosebud's head before her failing paint got addressed:

And here she is after:

Now she has completed her new paint and is waiting for the rest of her reassembly. Those are her teeth sitting below her eye rocker. They are made from a simple piece of celluloid that had tooth shapes cut along one edge and then it was glued inside the head at the mouth opening with a piece of red felt behind it. This is a fairly common tooth assembly found in composition dolls.

Now she is back together. A wig is needed next.

Here she is with a vintage human hair wig and a 'new' dress made from antique calico.

A Schoenhut wig repair.

 This is a nice little doll made by the Schoenhut company.
Her wig looks a little weird.....too thick bangs.....

......and two different colours of hair.

Someone has glued a brunet hairpiece on top of the remnants of a dirty-blonde wig.

So, off comes the brunette hairpiece.

Here is what is left of this doll's original wig!

You can see her original cotton wig cap nailed on to her head and one lonely weft of dirty-blonde mohair still partially circles her head.
It seems she originally had a bobbed hairstyle.
It is good to keep dolls original when possible.
This poor wig can be spruced up by adding wefts of dirty-blonde mohair.

All her mohair is a similar colour now.
The 'new' wefts were harvested from an old ragged wig.

More doll pieces....

I confess. I am a hoarder of Gebruder Heubach dolls.
This company made a variety of character faced dolls and they were especially noted for their intaglio eyed dolls.
Intaglio eyes have their pupil indented into the head to produce a 3D effect.
Most other companies who made painted-eye dolls painted the pupil on a flat eye area.

This box of pieces may look very similar to one a few entries ago....but he is a different doll. A bit smaller and a few more body issues.

This torso is made with a base of pressed cardboard. Then there is a layer of a gesso-like material and then paint.
The hip socket area has missing gesso and paint. Also the one crack along the hip socket looks structural. It should get strengthened before the doll gets re-strung.

He has some fairly typical issues around the neck and shoulder joints.....

And he has mystery tape on one foot.




All these body issues will be addressed before he gets strung.

Not too much of a surprise to find the old tape has removed the outer finish where it sat and also has left hardened adhesive behind.

Here is how his neck area looks now.
The missing areas have been filled in with epoxy and the painted to match the old finish.

Even his bottom end looks better :-)

Here is a good look at his intaglio eyes.

Bunny vs. dog

Alas, this beloved bunny met a dog who wanted to use him as a chew toy.

His one eye is missing....it is likely somewhere inside the dog? I am sure the eye will not hurt the dog but the poor bunny has suffered significant damage to his facial area.

As a further insult.......his ear got torn.

Fortunately faux-fur fabric is very forgiving and hides the scars from the dog's mauling very well.
The tears in the fabric are mended and the eye area is re-enforced inside the head
A new eye is bought and installed and Floppy Hoppel Rabbit goes home......yes that was his name!

Spooky marionette repair

This marionette was made by the Pelham Puppet Co, a British company.
He is a disjointing skeleton. He could separate his head and torso from the rest of him while he danced.....that is before he became hopelessly entangled.

Can you spot his other problem?
He has a broken femur (thigh bone). You can see one end. the other end is buried in the mess of strings and bones.

He gets untangled a bit.
I think it is time to fix his femur now.

A transverse fracture like this in humans often gets pinned for strength and the same idea can be adapted here.

A pin will be epoxied between the two ends of bone. It will add some strength to the repair.

Femur is repaired and he is fully untangled.
Just in time for Halloween!

Bisque dolls do not fall well!

This is a little all-bisque doll that fell off it's shelf.
She has some obvious injuries.

When she is undressed and unstrung the extent of her injuries are better appreciated.

Poor thing!

But, you start with the basic gluing of the bits.
With a good epoxy glue and patience,the doll gets back together.

Which reveals missing pieces here and there......

The missing pieces are filled with an epoxy compound and once cured, it is sanded smooth.

Matching the paint to the skintone of the doll is always a bit of a process.....but eventually success!

She gets restrung.......

.......and dressed.