PART II
PRESENTED BY DOLLS50265
1940: Bisque dolls continued without the
molded hair but with molded socks. The dolls
were marked: Story//Book//USA. Also in 1940
there were a limited number of socket head
(wobble head) dolls made both with strung
(moveable) legs and straight (frozen) legs.
These ranged in size from 6-6-1/2".
Small gold stickers continued to be used on the clothing that reads "Storybook Dolls" Boxes were colored with white polka dots.
Bisque dolls continued to be made with pudgy tummy as well as slim tummy. See photo.
QUIZ: Can you tell which doll has the pudgy tummy?
You're correct if you chose the one on the left.
Instead of a gold sticker on the dress, the dolls wore a gold foil "bracelet" with the name of the doll.
Boxes were white with pink, red or blue dots. Example below.
1943-1947:
Strung leg dolls were
discontinued and stiff (frozen) leg dolls
were now being produced (head, body, and legs
all in one piece), arms were strung. Around
1947 the storybook dolls were made with
bisque bodies BUT with plastic arms. This
began the transition period between bisque
and hard plastic dolls. The mark continues to
read:
1948-1950:
Beginning in 1948 and continuing until 1950, storybook dolls were made of hard plastic. Earlier (1948) dolls had painted eyes (they look very much like the bisque dolls so look closely and you should see a seam around the neck of the doll). The photo pictures Topsy, one of the few black dolls that Nancy Ann made. This example is hard plastic with painted eyes. Topsy was also made in bisque and in hard plastic with sleep eyes.
Sleep eye , hard plastic dolls were introduced around 1949. The mark on the hard plastic dolls reads:
The following photograph is a picture of Saturday's Child from the Nancy Ann Storybook hard plastic, sleep eye collection.
Dolls wore bracelet wrist tags and boxes continued to be white with colored polka dots but with the addition of the words "Nancy Ann Storybook Dolls" written between the dots.
By the late 1940's, Nancy Ann Abbott was running the largest doll company in the nation in terms of volume – 12,000 dolls were being produced each day.
With the introduction of Muffie in1953 (pictured),
Debbie (1954), Miss Nancy Ann, Baby Sue Sue and the elegant Style Show Dolls (pictured),
In 1956, Nancy's health began deteriorating and she died on August 10, 1964. A sale of the company was attempted but never materialized. It consequently went into bankruptcy in 1965. Nancy Ann Storybook Dolls have become cherished and collectible items. Nancy's memory continues to live on in the joy and enthusiam that we who collect these dolls share.
I hope you have enjoyed this program as much as I have enjoyed putting it together. For those of you who would like more information about Nancy Ann Storybook Dolls there is a book entitled "Nancy Ann Storybook Dolls" by Marjorie A. Miller. I believe this book is still available through Hobby House Press. There is also a Clearing House Newsletter published once a month. There are also 2 mini-conventions held each year. One is held in Vallejo, California in May, I believe, and the other is held the 3rd Friday in July in Atlanta, Georgia, as part of a larger convention.
The pictures in this study were provide by the presenter except for the Muffie & Style Show Dolls which came from the Nancy Ann Story Book Doll Company, Inc. brochure. Information provided in this study has come from various sources and the author's long time collecting of NASB doll.
