Transitional Mama Doll

Name: Transitional Mama Doll

Made by and When: Unknown maker, circa 1940s

Material: Composition, hard plastic, stuffed cloth, mohair, glassene eyes

Marks: Unmarked

Height: 22 inches

Hair, Eyes, Mouth: Black mohair wig, brown sleep eyes with attached eyelashes and painted lower eyelashes, an open mouth with a felt tongue and four upper teeth

Clothes:  Wears a period-appropriate off-white dress with blue rick-rack trim at the collar, an off-white eyelet-trimmed bonnet, an off-white one-piece undergarment, off-white rayon socks, and white faux suede ankle-laced shoes

Other: This 22-inch transitional mama doll has a composition head, arms, and legs, a hard plastic shoulder plate, and a stuffed cloth body with a non-working ma-ma crier. It was made during the phase-out of composition and the introduction of hard plastic, when doll makers used both old and new materials to usher in the new.

Gallery

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Published by DeeBeeGee

Doll collector, historian, co-founder of the first e-zine devoted to collecting black dolls; author of black-doll reference books, doll blogs, and doll magazine articles.

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