Doll Repair Before & After

Dydee Baby

Dydee baby for the 1950′s was made with rubber and hard plastic. Often the rubber dried and collapsed. Sometimes re-hydrating the body or replacing parts is necessary. This baby had mold on the face and required a repaint as well.

Unusual Tin Head Boy

Unusual antique tin head boy doll head. This head is a flange type which is held to the body with a draw string, rather than the usual shoulder plate style seen on most tin heads. This head had some great decal eyes with lots of expression but the rest of the head had major paint flaking and chipping.

BEFORE tin head boy with paint flaking	AFTER Unusual Tin head doll head boy after restoration

Minerva

This Minerva head had the most lovely blue blown glass eyes that it was a shame to leave her chipped and in the drawer.

Head Cracks in a French Fashion

This lovely French Fashion doll had several head cracks, on both temples and into the face. The left side had a V shaped crack that went from the crown, through the brow and down the cheek. The other temple had another V shaped crack that extended through the eye. In addition, a large part of the upper forehead was reconstructed. Previous repairs by someone else had used acrylic paints and spray acrylic sealer, which flaked and yellowed over time, covering the beautiful translucency of the bisque. After repair was complete the beauty of the bisque was present again.

Character Baby Face Restoration

This antique bisque character baby, needing repair and restoration, was considered a basket case after being dropped on her face.

antique bisque character baby head restore

BEFORE

AFTER dressed ready to go home

BEFORE most of face in pieces

AFTER happy baby again!

AFTER side view

Restore Facial Color to a Kestner

This small Kestner head had no color on one temple near the eye that included lashes and brow. There was also no color on parts of the forehead, one side of the nose and around the other eye. The tricky part about redoing the color was the head was only a couple of inches tall, making it difficult to place color and then restore the lashes, without making it overdone.

AFTER all dressed

BEFORE Kestner lacking facial color around eyes, nose and cheek

AFTER facial color restored

AFTER Kestner facial color restored

Talking French Jumeau body and voice restoration

AFTER wearing duplicated original Jumeau dress

This talking Jumeau had a “Ma-Ma, Pa-Pa” non-working voice box, along with paint loss & lifting paint. After repair, a replica dress was made for this lovely French Jumeau by Antique Child Doll Restoration.

AFTER legs restored

AFTER fully Mama Papa voice box and finish restored

BEFORE showing wear and socket

BEFORE thigh and leg wear

BEFORE leg and joint wear with vice box ready to work on

BEFORE apart

Armand Marseille Floradora . . . . .

AFTER all put together with *new* clothing she is ready to go home

A complete restore is always interesting when I open a box in which the owner declares “I had to buy her because she has such a sweet face.” That is the long and short of how this doll came to be restored. She retained her upper thighs, one full and one half arm and her torso. Her poor head had multiple breaks from a large section gone from the rim, to a large crack at the back, temple and on her forehead. After appropriate parts were installed, her body repaired and her head received invisible restoration, she is indeed lovely.

Customer Comment:

“WOW JANIE!!!!!! Man!!! INCREDIBLE!!!!OK, first of all… Good Morning! Nice way to start the day today! Thank you!!! The doll is AWESOME!!! It is so INCREDIBLE that she went from a nasty pile of dust, and bisque to a beautiful doll!! WOW!! And the dress!! IMPRESSIVE INDEED!!! Not only do you show how she looked before and after, but you certainly show the actual process of her head going through the various steps of restoring it to ‘as new’ condition!! AWESOME!!! I just cannot find the right words to describe how cool it is to see your amazing work done on this doll! And yeah, she sure is a beautiful doll! It definitely is more a piece of artwork than just a play thing! Never in a million years did I think she would look this good!! AWESOME!!!! Felipe Nistal”

BEFORE front view

BEFORE side view

BEFORE back view

AFTER front view

AFTER side view

After back view