Little angel. A very old doll.

This little Arranbee doll came to me in a box delivered by a courier. She came with others all made in the 1960's. Having said that I think this one may be older.
I think she is a "littlest angel" from 1950. 1950 was a very long time ago now and this makes this girl older than me.

The Arranbee doll company,

This doll company was located in New York city. They sold Bisque composition rubber vinyl and hard plastic dolls. At first they imported all kinds of doll parts and assembled them then sold them on. 

Alot of their Bisque heads were made by Armand Marseille and Simon and Halbig.

ARMAND MARSEILLE.

Armand Marseille of Sonneberg and Koppelsdorf, Thuringia, Germany was one of the worlds largest and best known bisque doll head manufacturers.  The founder was born in 1856 in St. Petersburg, Russia the son of an architect and immigrated to Germany with his family after 1860.  In 1884 he bought the toy factory of Mathias Lambert in Sonneberg and in 1885 acquired the porcelain factory of Liebermann & Wegescher in Koppelsdorf . . .  and his empire in the doll world began.

From 1900 to 1930 it's reported Marseille produced 1,000 bisque doll heads a day, they made bisque head baby, children, lady and character dolls, on cloth, kid or composition bodies, most with glass eyes, some with painted eyes, with the most commonly found doll molds of 370 (shoulder head on a cloth or kid body) and 390 (socket head on a composition body).  Marseille interestingly did not produce the body of their dolls, but purchased those from other doll manufactures. 

SIMON & HALBIG.

Simon & Halbig was founded in 1839, they began making dolls from 1869 in their two porcelain factories in Gräfenhain and Hidburghausen, near Thuringia, Germany.  In 1920 S & H was bought by Kämmer & Reinhardt, who continued to produce dolls until 1932.  Sometime after the factory became known as Keramisches Werk Gräfenhain. 

Simon & Halbig is known for their fine bisque doll heads and innovation in the doll industry, they also supplied doll heads to many other well known doll manufacturers. 

The American firms that used a S & H doll head; Arranbee, George Borgfeldt, Thomas Edison, Gimbel Brothers, FAO Schwartz, John Wanamaker. German firms; Bawo & Dotter, C.M. Bergmann, Bing Brothers, Carl Bergner, Cuno & Otto Dressel, Eekhoff, Hamburger & Company, Heinrich Handwerck, Adolf Hülß also spelled Hülss, Kammer & Reinhardt, Louis Lindner & Sohn (doll mark LL & S), Franz Schmidt, Schoenau & Hoffmeister,Strobel & Wilken, Carl Trautmann (see Catterfelder Puppenfabrik), Wagner & Zetzsche, Welsch & Company,Wiesenthal, Schindel & Kallenberg, Adolf Wislizenus. French firms; Fleischmann & Bloedel (or Blödel), Jumeau,Roullet et Decamps and SFBJ.

In 1958 the doll company was sold to Vogue doll company. who continued to use the R&B doll marking until 1961.

VOGUE DOLLS.

Vogue was founded by Jennie H. Graves and grew from modest beginnings, to be the largest doll only manufacturer in the world.  Vogue is best known for their Ginny doll, named after Mrs. Graves daughter; Virginia Graves and the companion doll line.  Ginny dolls had beautiful clothing wardrobes and lots of accessories.  The second most popular Vogue doll was the Vogue Baby Dear dolls and all their variations.  

These photos I took of Little Angel. This one was just two days ago at Yeadon Tarn....in between snow flurry's.

This little angel is old and has discolourered head, very dry brital hair and cloudy eyes.  I have cleaned up a little with surgical spirit but this is as good as she will look. She is very sweet. I have dressed her in a cream dress from my stash while I make her a new one.

Her hair is very very brital. I have treied with conditioner and fabric softner and it is a bit better , with this too I am going to leave it alone now!

I could replace eyes and reroot hair, but that is not the point really. I wanted an old doll from the 1960's. She is very likely older from 1950's and she is the way she is!

This is the second doll from my buying spree and will be joining the others from this time in the bedroom.