Odd doll ID

July 29, 2021 5:52 PM

Wife bought this small doll at an estate sale - appears quite old (1930s?), and is about three inches tall. She is convinced that it is supposed to be a likeness of someone famous. Any experts, or good guesses?
posted by davidmsc to Grab Bag (15 answers total)

Does the doll have cowboy boots? Sort of looks like Tom Mix.
posted by nickggully at 5:55 PM on July 29, 2021

second: Tom Mix.
posted by CCBC at 6:18 PM on July 29, 2021

Tom Mix is a good guess. Looking at the makeup though (can't tell if it was original) my second thought would have been Marlene Dietrich, a woman famous for wearing suits and pulling her hair back into a more masculine style. The feminine stylings of the shirt or jacket might support this, or could just be a tailoring compromise to construct very small doll clothes.
posted by seasparrow at 7:52 PM on July 29, 2021

Seconding Marlene. The clothes and hair are kind of her style, and the red lipstick seems more suited to her than Tom Mix. In any case it's probably quite old and may be worth something.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 9:38 PM on July 29, 2021

Those are chaps, not a Marlene costume, the doll is wearing.
posted by CCBC at 10:25 PM on July 29, 2021

This is an extreme-longshot guess, but: on the "evidence" of the apparent Western attire and of the semi-aquiline facial features, I'm going to guess William S. Hart, a major star in the Silent Era who was known mostly for cowboy roles.
posted by Dr. Wu at 10:37 PM on July 29, 2021

Those are chaps, not a Marlene costume, the doll is wearing.

I do not share your certainty of conviction about this. They could just as easily be jodhpurs, or again, just an artifact of the very small clothing size.
posted by seasparrow at 10:41 PM on July 29, 2021

I don’t think it’s supposed to look like it’s wearing cowboy garb. I think it’s just very hard to sew a tiny dress shirt, tie, and slacks. My guess is that this is the “father” doll from a dollhouse family (probably 1/2” scale unless it’s actually supposed to be a child - then it could be 3/4” or 1” scale ). It does have distinctive features, but I’ll bet it was just an effort for it not to be as baby-faced as a lot of male dolls seemed to turn out. What is it made of? Plastic? Celluloid? China or plaster with a soft body?
posted by Kriesa at 2:52 AM on July 30, 2021

Agreeing with Kriesa's explanation, I bet it's just a commercial male or "father" doll wearing (perhaps) homemade clothes.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 3:38 AM on July 30, 2021

In fact, I have a dollhouse from 70s that was put together by buying individual pieces (the house, each furniture thing, the family) vs. a kit. This looks a LOT like the "father" figure in the family. Facial features are a little different and mine is more orange-tinted, but the clothes are nearly identical.

If it has a wire body with padding (you can pinch and feel it) that would be the clincher.
posted by nkknkk at 5:08 AM on July 30, 2021

All of these answers are greatly appreciated - thank you, MeFites!
posted by davidmsc at 7:25 AM on July 30, 2021

Yes! As far as I can tell this is a German Caco dollhouse doll - I also have some from the 70s, though they've been manufactured since the 30s, and ... their faces just kind of look like Marlene Dietrich? This explains the shoes too, all my dolls also have weird hard molded plastic shoes that give that cowboy-esque look. I'm not sure if they were ever made to look like famous people in particular, but they definitely had outfits that reflected what was in style and trendy through the decades. Here's an article on lady doll fashion. Some odd googling suggests that the 50's era "father" dolls all had pretty silly big wool pants rather like these, though I'm not an expert!
posted by sparkling at 7:56 AM on July 30, 2021

Perusing links associated with sparkling's Caco info, he looks like one of the Castleton brothers (in that the text claims that there are 4 associated dolls unpictured). As well as similar clothes, all but one have very similar faces. Courtesy the My Vintage Dollhouses’ story A Mail Order Bride for Harry, Part 3 - which is really worth checking out.
posted by bonobothegreat at 12:11 PM on July 30, 2021

The photos of the Castleton dolls convinces me that the doll is wearing pants, not woolly chaps, and the belt buckle looks right, too. Good catch, bonobothegreat.
posted by CCBC at 1:42 AM on July 31, 2021

The questioner's doll has it's legs bent and the lighting is very flat, so I think that's why chaps or jodhpurs came to mind.
posted by bonobothegreat at 1:49 PM on July 31, 2021