Paula Walton’s doll-making notes
This category is for pictures of and information about antique dolls made by Izannah Walker.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Today Tillie Lamb, Sarah Alice, and sweet Isabeau stayed inside to decorate their house with Valentines as a surprise for their sisters, who were outdoors playing in the snow. While the other little cloth girls went sledding and built snowmen the self appointed decorating committee cut out paper hearts, placed Valentines on their sister’s pillows, and addressed cards to their friends. They even made Valentines for their dolls ❤
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January 19th
Dear Friends of Paula Walton’s Izannah Walker Journal & A Sweet Remembrance,
As I sit here writing to you from snowy New England, looking back on 2023 and forward toward 2024, we are already more than half way through January… I hope you all had warm wonderful holidays!
I know it may seem that I have been a bit absent lately, as I certainly didn’t make as many dolls in 2023 as I have in previous years. Creatively 2023 was a bit of a different year for me. I’ve written magazine articles for years and years, since the late 1980’s, but I’m fairly sure that I may have written more at the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023 than I ever have in such a short period of time. I also spent a substantial amount of time last year working on a rather challenging restoration of a wonderful antique Izannah Walker doll.
Some of the infant pincushions I created for my article in Early American Life’s Christmas 2022 issue, along with the covers of the February, March, and April issues of Antique Doll Collector that had my lengthy three part article about James ❤
While I do enjoy writing articles and doing restoration work, my true passion is doll making, and I have to admit that I have missed it! In fact, truth be told, I get a little cranky when I have trouble squeezing in time to do at least a little dollmaking. As I’m sure many of you know I live on just under 10 acres, which is the remaining remnant of an 18th century farm. The property contains my late 18th century home and three large antique barns. I am the chief caretaker of the house, barns, acreage, gardens, and all the newer studios and buildings. Thankfully my sons do give me a hand with some of the really heavy lifting, which makes it possible for me to (mostly) keep up with everything that has to be done.
I actually had a lot of plans and new dolls underway in November and December, but life got in the way. I wound up catching RSV, which is still lingering after almost three months. There have been a lot of viruses going around this winter, so it’s not surprising. I’m definitely OK, and certainly over the worst. I keep thinking it is going to go away, but it has just stayed put, like a very unwelcome guest. I made it through all of the holiday preparations, and family things (with lots of sanitizing and drugs) but have to admit that was really pretty much all I could do.
I still have Christmas decorations up all over the house. I’ve only taken them down in one room, and that was because I had to hang balloons, streamers and birthday party banners in there. LOL!
I am finally back to making dolls, quite a bit slower than normal, but that’s OK! It’s just such a joy to be creating! Since I’m working around my fatigue and the weather (we have snow and very cold temperatures) I’m not making any announcement about when the next dolls will be ready. What I can tell you is that I will be putting them up for sale one by one, not in multiples. Just as soon as each one is ready to find their new home I will be sending out emails to those of you on my “New Dolls” email list and posting the date and time each doll will be for sale on my Izannah Walker Journal, my A Sweet Remembrance website, Facebook and Instagram.
SNEAK PEEKS & UPCOMING DOLLS
I currently have a very sweet Hannah that is almost finished. I’m in the midst of making her a rather large wardrobe and anxiously waiting for her arms and legs to dry out in the frigid painting studio…
At the moment she has one pink dress finished and I am more than half way through making her blue dress… I’m also seriously considering a white dress with a tiny delicate black print and an apron to coordinate with all three dresses. I may have to scale back, but I hope not, as I am thoroughly enjoying sewing for her!
The next dolls that should be coming up after Hannah are all larger 20 inch dolls. I really try to rotate the different dolls I make, as I have molds for 18 heads ❤ Currently on my painting studio table are a lovely Tilly Lamb and some very sweet Isadoras, plus a brand new doll ~ a reproduction of my newest Izannah family member Emma Blue ❤ At the beginning of this newsletter I mentioned the doll I restored last year. As I was working on her I kept thinking how familiar she looked… The more I looked at her the more I was convinced that she must have been made from the same mold that Izannah used to make Isadora! I got out my Isadora mold and made a head so that I could compare the two. Side by side, other than the difference in the wear, aging and various over painting, they really looked like the same head. What particularly interested me is that I had always felt that Isadora’s head was a bit large on an 18 inch body, but that is the height of the original Isadora that I made my mold from, so that is the size that I have always made her. Since the wonderful, extremely well loved, doll I restored was 20 inches tall, I decided to make a 20 inch reproduction Isadora! I do sometimes see antique Izannah Walker dolls with the same heads on different size bodies. After so many months of working on the restoration of Isadora’s “sister” I actually fell in love with her very time worn appearance, so I may play around with adding a bit more “age” to an Isadora or two, for those of you who also find old, time worn, and well loved endearing.
Thank you all for your interest in my Izannah Walker reproduction dolls! I love being able to share my historically accurate reproductions of some of Izannah’s amazing work with you. I hope your 2024 is off to a great start and that you have an wonderful year filled with all the things you love the best, and dolls ~ lots and lots of dolls!
Paula
Today has been another busy day for the little cloth girls. Not only is it Halloween, but the first hard frost of autumn is coming tonight. That means there were many extra chores that had to be done before the sisters could celebrate one of their favorite holidays.
Hannah and Eliza Jane stayed in the very tall house to continue sewing on their new fall dresses in between baking sweets for Halloween. The whole house was filled with the sweet aromas of pumpkin, cinnamon, and sugar as both little cloth sisters dashed around the house in their petticoats (which made it much easier to work for them to help each other with dress fittings in between their baking.
Out in the gardens Isabeau, Zanna, Ismay, Tilly Lamb, Charlcie, Sarah Alice, Emma Blue, and even Izzybelle worked as hard as they could picking the last, tomatoes, herbs, and vegetables. Just before dusk they took out their garden sheers and cut all of the remaining flowers for pretty bouquets.
Eight tired, but happy dolls slowly walked back to their very tall house, ready to join their sisters for sweet Halloween treats, and just perhaps a trick or two. ❤
The Izannah sisters and I wish you all a very Happy All Hollows Eve!
It’s been a beautiful cool, sunny autumn day at the doll’s very tall house, as all of my little cloth Izannah sisters celebrated the 206th birthday of the extremely talented woman who made them.
There were many scrumptious things to eat, which they all agreed looked even more delicious when served on their new set of china. As I am sure you can imagine, sweet little Izzybelle was very excited to see what their shared birthday present was! The sisters thought that receiving their very own pair of tiny dolls, that look very like much like they do, was a wonderful gift. Their birthday dolls were made by Lolly Yocum of Laurelleaf dolls.
Since Hannah, Sarah Alice, and Isabeau did so much baking for the party on Saturday, Tilly Lamb and Charlcie took over the kitchen today to bake blueberry jam cake, and set out the pies and shortbread for the party.
Meanwhile, up in the bedroom Sarah Alice was trying her best to get Izzybelle to stop trying get an early glimpse of their birthday present, and to keep her neat and tidy for the party…
Eventually Izzybelle was persuaded to tie her sontag, straighten her dress and stop trying to peek into the parlor. Then Sarah Alice hurried her downstairs, before she could get into more mischief…
At long last all the the party preparations were finished. The little cloth dolls gathered around to parlor table to sing Happy Birthday, light a birthday candle for their beloved dollmaker, and feast on far too many sweets… (I didn’t try to stop them, because after all such a special day only comes once a year and they deserve a special treat).
Thank you for joining us for this year’s birthday party! We hope you have enjoyed it ❤
Happy Birthday Izannah Walker!
Welcome to my annual Izannah Walker birthday celebration here at my Izannah Walker Journal! This is the 14th year that my Izannah Walker dolls and I have been having our own little parties to pay tribute to the wonderful dollmaker who created them ❤ We are so glad you have come to join us!
Due to the unrelenting rain that has been persistently falling for days I have made the decision to split my birthday post into two parts. The second half of our party will be posted on Wednesday, September 27th at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time. It has been much too wet for all of the little cloth girls to commute out to their very tall house today!!! So this evening we’d like to invite you all to read about the doll’s party preparations…
Tomorrow evenings release of my newest dolls will be happening as scheduled. Three of my handmade reproduction Izannah Walker dolls will be offered for sale here at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time (September 26th, 2023)
HAPPY 206th BIRTHDAY IZANNAH WALKER part 1
Saturday, September 23rd…
Isabeau and Sarah Alice spent the morning looking through the vegetable gardens, to see what lovely fresh vegetables and berries they could find… As they filled their garden baskets with the last of the herbs, tomatoes, patty pan squash, sweet corn, raspberries and blackberries they talked about what they should cook for this years birthday party. Izzybelle’s tomatoes have been thriving this summer, so it was no surprise that there were still more than enough left to make into something, but what??? They quickly decided that it needed to be something festive, that felt at least a little bit special. “Isabeau do you remember that recipe for tomato pie that we found tucked into the back pages of our cookbook?” asked Sarah Alice. “Do you mean the one with all of the grated cheese in it?” replied Isabeau. “Yes” said Sarah Alice. After a bit of reflection, and a few minutes of frantic activity spent chasing down a half dozen tomatoes that had rolled out of her basket, Isabeau agreed that tomato pie sounded just right to serve as a light supper at the party.
Both little cloth girls were quite thrilled to find one last autumn bunch of rhubarb out in the back garden, which they immediately resolved to make into pie as well. One sweet and one savory!
Throughout the long afternoon spent in the kitchen Sarah Alice, Isabeau and Hannah managed to bake both pies and a batch of shortbread cookies, while they prepared the doll’s favorite Saturday night supper ~ Boston brown bread, baked beans, and hot dogs. As they cooked they were also able to agree on what kind of birthday cake they should bake… It was a lovely afternoon in the doll’s house as the sisters talked, giggled and cooked the afternoon away
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You are cordially invited
To visit http://www.izannahwalker.com
On Monday, September 25th, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time
to attend my virtual celebration of Izannah Walker’s 206th Birthday!
The little cloth girls and I hope that you will come visit us as we throw our annual birthday party in honor of the amazing dollmaker that created them.
Following the grand birthday celebration…
On Tuesday September 26th at 9:00p.m. Eastern time
(8 p.m. Central, 7 p.m. Mountain, and 6 p.m. Pacific time)
I will be offering a few of my handmade, historically accurate, reproduction
Izannah Walker dolls for sale.
For the particulars about how my sales work please read below. Thank you!
How to buy one of the dolls that will be for sale on September 26th, 2023 ~ this is the IMPORTANT part, so please read this!
I’ve been trying to keep buying my dolls as straight forward and easy as possible. I started out by simply saying that the first person to email me and request the doll would be it’s new owner. Straight forward and right to the point… What could go wrong? LOL ~ As I found out quite a few things could! There have been a few “hiccups” along the way… So in order to keep it all simple and easy please read and follow these directions, which will allow me to mark the dolls that sell “sold” as quickly as possible, collect the buyer’s payment and shipping information right away, and just generally get each doll on his or her way to their new home as quickly as possible. Plus it will also let everyone else know exactly what dolls are still looking for their new home. ❤
In a perfect world I would have the time, money, and energy to completely re-do my website and have automatic inventory control that would allow me to list one of a kind items. Until that magical day happens I appreciate your patience with my current selling policies. Thank you!!!
All of my dolls are sold on a “first come” basis. To purchase a doll email me at paula@asweetremembrance.com , in your email specify exactly which doll you wish to buy . Please be aware of how much the doll costs BEFORE you send your request to buy. You are welcome to ask questions, but please note that asking a question is not the same as making a commitment to buy and will not “hold your place in line” if someone else asks to buy the doll. Checks or money orders are preferred, Paypal is also accepted for payment. Free priority mail shipping & full insurance to any U.S. address. International orders ~ exact postage + $25 handling fee to help off set the extra time required for international shipping ~ check with me to make sure your international address is one I ship to. No shipping to Russia.
Isabeau and Sarah Alice have come up with their own personal tips as well ❤
Today is the day I will be posting the schedule for my annual Izannah Walker Birthday Celebration, so be sure to check back here to my Izannah Walker Journal later today, or visit my business Facebook page Paula Walton’s A Sweet Remembrance or asweetremembrance on Instagram
One of the extremely nice things about writing for magazines is the very interesting emails that people send me after they have read my articles. I recently received several inquiries asking me for information about how much boy Izannah Walker dolls are worth. Some of these correspondents were kind enough to share photos of their own Izannah boys with me and ask me my opinion about their dolls, which I was happy to give. If you have also been curious about what Izannah’s boy dolls have sold for, then this post is for you!
The first thing I do if I am trying to determine an approximate value for a particular doll is to look back at previous auction results where similar dolls were sold. In this case boy Izannah Walker dolls. Naturally if you are trying to compare prior prices realized at auction, with a doll you are trying to buy or sell, you will want to look for dolls with similar characteristics such as, pre-patent vs. post-patent, condition, clothing and or other accessories, etc. Because I received emails asking me about both pre-patent and post-patent boys I did get to refamiliarize myself with auction results for both. Below you will find links to the auctions I reviewed. When looking at auction results, remember that you will need to add any buyer’s premium to the hammer price to determine what the doll actually sold for. You could also try searching Ebay and Ruby Lane for past sales, though I don’t believe any of Izannah’s boys have been sold on those sites.
If you would like to look back at my original blog post about the day I met the dolls pictured above, and their very nice owner click here https://izannahwalker.com/2014/07/25/izzybelles-travel-journal-part-3-the-2014-united-federation-of-doll-clubs-convention/
Below you will find links to auctions of Izannah Walker boy dolls:
https://www.theriaults.com/extremely-rare-small-size-american-cloth-folk-doll-izannah-walker
(This is the post patent doll that also sold in the same auction: https://www.theriaults.com/wonderful-american-cloth-doll-izannah-walker-original-paper-patent-label)
This is an example of an 18 inch post patent Izannah Walker boy: https://www.theriaults.com/two-rare-american-pressed-cloth-dolls-izannah-walkerpatent-models
John Thayer is the most well known and most original example of an Izannah Walker boy. He is 15 inches tall and recently sold at the Withington auction of Carol Corson’s collection. You can see some wonderful images of him here: https://www.izannahwalkerchronicles.com/2022/08/john-thayer-antique-izannah-walker-boy.html
This is the Withington’s catalog from the auction, John Thayer was item number 100. : https://withingtonauction.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/October-20-2022-Doll-Catalog.pdf
There was a 17 inch Izannah Walker boy that sold at an Apple Tree Auction for $37,500, but the auction catalog is no longer available online. I’m attaching a photo of him.
The image above is a screen shot of the auction results for this particular Izannah Walker boy. I spent quite a long time searching for the original links to this auction, but unfortunately I could no longer find them available online, so I can’t provide a link to them.
15 inch Izannah Walker Boy Doll with paper label The Maurine Popp Collection of Dolls April 12, 2003 lot 207 $11,750: https://www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/auction.php?start=2&limit=90&op=lots&view=90&sort_lot=1&saleno=2196&display=list&noredir=1
and: https://www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/2196/lots/207
I hope you have enjoyed looking back at some of these memorable auctions!
For those of you who may be wondering, sweet James the doll who was featured in my three part article in the February, March, and April issues of Antique Doll Collector, did find an extremely wonderful new home ❤
The April issue of Antique Doll Collector magazine is out, which means my final installment of James’ story and the accompanying patterns are now available for you to use. ❤
Emma Blue and Sarah Jane were quite excited when this envelope arrived in yesterday’s mail from the subscription department of Antique Doll Collector magazine! The pretty quilt block stamps made it feel like the magazine had been giftwrapped!
You’ll find my article on pages 38-44 of the April issue. The patterns themselves are on pages 43 and 44. To use the patterns the first thing you will need to do is to enlarge the pattern back to 100%. The short answer to “How much do I enlarge them?” is 14.3%, which is a pretty awkward percentage that you may not be able to program into your printer. If you enlarge the patterns by 15% they will be fairly close to my original size. “Why do I have to go to the trouble of enlarging them?” Good question! I provided the patterns to ADC at full size, but due to the space considerations, and the physical size of the magazine, the graphic designer needed to shrink the patterns down to fit into the allotted space.
When you enlarge the pattern to 100% of it’s original size it should fit perfectly on an 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper. It’s very important to remember that I made these patterns to specifically fit a 17 inch Izannah Walker boy. If you would like to use the patterns to dress a different size Izannah Walker doll, or another type of mid-nineteenth century doll, such as a papier-mache, china, parian, or rag doll you will need to completely alter the size and fit of the patterns. Always, always, always make a muslin to check the fit of any pattern you are making from antique fabric!
Now that I have given you the short answer “how much do I enlarge the pattern?” let me walk you through how to get that answer:
I’ll be posting some more tips for using these patterns in the near future. ❤
A fun tidbit. Looking through the open doorway of the main floor “Bedroom”* can you spy the stenciled walls that inspired the stenciling in the second floor chamber, that the doll’s use as their bedroom, in their own very tall house? I painted both the full size walls, and the miniature versions, using historic stencil patterns.
*(The only chamber actually called a “bedroom” in the 18th century because these tiny rooms adjoining kitchens, next to the cooking hearths, were just large enough to hold a bed and little else.)
Read the final chapter of sweet James’ story in the April issue of Antique Doll Collector magazine. This article will tell you how I researched appropriate little boy’s fashions for him, plus give you ideas on where to look for antique fabrics and notions. Also included are patterns and instructions for some of the clothing I made him ❤ To subscribe to Antique Doll Collector, or order this single issue go to https://www.antiquedollcollector.com/subscribe.html For just this issue scroll down to US 2022-23 Single Issue Purchase for Antique Doll Collector, you may choose the month you are wish to purchase and complete your order online. ❤
Once you have the April issue you are invited to come back here to my Izannah Walker Journal for additional instructions including on how to size the pattern up to scale before printing it, and extra sewing tips. ❤
Izannah Walker Journal 