Wooden Dolls Featured In Library Exhibit

By Jan Howard

Children and adults alike will be entranced by a collection of wooden dolls now on exhibit in the C.H. Booth Library’s children’s room and in the display case in the hall. The dolls will be on display throughout March.

Mimi Malkin, a resident of Newtown for 17 years, began collecting the dolls about ten years ago.

“I just saw this little wooden doll at the flea market and fell in love with it,” Mrs Malkin said.

“I really did not know anything about them. I think I paid 50 cents for her that day,” she said. “Once, I even had a vendor give me a doll in the early days of collecting.”

Since then, Mrs Malkin has found the dolls at other flea markets, garage sales, doll shows, antiques stores, and on the Internet. Her friends and family look for them for her, and a doll is often a birthday or Christmas present.

The wooden dolls originated in Poland and date from the 1940s to 1960s. They were reportedly made by the Polish cottage industry and crafted in Polish homes. The dolls were sometimes brought to the United States as souvenirs.

They now are worth anywhere from $20 to $40 each. “If you really want a special one, you may pay more for the rare doll,” Mrs Malkin said. “Sometimes you find a doll that is inexpensive, but it usually needs help. Some of them, it is obvious, were played with all the time, whether by Polish children or children here. I have a friend, Rich, who runs my doll hospital and re-threads broken dolls for me. He and his wife, Karen, my lifetime friend, live in Pennsylvania and are constantly looking for the Poland dolls when they attend their train and doll shows.”

The dolls have jointed arms and legs. Their outfits are based on storybooks, occupations, and native costumes. Their unique features are the shoes, usually red, shape of the hands, and hand-painted one-of-a-kind faces.

“It may appear that some of them are duplicates but, if you look at them closely, there is always a difference in the way the eyes look or eyelashes curl, or the smile,” Mrs Malkin said. “For instance, there are two nurses on display. One looks strict and the other has a sweet smile. The clothes may be the same style, but they are different material patterns.

“I’m always looking for the different ones and recently acquired the cowgirl. My favorite, I guess, is the first little girl doll I purchased. But I am fond of the fisherman, Pinocchio, the hippie, and since I am an RN, the happy nurse,” she said. “There are also really special faces on some of them.”

Mrs Malkin said her saddest moment was losing an eBay bid on a doll she had fondly named Einstein. Her happiest moment was receiving the happy nurse doll that her son and his wife found in North Carolina.

She definitely plans on continuing to collect the wooden dolls, she said. “I have over 100 now, but I’m always looking for that special doll, like Einstein.”

Mrs Malkin said she exhibits most of her collection in a cabinet in her living room, but there isn’t room for all of them so some are stored.

She said she would not consider selling the dolls because they are an interesting part of doll history and have recently become popular. “I just feel lucky that I started collecting them before they had a following,” she said. “As a girl, I loved doll houses and to me these little dolls are fun to just look at and re-arrange.

 “It sounds crazy, but they can brighten a dreary day,” she said. “Plus, I really look forward to playing with them someday with my granddaughter, Emma.”