Maud Humphrey

Maud Humphrey

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Elisabeth Putz Creation Cloth Doll

On a recent Goodwill shopping excursion, I came across the sweetest cloth doll:


She has a cloth-covered, molded face and a soft, cotton, stockinette body.

Her high-quality, braided wig is adorable:

Her hands have stitched fingers:

She has delicately painted facial features:

Her outfit is top-notch!  She wears lace-trimmed bloomers, a long sleeved dress with a collar, and a coordinating pinafore.  The fabrics are nice cottons, and all raw edges are neatly finished.  No irritating Velcro on this outfit--the dress and pinafore close with tiny snaps under decorative buttons.

Close up of her cute, pink shoes and thick, white, knit socks:

There are no identifying marks on this doll whatsoever.  When I first found her, I lifted up her clothing and checked all over on her body for some kind of mark, but found nothing.  So then I spent the next several days trying to find her online.  At first, I thought she was a doll by Pauline Bjonness Jacobsen, who has made cloth dolls similar to this one.  But hers are usually marked, so I couldn't be sure.  It wasn't until today, (and I'm not sure how I missed it before!) when I decided to fully undress her that I spotted this label on the back hem of her dress:
Mystery solved!  She was made by doll artist Elisabeth Putz, who also makes porcelain dolls.  I found a website for her ( http://www.west.net/~hp2/#Soft Dolls ) but unfortunately there isn't any information about the artist other than she is from Germany and now lives in Santa Barbara, CA.   Her cloth dolls sell on her website for $115-145.00...not bad for my $4.00 investment at Goodwill!  I checked Ebay for any past or current sales of this doll, but nothing came up.  I also couldn't find any examples on the internet, other than the artist's website.  It makes me wonder if there aren't many of these dolls out there?  Maybe they were made in very small quantities and are all in private collections.  In any case, I am very pleased to have found this doll.  I love cloth dolls, especially handmade ones, and this one is simply lovely.  She is extremely high quality from the top of her wig to the tips of her feet.  Makes me wonder how she ended up thrown in the stuffed animal shelves at Goodwill?  But I'm glad she did!

She will have a special place in my collection.  Does anybody else out there have one of these dolls, or know anything more about the artist?














4 comments:

  1. What a great find! She is gorgeous! Congrats!

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    1. Thank you! The more I look at her, the more I fall in love with her. Something about cloth dolls is so appealing to me!

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