About a month ago, my mom and I went to an Estate Sale aptly named “The Doll House”. At the sale, my mom bought an Alt, Beck & Gottschalck German bisque doll in need of a little (well, a lot of) TLC. Naturally, we turned to the one and only Dr. Noreen to restore this pre-1930’s bisque doll.
See the video recaps of our Estate Sale finds below!
This bisque doll was owned by a collector/amateur restorer known as Gypsy Gene. This German bisque doll was part of a massive collection that featured many dolls that were in various states of repair. Unfortunately, Gypsy Gene seemed to be guessing on the proper restoration methods, especially when it came to the Alt, Beck & Gottschalck toddler doll we have here.
Let’s start with some before images. You’ll notice that this baby was very shiny. Also, she had a lot of damage on her right leg and stomach. Her glass eyes were so loose that upon bringing her home, they promptly fell inside her head. Thankfully, her face, which holds most of the value in these dolls, was the least damaged part of her.
Upon inspecting the doll before her restoration, Dr. Noreen discovered that one of the dolls legs was most likely replaced with a leg from the same era in a similar size. (Gypsy Gene earned a point for choosing a pretty good replacement leg for this Alt, Beck & Gottschalck doll!) Dr. Noreen decided that Gypsy Gene had tried to fix her with heavy resin and enamel, which is why this toddler doll looked so shiny. To fix that, Dr. Noreen had to sand off the old enamel, sand and fill the rough areas and repaint the problem spots with the proper paint. She couldn’t get all the heavy resin off, but the matte paint makes it less noticeable.
Fast forward to the other day when a big box arrived from Dr. Noreen’s Florida based hospital. Inside was this lovely girl! Her leg and stomach look much better. She’s restrung and now can hold her arms up! Her glass eyes have been reset and her red felt mouth has been replaced. Overall, it’s a miraculous transformation!
See the grand unboxing in the video below!
We highly recommend checking out Dr. Noreen’s Doll Hospital if you are in need of doll restoration. You can find her online. Don’t forget to ‘like’ her on Facebook, too, where she posts behind the scenes looks at her patient’s time at the hospital! And in case you missed it, check out the ‘Spotlight’ I did on her here on the blog.
We have two more dolls waiting in the wings to send over to Dr. Noreen, so hopefully, this won’t be the last of the restorations you see here. Until then, what do you think of this transformation? Let us know in the comment area!
AdvertisementsSeptember 6, 2017. Tags: Spotlights. Uncategorized.
