Fridays at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources for them to determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do some preliminary research to get them started. So, these are market values based on prices I find on the web, not appraisal estimates for insurance purposes that I suggest for items that have been determined to be of great value.
Today, I had a question of my own, about a child-size Betsy McCall paper doll that I bought at auction. When I first researched the paper doll on the web, I could find out nothing about her, so I kept digging.
The doll was part of the inventory of an antiques-dealer couple who gave up the practice when they grew older. One of them had handwritten this bit of information on a piece of paper and placed it behind the clear plastic covering protecting the paper doll:
“Betsy McCall – 1950 –
Biggest Paper Doll
Featured in ‘The Paper Doll’
By Barbara Cheney Ferguson”
The book is a 1982 price guide for collectors of paper dolls.
The plastic did a good job of preserving the 34″ or so paper doll, although the front piece of her hair has dislodged and settled at her feet.
Paper dolls had been around long before McCall’s magazine introduced Betsy in 1951, a year that didn’t mesh with the dealer’s dating of the doll. She came after a string of paper dolls in the magazine in the early part of the 20th century, but she was the most popular.
Betsy arrived in the first issue with her dog Nosy and her first change of clothes. Subsequently, other family members and friends joined her on the pages, some of whom were drawn with their own clothing. Betsy was published in most issues of the magazine until McCall’s was discontinued in the 1990s.
Around 1951 or 1952, Betsy spawned a 14″-inch vinyl and hard plastic doll produced by the Ideal Toy Co. That doll was followed by others made by various doll companies. The child-size paper doll was introduced a couple years before a 36″ Betsy doll and the Patti Playpal were made.
In my search, I finally came across a website with McCall’s pages from the 1950s. Skimming the pages, I spotted the dress that the auctioned paper doll was wearing. She appeared in a December 1954 ad with a little girl dressed the same.
Betsy was described as a 3-D paper sculpture that a little girl could assemble (no scissors needed), while mom could make the same outfit using pattern #3025. There was a string at the top back of her head to hang her so she could be a “daily companion” or decoration at a birthday party. The Betsy McCall Sculpture Kit, as it was called in the ad, included instructions on how a girl could make a crepe paper dress and accessories for the doll.
McCall’s was selling her as the “Biggest Paper Doll” at a cost of $1, with an order form on the page.
I could find only one doll like her on the web, an uncut version that sold on eBay for $95.
Betsy4
I just found one of these in my Mom’s attic, in its original envelope. I can tell you it was mailed on Dec 10, 1954, and received Dec 13th. The postage was $.23.
Hope this helps
Thanks, Margo, it does help. The original seller of this paper doll had dated it 1950 but my research showed that McCall’s didn’t start selling it until a few years later. I found a 1954 ad for the paper doll, the same year as your mom’s. So that’s probably the first year the doll was sold.
Sherry