This card was created using my photo of two dolls that are in my collection now. The little monkey was a gift to me several years ago. But the little girl doll was a gift to my mother “many” years ago when she was young, from a pen-pal that she had. The heart shaped tag reads “Baitz” on the front and on the back of the tag is given the dolls name, “Lech” and it is stamped, “Made in Austria”. I found some interesting information regarding these dolls, but only found one source where this exact doll in these exact clothes, was for sale on the internet. Surviving records indicate that the dolls were produced in the late 1920s by the L & R Baitz Company of Berlin. Lilli Baitz sculpted the doll heads and commissioned a family of artists, sculptors and dressmakers living near Salzberg, Austria, to complete the dolls. The family, (name unknown), assembled the dolls, created their wonderful costumes and made or otherwise provided the toys that many of the dolls hold. Sadly, the whereabouts of this talented family was unknown after World War II. A remarkable variety of expressions was realized in the dolls’ sculpted faces, which were inspired by images of children painted by such master portraitists as England’s Sir Thomas Lawrence and Thomas Gainsborough, and Sir Henry Raeburn of Scotland. A few of the dolls represent famous characters, such as Buster Brown and Little Lord Fauntleroy. The entire three-part series of dolls was commissioned by an American antiques dealer, who exhibited them at various venues around the country for several years prior to selling them to Ethel Traphagen in 1937.