The dolls seemed to be crudely made by hand and had a folk art feel to them. One looked like a man wearing a red-checkered dress with a lace collar and a bow on his head. When I lifted the dress to examine the body, I saw that the torso was of yellow foam – the type of material we normally throw away.
Four dolls were lying there on a tray at the auction house, along with a modern-looking plaque and a pin cushion with a little black boy on top eating a watermelon. How I hate those stereotypical images. Another doll wore a red band around her head, giving her the look of a Native American. The dolls appeared to be vintage.
Each doll had a thin wire that twisted around the waist and extended out at least three inches. They apparently had been attached to something. But what? I was puzzled.
“What do you think they are,” I asked the auction-goer next to me. “Christmas ornaments,” he guessed, just as confused as me. “That’s just as good an answer as any other.”
He was right about that but wrong about what they were. These did not look like Christmas ornaments.
I tried Googling and found out about black Spanish-made Roldan and Klumpe dolls whose bodies were wire covered by fabric. One person was selling what was described as a “politically incorrect” Klumpe doll of a little girl – surprise – eating a watermelon. Another was selling a Roldan gardener who was a little more appealing, and another was selling a Klumpe golf caddy. I also found black dolls with barbed wire wings like an angel and dolls with wire hair but no dolls with wire around their waists.
When the dolls came up for auction, I didn’t bother to bid on them. The y were not that enticing to me, and although I love unique pin cushions, I could not bring myself to buy the stereotypical one of the little boy. So I let them pass.
A woman standing near me bought the tray of items of $6. I leaned over and asked her – assuming she knew what she was buying, other than the fact they were Black Americana. “What are they?” She had no idea, either. “They were attached to something,” she answered.
Do you recognize them? Are they pretty common somewhere and I just hadn’t heard about them or seen them before? Or were they unique to this particular maker? I’d love to know.
