Anderson, Imogene.

[Scrapbook of a Noted Antique Doll Collector].

New York, London, Connecticut and California: 1934-1937, 1946. 11 ” x 9¼”. Blue leather over boards; later handwritten name label to front. 80 perforated pages with 49 clippings, 3 8” x 10” B&W photographs and 8 items of ephemera adhered (4 are laid in) and the last 96 pp. are blank. One photo captioned verso and a few penciled notes to pages. Very good: a few items and pages detached; one clipping with a neat tear not affecting relevant content; scattered light edge wear, toning and adhesive residue.

This is a lovely scrapbook showing some of the major exhibitions of a world-famous doll collector, Mrs. Imogene Anderson.

We don't know much about Anderson's life outside of her incredible collection. The latest clipping in this book, from a 1946 issue of Oakland Shopping News, shared that she lived in New York, “played with dolls in Oakland forty years ago and now owns the finest collection of French fashion 'poupées' in America . . . At first the dolls went only to royal families and were passed around from princess to princess so the dresses could be copied by the court dressmakers. Every detail was carefully observed.”

Clippings, press releases and handbills in this book reveal the dolls' display at several important shows, including “The First Special Exhibition in the Galleries of Israel Sack, Incorporated” – the wildly important dealer who helped build collections for Henry Ford, Ima Hogg and, per the New York Times, “virtually every major museum in the country.” According to the Washington Post, Sack's firm was “reputed to have invented the American antique market.” One of the present articles on this show noted that all of Anderson's dolls were “known to have been brought up in the best American families under the careful tutelage and mothering affection of well-mannered little girls, many of whom became distinguished women.” Other clippings concern an exhibition in London with “exciting specimens, . . . mainly from the famous collection of Mrs. Imogene Anderson; a group of Civil War spy dolls, whose heads unscrewed to conceal messages or quinine for besieged troops in the South; early Negro dolls; three dolls which belonged to Louisa May Alcott and her sisters, and whose wigs are made from the actual hair of the 'Little Women.'”

The album also reveals Anderson's contributions to the first of a planned annual toy show at Rockefeller Center in 1936, a benefit for the Visiting Nurse Service administered by the Henry Street Settlement on Park Avenue in the heart of Manhattan (presented by “Mrs. James Roosevelt, mother of the President”) and programs associated with a Woman's Forum, DAR chapter and public library in Connecticut. There is a script and correspondence for her radio talks (notably one with famed WOR News interviewer Martha Deane) as well as content on her oldest doll, who “sailed to America in 1724 with Captain Gamaliel Hodges of Salem, Mass., on his return from a voyage to Canton, China. Mehitabel, a gift for the Captain's little daughter . . . was invited to a doll's tea party given by Mrs. Grover Cleveland in the White House.”

Wonderful documentation of a woman's noted doll collection and important antiques shows. Anderson gifted one prized Native American doll to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and the Strong Museum of Play has a collection with some of her “draft texts” on wax dolls. Very good. Item #9322

Price: $250.00