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Accepted Solutions
Definitely NOT an expert on dolls but I checked my Encyclopedia of Australian Dolls. The section on “The Forties” talks of dolls having to be made from scrap material, owing to wartime regulations. There is a picture of a Parker “jester” doll that is not a million miles away from yours. These originally had cloth mask faces but the author says that later ie after WW2, Parker dolls had plastic mask faces. (I am assuming this jester doll has a plastic face.) The use of the different “scrap” materials suggests wartime to me but the attachment of the face looks professional rather than homemade. Of course there were a proliferation of patterns produced so that people could make their own dolls; the author says that from the end of 1941 it was almost impossible to buy a doll (because of War organisation of Industry permits) so people made them at home from patterns. I assume these would have had cloth mask faces. Hoping someone more knowledgeable comes along.
Definitely NOT an expert on dolls but I checked my Encyclopedia of Australian Dolls. The section on “The Forties” talks of dolls having to be made from scrap material, owing to wartime regulations. There is a picture of a Parker “jester” doll that is not a million miles away from yours. These originally had cloth mask faces but the author says that later ie after WW2, Parker dolls had plastic mask faces. (I am assuming this jester doll has a plastic face.) The use of the different “scrap” materials suggests wartime to me but the attachment of the face looks professional rather than homemade. Of course there were a proliferation of patterns produced so that people could make their own dolls; the author says that from the end of 1941 it was almost impossible to buy a doll (because of War organisation of Industry permits) so people made them at home from patterns. I assume these would have had cloth mask faces. Hoping someone more knowledgeable comes along.
