Throwback Thursday review: Polish dolls

It's been an interesting week so far.  Coworker B had some heavy-duty spine/neck surgery and won't be back until the end of February, so my mother has stepped in to pick up the slack.  Coworker A has not given either of us an iota of trouble, but I'm still treading lightly.  I did run into an adorable child on Tuesday, who is just as gung-ho on dolls as I am; she's particularly excited about the new My Life Jojo Siwa doll.  In other news, the weather has been unbelievably fluky; last Saturday it was clear as a bell and colder than "a well-digger's butt," as my family likes to say, and today it's sixty degrees with a south wind and rain.  Tonight it's supposed to get even weirder, with a sharp temperature drop and a shift from rain to sleet to full-blown ice.  I love rain, and I can tolerate snow, but I HATE ICE!!!  A power outage would be disastrous for my chinchilla and my bearded dragon, neither of whom can tolerate temperatures below a certain level.  I went through this little ring-around-the-rosie when I had Horatio, and now I'm going through it again with Bentley (the chinchilla) and Priscilla (the beardie).  Here's what our special weather statement looks like.

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service Memphis TN
344 AM CST Thu Jan 11 2018

...WINTER WEATHER WILL SWEEP INTO THE MID-SOUTH LATE TONIGHT AND
FRIDAY...

.A storm system will move into the region Thursday night ushering
in rain that will gradually transition to a mix of freezing rain
and sleet early Friday morning, then eventually to all snow
Friday. Significant snow and ice accumulations will be possible
across much of the region. In addition, strong northwest winds
will occur as the much colder air filters into the region.

ARZ009-018-026>028-035-036-048-MOZ113-115-111745-
/O.UPG.KMEG.WS.A.0001.180112T0600Z-180113T0300Z/
/O.NEW.KMEG.WW.Y.0001.180112T0600Z-180112T1800Z/
Clay-Greene-Craighead-Poinsett-Mississippi-Cross-Crittenden-
St. Francis-Dunklin-Pemiscot-
Including the cities of Piggott, Corning, Paragould, Jonesboro,
Harrisburg, Blytheville, Wynne, West Memphis, Forrest City,
Kennett, and Caruthersville
344 AM CST Thu Jan 11 2018

...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO
NOON CST FRIDAY...

* WHAT...Mixed precipitation expected. The ice will result in
  difficult travel conditions, including during the morning
  commute on Friday. Total snow and sleet accumulations of up to
  one inch and ice accumulations of around one tenth of an inch
  are expected. In addition, strong northwest winds may gust to 40
  mph just behind the passage of the cold front.

* WHERE...Portions of East Arkansas and Southeast Missouri.

* WHEN...Midnight to noon Friday.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Be prepared for reduced visibilities at
  times.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A Winter Weather Advisory means that periods of snow, sleet or
freezing rain will cause travel difficulties. Be prepared for
slippery roads and limited visibilities, and use caution while
driving. The latest road conditions for the state you are calling
from can be obtained by calling 5 1 1.

$$

It's sixty degrees outside right now.  So yeah, the end of the week looks to be interesting.  Unfortunately I'm not sure how interesting today's post will be.  These dolls are items that I picked up at two different flea markets on two different days, but I'm combining their posts into one because they're all folk dolls, and because they were all apparently made in Poland.  And if it's one thing I love it's foreign folk dolls.  I don't have too many, but the handful that I do have, I love.  Here's my little group; I've got two rag dolls and two wooden dolls.

I have no idea who made these dolls or how old they are, but the online sources imply that these rag dolls are old, possibly dating back to the twenties and thirties.  If this is indeed the case, then this pair could possibly be the oldest dolls I've reviewed so far.  Possibly, not definitely, as I've yet to find out how old Anita is.  Anyway, I've tried to give my little tribe authentic Polish names, and I've thus christened these two "Eleonora" (left) and "Paulina."

These two were tagged "composition" in the flea market, but they feel more like paper mache and cloth than the composition that I'm familiar with.  Online sources insist that this is composition so I'll go with it for now, because we all know that the internet is never, ever, EVER wrong (LOL)!  Both of them are mask-faced, meaning that they have a faceplate made of some stiff material attached to some sort of backing.  Notice that the two dolls shown in Doll Reference's example of mask-faced dolls are Polish rag dolls like my two.

When one has a wig or a hat having a mask face is not a big deal, but when that wig or hat goes MIA things can be problematic.  Paulina has the back of her head uncovered, and for hair she has naught but a small shock of blonde yarn.

Most of the dolls I've seen like this have some sort of kerchief or bandanna covering their heads, so I'm probably going to have to jerry-rig one for Paulina.  It's fairly obvious that the back of her head was not supposed to be shown, as the cloth on Paulina's head is held together with some VERY conspicuous stitches.

Paulina's face is the nicer of the two.  She's got wise, slightly haughty blue eyes with delicate eyebrows, and slightly pursed red lips with full, blushed cheeks.  The composition has no dents, cracks, or crazing.

Paulina has no ears, which further supports my suspicion that she's supposed to have some sort of head covering.

These dolls are a little unusual in that they're RAG dolls with composition heads, and they're even more unusual in that most of Paulina's clothing is thus printed onto her body.  I haven't seen a rag doll with printed stockings since I reviewed Mooshka Tots Karia clean back in 2014!  But yes, Paulina has printed-on stockings/boots...sort of.  Her feet are made out of this striped material, while her legs are made of fleshtone fabric.

Paulina's top is also printed/sewn on, in the same fabric that her shoes (?) are made of.  Attached to the sleeves are little mitten-hands made out of more fleshtone fabric.  The fabric is grubby and yellowed with age.

Now...Paulina has permanently attached shoes and blouse, but her skirt is a separate piece...sort of.  It's sewn to Paulina's waist in a few places and thus can't come off, but it's a separate piece.  It's not terribly unlike the skirts I have for some of my ball-jointed dolls.

Paulina's skirt is blue, and it appears to have a playground scene printed on it, with children playing marbles and other games.

It's gathered at the waist and nicely hemmed.

Eleonora is different in appearance from Paulina, but she is largely the same doll.  Unlike her more comely sister, she wears a kerchief on her head.  This kerchief is a simple little triangular piece of flowered cloth with unfinished raw edges.

I lifted the kerchief to see if it could come off.  In theory it can, but it's not intended to.  Not only is it sewn to Eleonora's head in a few places, but there's also this to be seen.  The back of Eleonora's head is stitched crudely together just like Paulina's, and there's no hair.

Up front Eleonora does have some hair showing, in the form of some soft dirty blonde yarn.

The hair is done up into two little braids, like girls often wear whether they're Polish or not.  The bottoms of the braids are fastened by blue bits of thread.

Eleonora's face has a few dents and hairline cracks, but I like her expression more than I like Paulina's.  Her eyes are lighter and her features are more fine, though her mouth looks a little silly like she's about to start blowing kisses.  She's also got a bit of a wondering eye on the left, but I'm inclined to forgive that since I suffer from eye wonk myself...in the same eye!

Eleonora has a fabric body like Paulina does, complete with stitched-on boots (red this time)...

...and also like Paulina she's grubby and stained in places...

...but unlike Paulina, Eleonora has a blouse...sort of.  The bodice is an off-white panel sewn into Eleonora's torso

Attached to her arms are puffed sleeves; these originally blended in seamlessly to the the "bodice," but these seams are starting to come undone and are stained in places.  These seams are nothing I can't repair.

Eleonora's skirt is also permanently attached, and it's made out of the same flowered fabric as her kerchief.

Due in part to the looser weave this skirt does not look as neat as Paulina's.  See the threads sticking out along the waist?

The hem is sewn fairly solidly as a result of this loose weave, but due to this fabric's age it tears fairly easily.  The left side of this skirt has a large hole in it that I'll have to patch or mend or SOMETHING!

Under the skirt Eleonora has one more item of clothing that Paulina does not possess:  she wears a pair of britches underneath.  These are simply made and utilize the same fabric as the blouse.

Both of these dolls are firmly stuffed all over...except for Paulina's neck region.  The stuffing appears to have settled out of her neck, leaving it floppy.

I'm not sure what these dolls are stuffed with, but when I palpate Paulina's neck area I can feel grains of something in there.  This makes me wonder if these dolls aren't stuffed with sawdust or with some sort of ground-up plant matter.  The good news is that despite Eleonora's worn skirt these bodies are holding up very well.  They're groady in places, but I see no holes or pulls or tears or anything of that sort.  This is especially true along the joints, which can be landmines for splits as a cloth body ages.

For the wood dolls I chose the names "Inek" (left) and "Ania."

Inek looks like a girl in the face, but so do the other boy dolls in this...this "line" (examples here and here), so I think it's safe to assume that Inek is a boy as well.  I've seen these referred to as "peg woodens," though the peg wooden dolls I'm familiar with are more like this.  The dolls in the link are called Dutch peg woodens for reasons that no one seems to know (they sure as heck weren't exclusively a Dutch thing), and they're about as different from my Polish peg woodens as night is from day.  Both dolls are a fabulous example of folk art, though.

The Dutch peg woodens were usually (but not always) roughly hewn, but Inek and Ania are not.  Their wood is smooth and polished, and I think it's varnished in places as well.  Their heads are round with painted features (blue eyes and red lips with teeth for both) and glued-on hair.  Inek wears a cap and Ania's hood is fastened to her head, so there's no way for me to get a super-duper good look at this hair, but I think it's yarn.  Inek's yarn is soft yellow and twisted into "curls," while Ania's more sparse yarn is off-white.

Both dolls have their features painted on, and their features are pretty much the same.  They both have side-glancing blue eyes with single-stroke eyebrows, little dots for nostrils, and smiling red lips with a few teeth showing.

No carved features, no noses or ears or anything like that, just spots of paint on a round knob of wood.  I suspect that these features are lacquered over, since they show no sign of scratching or rubbing off.

I won't be able to do a decent body review of these peg woodens since their clothes are permanently attached, but I'll do my best.  Inek is wearing a white short-sleeved shirt with blue suspendered shorts...

...and a matching blue cap, which is also permanently affixed.

The sleeves reveal Inek's arms and hands, which appear to be one piece and do not have any paint or varnish.  The arms are conical in shape, while the hands are half-spheres with no carved or painted details.

Inek's left hand has a few splinters chipped off.

The legs appear to have a little more carved definition, being narrower at the knee and ankle and wider at the calf.

Inek's red shoes are painted onto his slightly flipper-like wooden feet, and the bottom of his right shoe has a circular place where the paint is scuffed.  I assume that this was where some sort of advertising sticker went.

Ania is constructed identically to Inek, with the only difference being the clothes that she wears.  She wears a hunter green felt coat that covers most of her head and nearly all of her body.

I assume that this felt is made out of wool.  If it weren't there would be no MOTH HOLES!!!

The hood is a peaked hood, and there's a little collar sewn in.

The sleeves are cuffed and sewn back so that the cuffs stay folded.

It would've been a nice touch if this coat could come off, but it doesn't.  Oddly, it DOES have a little dress underneath, made out of pink and white flowered fabric.

The coat gaps a little along its faux opening, revealing the nicely hemmed edge of the skirt

Under the dress Ania wears little white high-waisted panties.

Ania's arms and legs are shaped like Inek's as far as I can tell (her sleeves don't push up) and her shoes are the same as Inek's, with the exception of a sticker being present.  True to my original hypothesis, this sticker does reveal some rudimentary manufacturing info in the form of the place of production.

I can remember when golden stickers like this were the norm on decorative items.  They usually read "Made in China," so seeing this sticker reading "Poland" is a nice change.

Regarding posing, Ania and Inek are strung.  I originally thought that these rough dents on Ania's thighs were unsanded knotholes...

...but in actuality I think this where the string attaches, as it lines up perfectly with the hole inside the joint.

Ania's legs are VERY floppy, to the extent that I can't get her to stand up without a battle.  If she were a ball-jointed doll I'd just pop her head off and spend an hour and a half swearing profusely while I tightened strings, but Ania is NOT a ball-jointed doll so that option is out.  I'm not sure how to mend a joint like this, particularly since the clothes are not supposed to come off, so I guess Ania will have to stay floppy.  This doesn't appear to bother Ania much anyway, because now she can lean against Inek and look adorable that way!

Time to sum it up!  I'll be breaking this section into two, since I've got two very different pairs of dolls.

PAULINA AND ELEONORA
BAD
*Faces are starting to show a little wear, typical for compo
*Clothes can't come off
*Paulina is missing her kerchief, and Eleonora's skirt is showing wear
*Bodies are groady and unfortunately can only be spot-cleaned

GOOD
*Composition is holding up fairly well
*Bodies are sturdily made
*Clothes won't get lost
*Paulina's clothes are in good shape, and Eleonora's can probably be mended

ANIA AND INEK
BAD
*Ania's coat has moth holes
*Loosely strung
*Clothes can't come off

GOOD
*Wood is protected, and this will not rot as readily
*Clothes won't get lost
*I love their smug little faces!!!

So these dolls aren't terribly special little dolls, but it's not every day one finds dolls from Poland!  I particularly like Ania and Inek's sublimely happy expressions, which provide a nice foil to the sober visages of Paulina and Eleonora.  At the same time the two composition dolls look like the serious, hard-working folk that make countries "go 'round," to use bad English.  The two pairs make an excellent study in contrasts, and I'm glad I bothered to pick them up.  If any of y'all have Polish blood these might make an interesting addition to your collection; they're not expensive and they're not hard to find, though I think the wooden ones are a bit easier to find than the rag dolls are.

Love,
RagingMoon1987