I haven’t shared one of these for a while but I recently had an email from a reader in Canada asking about a doll so I’m putting it up hoping that our Canadian readers can help.
My name is Abby. I’m a summer student at the Spruce Grove Agricultural Society, specifically in our museum and archives. I’m currently going through our collection of dolls and I have quite a few I’m struggling to identify. I stumbled upon your amazing website while searching and figured it would be great to reach out and see if you could help.
I have this one here, I believe she’s a Regal Canada doll but I can’t find any references to confirm. She’s 12 inches tall, made of mostly soft plastic, her eyes are fixed, painted and glossy. She has a label of some sort on the back of her neck (the elevated bar just under her hairline) but it’s faded so I can’t read it. I’m not sure if her clothes are original or not. Another interesting thing is her head squeaks. I’m not sure if that’s intentional or not but when you squeeze her head it’s identical to a dog’s squeaky toy. I’m also happy to have her posted to your blog if you’d like.
Here are Abby’s photos of the doll.
I did a quick Google search myself and found a similar boy doll on eBay. The seller didn’t give much information but gave the time period as 1950-59. I would mostly agree with that because the rubbery soft vinyl dolls with moulded hair were pretty popular in the late 1950s. Her face reminded me of similar dolls I’d seen from British makers. I suggested to Abby that she might have been made by Regal under licence from one of the British doll makers but she could also be from an American company.
I think that both Pedigree and Rosebud made dolls in this material, although I haven’t found pictures of any with the moulded shoes that this doll has.
I also came across a company called Sun Rubber Company. I am not familiar with this company but they began in 1923 in Barberton, Ohio. Their dolls appear to have molded on underwear which this doll does not.
Eegee also made rubber vinyl dolls but theirs seem to have sleep eyes and the squeaker is placed in a different spot.
That’s as far as I have been able to get so I am hoping that someone out there had a doll like this. I feel sure that they would have been fairly common and not an expensive doll. Please comment if you can help.