Hallmark Dolls Collector’s Albums, 1948

Item Details

1948, wrappers

VG-Fine

Two softcover albums containing colorful paper dolls (16 in each book, both complete) printed on sturdy card stock. Each doll is held in the album by inserting its back cover through 2 slots, 2 dolls per album page. Opening a doll reveals a story in verse (with all the racial & gendered stereotypes & language use patterns typical of the era), designed to help children learn about different world regions & cultures (album #2) or characters from children’s literature (album #1).

The 32 doll cards are all Fine-Near Fine, with only 1 missing a feather from her cap & another missing most of that feather. Else, they appear never removed from their pockets & never played with. Colors bright, edges & corners crisp & clean. The albums themselves are oblong in colorfully decorated wrappers with 3 stapled bindings. Disney child actress Luana Patten pictured on cover of both enjoying the dolls. Staples show a tad of rust, but are secure, as are all pages. Exterior covers show rubbing & creasing, with a 3” uncloses tear descending diagonally from the top-spine-side corner of front cover on Album #1 & heavy creases to the lower fore edge side of both covers on Album #2. Rarely found this complete, crisp & clean.