Dolls and Doll-related Items for Sale

Saturday, June 29, 2019

Surprise Travel Doll!

Today I got a box in the mail from my sister. She's been helping my mom go through stuff in her house; my mom is healthy, but she is 83. Most of what was in the box was old school papers, but there was also a travel doll in her original box! Tam showed us several travel dolls on her blog, and now I get one out of the blue! Now that I'm looking at the doll again, I do remember having her when I was a little girl. Unfortunately, I can't remember where she came from. Let's take a look at her.

Here she is in her box. The box is beaten up, but mostly intact, and the cellophane or plastic on the cover is still there. Judging by my beautiful handwriting, I must have received her when I was maybe seven or eight at the most?
Her head, torso and arms are made of lightweight plastic; her legs and feet are made of rubber. Her shoulders and hips allow her to move her arms and legs forward and backwards, and her head can turn left and right. She does open her sleep eyes, but I'm not sure they open all the way. Something rattles a little inside her head when you shake her; maybe it is the sleep eye mechanism. I love the shape of her little hands.

She wears a white cap, a white rectangular neckpiece, a red and black garment that looks like a shawl, but is also the only thing covering her torso, an apron, a skirt, an underskirt, simple underpants, and rubber shoes. Her underskirt is held on by virtue of being attached to a string that ties around her waist. I think her hair is probably mohair.



The mark on her underskirt looks like it was possibly some sort of mark by the manufacturer? It feels like it is painted on. Is it possible it was paper that changed over her many decades? It also looks like her underskirt was either sewn oddly, or is inside out, as the raw edge of the hem is on the outside of the skirt as she wears it. I don't remember ever taking her clothes off, but her underskirt could have fallen off and been put back on at some point, I suppose.

She is about 5 5/8" tall, or 14 cm. That probably explains why the bottom of her shoes are marked 14M. Maybe there were larger and smaller dolls like this, making this doll the Medium size.
I only found one clue as to which country this doll is from, but it isn't completely helpful. On the underside of her apron, there is a tag which appears to read, Mele, Danmark.
So our little lady is probably Danish, but I'm not sure that I'm reading the first word correctly, as it doesn't seem to mean anything applicable in Danish. I also tried looking up the word as Mels, but I got no results with that either.

I hope you like my little surprise dolly! I also enjoyed going through my school papers. There were a couple of notes from teachers that shed a lot of insight on my personality, and a note from a kindergarten speech therapist concerned because I can't lift the tip of my tongue when I speak. Well, yes, because I'm tongue-tied. I wonder if my parents tried to do the exercises with me that the speech therapist recommended. To this day, I'm not always understandable with every word when I speak. Oh well!

17 comments:

  1. Oh wow Barb, she's in really good nick! That tiny hand looks brand new. :) I bet you are happy she is home where she belongs. Check this link out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mols it will tell you about the area in Denmark.
    Big hugs,
    X

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    1. Oh great, thank you! Yep, considering her age, I think this little girl is in great shape. I never really played with her, just liked to look at her outfit. I was interested in clothes even back then, I guess!

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  2. As I was reading your post and looking at the pictures, I was thinking to myself “this doll looks a lot like the one my dad bought me in Denmark when I was little”. Mine has an outfit that is mostly red and white and doesn’t have the patterns on the skirt, but she does have blond braids, and a bonnet and the same sweet face. So since the label says Denmark and she’s so similar to my Danish doll, I would say your doll is most likely from Denmark!

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    1. That's neat that you have a doll that is similar, and that you remember your dad gave it to you.

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  3. She's really cute. Xanadu beat me to it, I was going to say it looks like it says Mols! The mark on her skirt could be glue maybe? Maybe there used to be some sort of sticker there and it fell off and left glue behind.
    It's really cool that you have that stuff. When my Dad died, my brother threw out everything, even family photos!

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    1. I don't know why Mols wasn't one of the words that I thought of! Thanks to you and Xanadu for helping me with that. I also don't know why I didn't realize that there could have been a sticker where that mark was.

      It's too bad that your brother threw out so much. I love looking at photos of my grandparents, and even my great-grandparents.

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  4. Yep,Mols.Wikipedia says,"Mols is a small Danish gathering of hilly peninsulas in the southern part of the larger peninsula of Djursland on the east coast of Jutland." Travel doll arriving on cue.Timing can be weird,can't it?!
    I don't remember you having a speech impediment. You sounded fine to me.

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    1. Yes, it is really strange that I just had a travel doll just appear, right after you did your photos.

      I don't strictly have a speech impediment, but sometimes, a word or two that I say can be hard to understand. I hear this the most from Mr. BTEG and the Dancer, but they spend the most time around me.

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  5. What a great find! I love seeing older international-type dolls like this. :)

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    1. Glad you like her! It's pretty amazing that this doll has been in my mom's house all these years.

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    2. It's wild what you can find in people's homes. I've been helping my mother sort through things in her basement for the past couple of months, and I'd never have expected half of the things she has down there!

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  6. She's adorable! Now she just needs a proper Danish name! What a lovely surprise this must've been, to have this little poppet turn up out of the blue!

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  7. I definitely wasn't expecting to see this doll when I opened up the box! It was odd to have forgotten for decades that she existed, and then when I saw her, to remember holding her and "playing" with her.

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  8. Dear Barb, what a great find, the doll and the school papers.
    You are so lucky to have both.
    I would love to see some of my old school papers.
    I am happy that this little dolly called forth memories for you.

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    1. Thank you! I'm thankful that my mom still had this stuff around.

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  9. Isn't it fantastic what we can find at our parents' house? A while back I rescued from my parents house a Barbie playset that I may show one day on my blog.
    I've trying to find the company that made this doll, but all the danish toy companies that I've found seem to make construction toys. If you are interested in identifying her, you can try posting a photo on a doll forum.
    Also, I hope you find those Wild Hearts Crew dolls soon, as I'm looking forward to read your review.
    Take care.

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    1. So did you have this playset when you were little? It would be interesting to see what kind of sets Mattel was selling in Europe in the past.

      I looked on Walmart's app today. They are only offering shipping on the WHC dolls, and state that the item will arrive by September 1!! So if I can still grab that one doll at Walmart, I may just go ahead and do it.

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