Rare dolls exhibited at Perkins House

COLFAX - Perkins House Volunteer Jill Gfeller was fighting a bad case of COVID-19 when she came across a rare set of historical dolls on eBay.

Gfeller explained that the dolls were created by four sisters from Independence, Missouri, who had an uncle named William Webbe, the first illustrator for the author Charles Dickens, inspiring "The Original Dickens Dolls," handmade in the 1940s and 1950s.

Gfeller said the dolls were hard to come by, but she pulled up eBay and found as many as possible.

"A third of my dolls or more came from a young man and his mother who had just cleaned out his grandma's house," Gfeller said, adding that they were in the attic, and the family let her buy them for a price she could afford.

Gfeller said the young man and his mother had lost their jobs to COVID-19. "They were excited to know they were going to be put to use," she added.

The dolls are built on a wired internal frame, have painted features, and clothing designed and hand-sewn for each.

Gfeller wanted the Perkin's House to have something special and unique, so she set up the story of The Christmas Carol with the historical hand-sewn dolls for Perkins House visitors to view during the holidays.

"I just really wanted the Perkin's House to have something of its own," she said, noting that she looked into it and couldn't find anyone who had done the story with dolls.

"Some of the dolls were from another company because I couldn't find enough scrooges," Gfeller said, noting that she hopes to fine-tune the background.

Gfeller encourages everyone to stop by the Perkins House on Saturday, Dec. 2, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for their Christmas open house and see the historical Dickens dolls depicting his famous story of Scrooge and the Christmas Carol.