The wooden doll you see here is the very first doll I ever owned. (She never had a name.)
Somewhere, my mother has a black-and-white Kodak snapshot of me holding the doll upside down and chewing on it. I think I was less than a year old.
The doll came back to me not all that long ago (maybe 15 years ago), when my mother was cleaning house.
She usually hangs from the knob on my bedroom door, and sometimes she models for photos, like this one.
The jewelry she is draped in is from a group I call "Love & Marriage & Baby Carriage." Two of these bracelets are still available. I snatched the baby mug off the bracelet on the left to make a necklace for a new mother.
If you suddenly want that bracelet and no other, e-mail me and I will see if I can find a similar baby cup. These were a popular charm in the 1950s, when women got all domestic.
Regardless of your feelings about the 1950s, it is a very cute charm.
See: Newborn on a Doctor's Scale
Photos: @ Monica Strasen 2010.
@ Jeanne Sather 2011.