Name: Handmade Grandpa Twins
Made by and When: Maker unknown, early 1900s
Material: Stuffed brown cloth, cotton, felt, thread, denim
Marks: None
Height: 16 inches
Hair, Eyes, Mouths: Male-pattern baldness with white cotton hair around the lower heads, white cotton eyebrows and beards, black felt eyes with white felt sclerae, brown felt upper eyelids (one doll; the other doll’s eyelids are missing), soft-sculpted (stitched) noses, brown felt ears, and red felt mouths with white felt to represent teeth.
Clothes: The grandpas are dressed identically in red short-sleeve shirts and blue denim overalls with red patches at the knees. The feet are bare.
Other: These well-made, chubby grandpa dolls are one of a kind. The family of Ms. Hattie Marie Bigham Lilly (born in 1906 in Kerrville, Tennessee) donated the dolls to the Virtual Black Doll Museum. Mrs. Lilly received the dolls from her father, Dr. William Matthews Bigham, in the early 1900s. Dr. Bigham (born in 1858) received the dolls in payment for services rendered. Ms. Lilly’s granddaughter (S. Hallada), who believes the dolls were made in Kerrville, TN, indicated that Mrs. Lilly kept the dolls on her bed until her death in 1994.
Gallery
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