It usually goes like this: First you get the doll, then you acquire the clothes to dress it up. With the Mary Hoyer doll, however, it was the dress that came first.
In 1925 Mary Hoyer opened a yarn and crafts shop in Reading, Pa., where she also designed and knitted clothing for infants. Eventually, she contracted with the Ideal Toy Company in a concept that would change her business forever.
Ideal would make a twist-waist doll, called the “Mayfair” baby doll, and Mary would dress the doll with one of her outfits and sell it along with a pattern book for other outfits. The idea was a big hit.
In 1937, Hoyer hired sculptor Bernard Lipfert to design a doll, which she had manufactured by the Fibroid Doll Company in New York. This is the Mary Hoyer doll we know, and which has become such a favorite of collectors, especially in Pennsylvania and South Jersey.
The original, classic Mary Hoyer doll is a 14 inch, jointed, composition doll with a mohair wig and sleep eyes. The eyes are usually blue with real top lashes and painted bottom lashes. With materials in short supply during the war from 1941 to 1945, the eyes and both lashes were painted. These original dolls were marked in raised lettering: ”The/Mary Hoyer/Doll,” and were sold at Hoyer’s shops on Penn Street in Reading and in Ocean City, NJ.
From 1946 to 1950, Hoyer produced a hard plastic doll marked: “ORIGINAL/Mary Hoyer Doll/Made in USA.”
From 1950 through the early 70s, Hoyer produced a number of special issue dolls, starting with a rare boy doll, and a 14 inch-18 inch doll called “GiGi” (the Leslie Caron film?), made by the Frisch Doll Company.
These were followed by others, like: “Vicki” (1957) a 10-1/2 inch vinyl; “Margie (1958) a 10 inch doll with rooted hair made by the Unique Doll Co.; “Cathy” (1961) a vinyl infant; “Janie” (1962) also a baby; and Becky (1971) a hard plastic doll with rooted hair.
Today, Hoyer’s grandaughter, Mary Lynne Saunder, continues the business, and runs a web site: www.maryhoyerdolls.com.
These days the doll business is very big business. It’s refreshing to find a doll with handmade clothes, the product of a one-woman business, and a local business at that. No doll collection is complete without a Mary Hoyer.
Appraisals: Most Mary Hoyer dolls made between 1937 and the early 1970s are valued between $200 and $375. You can expect a premium for redheads, brides, boy dolls, dolls in exceptional condition, and with original label clothing and box.
Arthur Schwerdt, a certified appraiser and author of “The Antique Story Book: Finding the Real Value of Old Things,” is co-owner of The August Farmhouse Antiques on Route 9 in Swainton.
