Name: Unknown OOAK Girl by Robert Zacher
Made by and When: Robert Zacher, ca. 1990s
Material: Stiffened and painted cloth with teddy-bear-jointed arms and legs
Marks: ROBERT ZACHER (written across the stomach)
Height: 14 inches
Hair, Eyes, Mouth: Yarn braids accented with red and yellow ribbons frame the face. The back of the hair is sculpted from overlapped flat discs of polymer clay and painted black. Brown painted eyes and facial features are distinctive of Zacher’s art dolls.
Clothes: Yellow and white fruit-print blouse with floral-print collar, matching floral-print short pants with gathered legs trimmed with red rickrack
Other: Zacher used paw-type hands (a separate thumb and one-piece stuffed cloth for the fingers) for this doll; the feet have stitches to separate the toes.
A member of Original Doll Artist Council of America, in addition to one-of-a-kind hand-painted dolls, Robert Zacher made other styles of dolls including golliwogs. He was also known for his artistry in mohair stuffed animals.
Two dolls similar to this unknown girl are identified and valued in Black Dolls an Identification and Value Guide Book II (Collector Books, 1995) by Myla Perkins on page 435. Their names are Lily and Ruby. Also see the installation for Jason, another one-of-a-kind hand-painted doll by Robert Zacher.
Gallery (Photographs are courtesy of Carol Noel.)
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