My doll cabinet - top shelf part 3

The final two residents of my doll cabinet are two little fay dolls from Cape Town.  They are very small, being only about an inch tall.  Their heads are made of wooden beads, their hair looks like bright mohair and they are beautifully painted.  They match the little jug and bowl sets in my Triang Dollshouse.

The distinctive fay marking - fay is still trading
and sells miniature items in the
Craft Market at The Waterfront, Cape Town

I hope you have enjoyed exploring my Doll Cabinet shelves and meeting the residents.  Now I shall have to blog about my daughter's dollshouse, as mine is still in storage.  I'm hoping to get it out before Christmas, as we've temporarily taken our house off the market, so have no need to be living in a show home!

My doll cabinet - top shelf part 2

The second set of dolls on the top shelf are a little smaller than the 5 Hong Kong dolls from my previous post about my doll cabinet.

These three little treasures are identical.  They were made in Italy.  The two in homemade costumes were part of the chorus line for the doll theatre, and I made their little outfits out of scraps of slightly stretchy material, their boots and bonnets are felt.  Their elastic bands are perished, so their arms fall off, but they really are very cute all the same, with wonderfully natural moulded bodies for dolls so small.  I have some even smaller baby doll versions with bent legs, but those are in storage at present.  The doll in the centre is partly clothed in some national costume which had been glued onto the doll.

The arms on these three identical dolls are so detailed

On their backs is 'Made in Italy' with a logo showing a stork holding a baby.  I don't know which Italian factory made them, and would like to find out.

The next two dolls are unidentical plastic dolls, both Made in Italy, but by different companies.  The taller one has CS very clearly on its back and the other has a symbol/logo of some kind which looks like it could say FOLO, but I'm really not sure, as it could say FDLO.  I would like to know which Italian doll factories made these dolls.  They were picked up in my 20s from a table top sale somewhere.

The two Italian dolls of different makes

Markings on the shorter doll

Markings on the taller doll

My doll cabinet - top shelf part 1

The top shelf of my doll cabinet is the home for a collection of small plastic dolls, plus the two handmade jointed wooden dolls that I created myself.  There are several of particular types on the shelf.  Because of the way I've arranged the dolls, I don't want to work from left to right this time, but will talk about the dolls in categories, starting with the biggest.

The top shelf of My doll cabinet

Hong Kong dolls

These five plastic dolls have Made in Hong Kong on their backs, and came with outfits glued on.  However as you will see from the photo, I made dresses for some of them and embroidered initials on the dresses, as each doll had a name.  Some still have their names sellotaped on the top of their heads.  I bought them all as a teen from one of those shops that was small but seemed to sell everything, including a nice selection of pocket money dolls.  I had so many because I needed them for the chorus in theatrical productions!  During our early teens my sister and I built a miniature theatre out of wood, wire rods, fabric and paint.  It was rudimentary, but had rows of real side curtains like a proper stage and the main front curtains opened and shut when we pulled a cord.  We spent hours devising a show to all the music of the famous Musicals, so the dolls had changes of costumes and were positioned differently for each scene.  Sadly I never thought to take any photographs and after one season the theatre was abandoned and eventually broken up.  But these dolls are survivors from that time.  Their elastic bands holding their limbs to their torsos are perishing, so they are very wobbly now.  Some of them have their original plastic shoes, two have knitted boots that I made for them.  One of them had her eyes fall into her head, so I had to glue them in place, which means they no longer open and close.  If you know which factory made these dolls, please let me know.

Two of the girls, one with a dress over
her original outfit, the other with the original dress