Tiny Dolls Take Center Stage at the UFDC “Small Dolls, Big Dreams” Special Exhibit

BAPS doll on display at the Small Dolls, Big Dreams Exhibit. Photographed at he the United Federation of Doll Clubs Annual Convention

One of the highlights at every UFDC convention is the Special Exhibits. These exhibits highlight certain dolls in-depth and in style. There were four Special Exhibits this year, and I’ll highlight each of them in my UFDC Convention coverage.

The first exhibit was Small Dolls, Big Dreams. This exhibit focused on dolls 8″ and smaller made from a wide variety of materials. Dolls in this exhibit were made of cloth, bisque, wax, wood, rubber soap, paper, vinyl, china, leather, and many others. This exhibit was put together by The Wichita Antique Doll Study Club, and many of the dolls were from the Nancy Moore collection.

Within the exhibit was an extensive display of BAPS dolls. BAPS dolls are small cloth dolls created by Frau Edith Von Arps in Germany, from the 1940’s through 1960s. The dolls were handmade and had little metal feet that enabled them to stand. Many of the dolls represented fairytale characters, and are very charming given their size and simplicity. Nancy Moore, who provided the dolls for the exhibit, has a relatively new book out about BAPS dolls called BAPS Dolls and Puppets; in-depth information about the dolls has been hard to find, so the book is a welcome addition to my doll library.

I enjoyed all the special exhibits at this convention, but I especially enjoyed Small Dolls, Big Dreams due to my love of small dolls. One of my areas of collection are small antique all-bisque dolls as well as antique dollhouse dolls and furniture, and even before I collected dolls, I collected modern miniatures and made bisque dollhouse dolls.