From Schoenhut we have a 18 inch Wood Doll. Marked with the Green Schoenhut Decal on the back (SCHOENHUT DOLL, Pat. Jan 17th, 1911, U.S.A.) this doll has fully spring loaded ball and socket joints. It’s head swivels. It stands on it’s own (Photo #1) and poses every which way. The head and the forearms seems to be a lighter color than the rest of the body.
The eyes are carved and the mouth is closed. I tried to clean the eyes a little with a q-tip and got off quite a bit of dirt but not all. The roughest part of this doll is one foot which you can see in photo 8 is a little chipped around the ankle. The little flat feet have 2 holes each. The articulated fingers are clubby but not broken. I don’t see wood loss. I found this doll in a box by itself wrapped in Turkish toweling marked ‘to be cleaned’ in my Uncle Billy’s cache of Antiques & Collectibles. The box was dated 1973.
It smells musty (like it used to live in a trunk or attic!) and it’s joints need to be oiled as they are noisy. My thought on this is to wash it with Murphy’s Oil Soap which would help the wood and the odor. It is not offensive, just old. WD 40 is a personal friend of mine and might be just the ticket for the joints. For now, it has only been wiped off with a damp soft cloth.  It has no hair and no clothes.
