11/30/2020

As a doll collector I should be interested in Candy Spelling’s Dolls. During her years at the Manor, Candy collected a large number of Madame Alexander Dolls which are top of the line dolls made for adult collectors. Tori said, her mother would give her a doll each year. However, her mother decided to auction all the dolls off and give her part of the profits to charity. A nice idea, but some of the dolls were supposed to be Tori’s dolls. I would have certainly objected to my mother getting rid of my dolls. My mother threw out my vintage 60s Barbie’s when she decided I was too old for them.

Candy Spelling’s dolls were auctioned off in 2011. Since the auction has long passed I thought I would like to take a look at her dolls, but I can’t find any online photos of them. This is really odd, as I thought some of them would come to eBay at some point. In fact I recalled what I thought was once an auction for a doll previously owned by Candy Spelling, but I did not take down any notes about it. I have one Madame Alexander Doll named Renoir.

Vogue Ginny and Madame Alexander dolls look similar to each other. In the 70’s there was a store on Irving Street in San Francisco that featured dolls that were in boxes behind a glass case and they were really expensive. They were so expensive I did not dare ask my mother for one of them. I merely looked at them. Above is one of my Vogue Ginny Dolls called “Dress Me Ginny” wearing a named outfit called Tea Time. Her face aged white, but her legs aged to a white green color. This is causes by different types of plastic being used with different stabilizers. Stabilizers give plastic its firmness. Ridge plastic lasts a long time, but can be shattered. Softer plastics are used in dolls. Sometimes if different plastics with different stabilizers are used in the same doll, parts of the doll will age faster creating color incongruities. The face, torso, and limbs may age at different rates.

I liked dolls that I could play with. Dime Stores that could be played with. My grandmother made me some amazing outfits for one of my dime store dolls when I stayed over her house. Sadly, all of this was also thrown away by my mother. The more I feel deprived of something the more I want it back, so that is likely why I now collect dolls. Google Candy Spelling Dolls, I discovered she made a doll with Madame Alexander, but the dolls owned by her are all gone in private collections. I am surprised there is not at least a doll blogger who owns one, who posted about the dolls. I guess I will have read Candy’s Book which is called Candy Land to find out if she has anything more to say about her dolls. I am interesting in why she collected them, what she liked about each one, how much she bought them for and how much they sold for. An auction house inventory would also be useful.

There are entire subgroups of doll fans devoted to this type of older doll which is what I call a Pre Barbie Doll. These are dolls that are made in the style of children. Male Doll Executives did not think children would like playing with grown up lady dolls. There is a Documentary on Hulu called Rethinking Barbie, which is a must see for every doll collector.

After Barbie came out these child dolls were still made by companies but demand for them was smaller then before. Older plastic dolls will likely have issues with aging and decay. I like older dolls, but now I try to collect newer dolls. Plastic does age and the materials they made those older dolls from also ages. Composition Dolls are Pre Plastic, and they also aged and have issues with things like sour smells. Plastic older then 1970 has aged and even younger dolls from the 90s also may have aged beyond their useful life. I have a few Vogue Ginny dolls, but they have had color changes due to age. Sometimes the color changes are interesting. A doll’s face may go completely ghost white. This could be acceptable, but it is also a sign that more unfortunately changes are on the way for that doll such as the lips color may start to bleed.

It would be interesting to know what if any color changes happened to Candy Spelling Dolls and did this effect the sale prices.

• dolls
• The 70s