Dollieh Sanctuary

I found these two cuties at a yardsale today at a good price, along with two bags of doll hair. Anyone know what they are?

This one is marked japan on the back of her neck.

This one is marked Regal Canada on her back.

Couldn't place either of these, but might have a bit of info helpful in research.

The first doll is an apparent knockoff of the "Kewpie" style so popular in the early part of the 20th century, with arms molded as part of the body and no joints in the legs. The "googly" side-glancing eyes and cartoony smile would place this as sometime in the 1930s, though it could be a later doll pressed from an older mold. The hair is possibly mohair or dyed cotton wool. As long as it is, it could well be a "styling" doll for hair play and good for little else. You couldn't even dress the poor thing! A lot of mid-century dolls were made in Japan for export, but the perma-nudity, coy pose, "flirt" eyes and long hair suggest this might not have been intended for Western export. Of course, this is all speculation on my part and I could be totally wrong.

The second doll is a bit easier to pin down. From the photo, it looks like she's a 1950s to 1960s "drink and wet" baby doll. Look for a tiny hole between her lips and a corresponding, uh, opening in the body's crotch. Presumably you would give the doll water squirted into the head through the mouth (out of a small plastic baby bottle, either included with the doll or purchased separately) and the water would run down through the hollow body and "wet" the doll's diaper through the hole between the legs. There was no harm in this so long as all you gave the doll was plain water. Milk, juice, or soda would soon result in a smelly, sticky mess that would at best require a full-body soaking to remove the residue, and at worst stain or degrade the cheap vinyl and destroy the doll from the inside out.

Ah, the sweet memories of my early childhood...Anyway, I hope this helps a bit.

The "Kewpie" doll is definitely a knock-off. Real Kewpies had molded hair that was always styled in a little topknot. After a lot of brain pummeling, I have a recollection of seeing dolls exactly like this one, complete with the hair, as the cheapest prizes at my county fair in the games booths. Since those prizes didn't substantially change from the 1930s to the early 1960s, that's probably your ballpark.