Skookum doll - how old and should I try and fix the head?

You may have run across these places already, but... just in case...

Besides, I want to get in good with the new Moderator!

lady who collects, repairs Skookums and others
http://patch.com/connecticut/easthampton-ct/calling-all-dolls
(contact info included)

history, personal collection, old newsletters
http://www.skookumgal.com/skookumnews/01feature.html

identifying
http://www.ebay.com/gds/Skookum-Dolls-They-are-Bully-Good-/10000000001938595/g.html

selling online
http://www.skookumdolls.com/

 

'Twas my pleasure,
Moderator!

 

brown noser.....................

 

Hater!

 

Suck up !!!

 

Hee hee

 

Brook, the links GG listed are about the best you will find out there for Skookum doll info. I have one that an uncle gave me from a SW trip he took in 1947. Mine is a 7 1/2" woman wrapped in a blanket with paper tape covered feet ("paper tape moccasins replaced the leather ones c1940s).

Without a label on a doll sometimes you can date it by their feet coverings and/or mask. It seems the earliest Skookums were apple heads. Composition masks were used from c1920 to c1940.

"The earliest of these [composition masks] were somewhat primitive but as production increased new styles were added and the facial features became more refined."

The plastic masks were introduced in the 1940s and continued into the 1960s.

Nowwww the feet on yours are unusual. They do not have leather, paper taped or plastic molded moccasins. Somewhere I read that the earliest dolls sometimes didn't have feet. Yours do appear to have feet but covered in a fabric. On the following page the top pic in the right column shows a set of feet wrapped in a fabric; however, this is on an apple headed doll. I'm not sure if the mask on yours is composition or plastic. Composition dates c1920 to c1940. Plastic dates after 1940.

http://www.skookumnews.com/past/v2n2spng2002/Pages/02feature.html

How tall is your doll - The taller the more valuable. The eyes on yours are looking right as the big majority of them. A left looking doll are rarer; therefore, more valuable.

--- Susan

 

Susan, that's all so coolio! What a good friend that doll is by now.

 

I think it is composition for have seen several Skookum dolls with damaged composition masks that have that same white chalky looking scratches. Is there anything on the bottom of the feet like the remnants of a label or a look like a tag might have been sewed on at one time?

--- Susan