Exerpt from Black Dolls: A Comprehensive Guide to Celebrating, Collecting, and Experiencing the Passion

[Debbie]

PREFACE


Doll collecting, in general, is listed among the major hobbies enjoyed by people throughout the world. This includes black-doll collecting, which I have been blessed to enjoy as a passion since 1991. Collecting black dolls provides a reconnection with my inner child. It allows me to see the complete innocence of childhood in its unadulterated, unmarred state. Collecting dolls is an escape from the sometimes harsh realities of adulthood. In most instances, complete joy is derived from collecting, discussing, and writing about my passion for black dolls. The passion, however, is not 100 percent joy filled.

There are intervals when the pleasure of doll collecting becomes frustrating as a result of missing-in-action black dolls. While the inclusion of black dolls in various doll lines has increased in recent years, many doll artists and manufacturers continue to exclude black dolls from their lines or delay their production for a variety of reasons. An example of a delay is the reproduction African American (AA) Patti Playpal, which became available to collectors several years after the reproduction of more than one Caucasian version. Several frustrated collectors penned e-mails to the manufacturer, who eventually produced the AA version.

The demand for black dolls is high; however, fewer quantities of aesthetically acceptable black dolls are manufactured in comparison to more widely produced and readily available white dolls. This imbalanced ratio often causes intense frustration for black-doll collectors and AA parents who desire to buy black dolls for their children. Often companies will price an AA doll slightly higher than its white counterpart, citing reasons such as a more costly manufacturing process. When dolls are discounted, often the AA doll is never discounted or is not discounted as low as the same white doll.

Members of the Yahoo! Group, WeLoveBlackDolls (WLBD), which includes over 100 collectors, frequently voice these frustrations. They concur that often a new line of dolls is introduced and the black doll is either never created or is created several years after its white counterpart debuts. Several members of the WLBD group have penned e-mails or made in-person inquiries at doll shows to doll artists and manufacturers regarding the absence of black dolls from their lines. Similar explanations are usually provided by the queried. Some of these include:

“Black dolls don’t sell.”
“I don’t see color when creating my dolls.” [?]
“Black dolls are more expensive to make.”
“It is difficult to find the right color brown for my medium.” Another variation of this reply includes, “We can’t get the color right.”

In defense of the last reply, some of the first black artist dolls made in the 1980s had an unrealistic gray-brown color giving the dolls an ashy tone. Collectors welcomed the discontinued manufacture of the gray-brown dolls. They also welcome and appreciate the presence of the more realistic dyes and facial sculpts offered by inclusive black-doll manufacturers and artists.

Collectors are not complacent but they do remain optimistic. When asked about the frustrating part of black-doll collecting, Ms. Ruth Manning of Aurora, Colorado, answered, “Maybe someday everybody will realize that we are here to stay. We are not going away, and we want to be represented; but it may not be in my lifetime.”

Cures to collectors’ frustration woes do exist. Certainly doll manufacturers and artists realize that dolls represent people and are used as playthings and cherished collectibles by people of all ethnicities. With this certainty, the need for adequate doll representation for everyone is apparent. The inclusion of black dolls in all doll lines will allow artists and manufacturers to service the entire doll market. Excluding black dolls results in the loss of potential business revenue from black-doll collectors and from parents who desire to expose their children to dolls reflective of their image.

Based on their familiarity, inspiration, and immediate association with fellow African Americans, AA doll artists most assuredly can supply the demand for creating beautiful black dolls. There are many talented AA doll artists whose dolls “live” in obscurity because of the artists’ anonymity. Many of these talented artists lack direct exposure to the collecting community at large. Often their dolls are one-of-a-kind or created in low editions resulting in prices far above the median. Obscurity and price often exclude their creations from many collections. Mainstreaming these talents for doll mass production and competitive pricing is one cure. Doll companies might strongly consider commissioning AA artists to sculpt a variety of black dolls to increase production, eliminate production delays, and lower prices.

Most major doll companies conduct focus groups, the results of which are key factors in the types of dolls produced. Including black-doll collectors in these groups will generate firsthand information from collectors on the types of black dolls they desire.

Even though a small facet of black-doll collecting is intermittently frustrating, overall, it remains quite fulfilling, particularly for the creative collector. Creativity has encouraged reborning and transforming previously manufactured white dolls or kits into African American dolls. Chapter 8 takes a glimpse at the newfound artform of reborning dolls and colorizing dolls. Enjoying an existing collection by redressing dolls, decorating with dolls, and creatively displaying dolls are pleasures derived from doll collecting, in general. Writing about dolls and documenting their existence, past and present, allows many collectors to enjoy and share the passion.

For adults who collect and children who play with black dolls, it is no secret that they are positive reflections of black beauty. It is apparent to this group that black dolls do sell, particularly when created to meet or exceed the expectations of those who collect them. Black dolls are powerful; they are comforting. They renew the spirits of the young and the old.

This book is a celebration of black dolls created from the 1800s through the present … dolls designed for play, to collect, or both. Whether they were originally black or not, gray-brown or realistically toned, aesthetically challenged or created to embrace black beauty—experience herein the celebration and documentation of the passion for collecting black dolls.