Thursday, July 3, 2008

Thursday Tab- Miss Diane, Saalfield, early 40's






















This one is a very interesting reprint. Miss Diane has 3 dolls and 4 pages of clothes printed on pulp paper. The quality of the paper is low, but the covers are hard cardboard (it would have been difficult for little girls to cut these dolls out). The book is small, just 7 1/4" x 8 1/2", and there is absolutely no info on publisher or copyright on either cover. I love the stark cover- bright yellow background, and odd leaf border motif. It's unlike any other paper doll book that I own.

I know it's a reprint because 2 of the dolls in Miss Diane are also featured in another book I have, called Anna, Bess, Cherry and Dee (#2411, 1943), where Madge and Betty have been renamed Bess and Dee. Anna, Bess, Cherry and Dee is a much larger book, with lower quality cover stock, but much higher quality inner pages. Most (if not all) of Madge and Betty's clothes from Miss Diane are in ABCD, and the colors are much better and sharper. ABCD has 8 pages of clothes.

In turn, these 2 books are both reprints of another larger book that I do not own, called Little Miss America (#2358, 1941).
Given the pub dates of the 2 reprint books (and there are probably more out there), I'd put Miss Diane in the same time frame.
I'll upload Anna, Bess, Cherry and Dee next week for comparison.
Click on images to enlarge, right click to save as jpgs, print from any graphics program, clothes on plain paper, covers on card stock

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I have two of the 1943 Anna, Bess, Cherry and Dee books. They where my grandmothers and she recently gave them to my daughters. My question is should I let them play with them or are they worth money and I need to frame them. Thank you for your time.

Jen

Kathleen Taylor said...

Jennifer, even if your cut paper dolls aren't in perfect condition, they're still worth something. If your girls are very careful, letting them play with the paper dolls will probably be okay. But if they were mine, I'd scan them, print them out and let the girls play with the scans and preserve the originals.