Country Weekend With Kathy and Jill (#3001 and #914- often books had more than one series number, Reuben H. Lilja & Co., 1946) was one of the first vintage uncut paper dolls that I bought. I had a fairly constrained budget (I think I paid $7, it's worth about $15 now) but that's not the reason that I bought this book. I just fell in love with the artist's quirky style- these are not beautiful dolls (the body proportion and perspective is totally off), these are not beautifully drawn clothes, the background drawings are not particularly well done. But the dolls, in their very odd poses, crackle with life. I fell in love with them immediately. I don't know who the artist is, but his/her style is instantly recognizable- there are several other Lilja books (all from around '46) by the same person: #3000 Around The World With Bob and Barbara (which I own and will upload eventually), #912 Mary Ann Goes to Mexico (1 preteen doll), #914 Mother and Daughter (self explanatory), #925 Teen Age Travel Fun (teen boy and girl), #924 Outdoor Fun (2 teen girls), and #922 We Three (3 little girls).
Both Kathy and Jill, and Bob and Barbara are front/back dolls with the fronts printed on the front cover, and the backs printed on the back cover. You are supposed to cut both sides out and glue them together. The clothes are front-only, and unlike most sets of the era, there are very few outfits per page.
A note about the scans: most paper doll books (vintage and modern) are much bigger than my scanner beds. I had to scan nearly every cover and page in 2 steps, blend the scans together, and then reduce them so that they would print on an ordinary sheet of paper. I learned to blend the seams somewhat, but you can almost always see where the 2 scans were joined in these files.
No comments:
Post a Comment