From Denise
Van Patten. This article appeared in the About.com newsletter
on May 30, 2007. It was written by Denise Van Patten, the editor
of that newsletter. I think this is very interesting. In all my
years with dolls, I have not seen nor heard of this doll. I have
known and handled and bought and sold many K & H dolls, but
none in a jar!! Enjoy the article!!! Carol Lindberg
The Story and History of an Unusual Nancy Ann Storybook-Type
Doll In A Jar
One of the joys of owning a doll store is the wide variety of
vintage and antique dolls that come in the front door for appraisal
or sale. Sure, some days all that walks through the door are naked,
dirty cabbage patch dolls, but every now and then, something a
little bit different and exciting comes in. Today was one of those
days. A lady came into my store with a bag of dolls for sale.
She started taking them out of her bag, and there was nothing
terribly exciting at first--mostly average condition, common bisque
Nancy Ann Storybook Dolls. But then, she took out what looked
like a Nancy Ann Story Book doll in a jar! I almost gave her my
standard mini-lecture on how bad it was to store dolls in any
sort of an enclosed container...but then I looked at the doll
more closely. The doll wasn't stored in the jar...the doll was
originally sold and packaged in the jar! The jar was shaped so
the doll fit in the jar perfectly, with the jar in the shape of
a heart. L
The doll stood on the cap of the jar, with her head placed in
a specially blown glass holder so she wouldn't move. Her skirt
fills out the bottom of the jar. Her shoes are attached to an
inner metal lid. The jar cap states that the doll is from "Dollcraft
Co., Santa Clara, Calif." on the rim, and also "#118--Donna,
Junior Miss." The bottom of the cap states: "Dolls with
a Story (in script) by Dollcraft, Santa Clara, California."
Inside the jar lid and the inner metal lid, the doll company has
a brochure (pink, with hearts). From this, I set out to find out
more about the doll and also Dollcraft Co. The mark on the doll's
back cannot be seen in the jar. But, there were additional hints
on the packaging. On the sides of the jar, hearts were embossed.
There were also hearts on the jar lid and the brochure. Hearts
are commonly found on the packaging for dolls marked with the
Kerr & Hinz mark (K & H USA). So, I began to assume that
the doll was a Kerr & Hinz doll. But, who was Dollcraft? My
research turned up interesting information. John Casey, in his
Internet history of the Silicon Valley, claimed that Dollcraft
was created in 1943 by Elise and Maurice Juster (which moved to
Santa Clara in 1948). Generally, the Justers are credited with
creating Kerr & Hinz. But...here is where things get interesting.
The Justers didn't own a company called Kerr & Hinz dolls.
According to Casey, the Justers moved Dollcraft to Santa Clara
(at the corner of Kiely and El Camino) because they were using
the Kerr & Hinz tile factory furnaces to fire the bisque bodies
of their dolls! At the Kiely and El Camino building, the Justers
painted and dressed the Kerr & Hinz fired dolls. According
to Casey: "Kerr & Hinz was located for years near the
corner of Lafayette and Martin, where the firm produced ceramic
wall and flooring tile for customers all over the Western U.S."
The Justers doll company was located "in the area of Santa
Clara just South of El Camino Real, near the Moonlight Shopping
Center." When you look at the packaging of the doll marked
K & H, they never are labeled Kerr & Hinz! Usually, they
are unlabeled (which makes sense, since they were trying to pretend
to be Nancy Ann Storybook Dolls). Sometimes, they would be labeled
something entirely different, such as "Peg O' My Heart"
Doll. Casey provides further history about Dollcraft: "Elise
and five employees set about creating the 6, 7 and 8 inch high
dolls which were to become very popular all over the U.S. during
the late 1940s through the late 1950s. The firm produced more
than 120 different individual dolls, including the Storybook line...and
the Globetrotters, with dolls dressed in authentic native garb
from virtually every country in the world." The brochure
contained in the jar bears this out, with listings for the Globetrotter
dolls, and also baby dolls, Little Ladies, the Romance of History
series and the Bridal Series, plus "Collector's Dolls Under
Glass," which is what our doll is. You could also get Red
Riding Hood in a glass jar, and also a Bride, Martha Washington,
and several others. The final interesting tidbit Casey provides
is directly about our glass-enclosed doll in a jar: "one
of the biggest customers of the firm was Cal-Neva lodge, located
in North Lake Tahoe. During most of the 1950's, there was a grand
display of the Justers' dolls, each cased in a heart shaped bottle
with the Cal-Neva logo displayed on the lid, adorning one of the
walls in the main casino. When a customer hit a certain slot machine
jackpot, they would be given their choice of a doll." As
many collectors know, the dolls marked K & H ceased production
after a lawsuit by the Nancy Ann Storybook Company. Casey asserts
that, indeed, it was Dollcraft which was sued for patent infringement,
and further that the Superior Court of San Francisco "found
the suit specious, and without basis, but only after the Juster's
had spent all of their capital trying to fight off the action."
Finally, our doll in a bottle has a history!
