Detective help with old collective doll

[Snoffsan]

I got my self an old Minnie doll. I love her so much but I wish I knew more about her. The ones I find on ebay that looks like her all says its from 40th-60th but I dont really see any proof or anything and they all say different years so I have no idea if I can really belive it. My doll is in a really good condition.

This I know:
Company: Gund Mfg Co. NYC
The dress is original since the tag says Minnie Mouse. But I have not found any picture with this doll and this dress. She usually have her regular polkadot dress or skirt on the pictures I have found.
The company had a licence to make Disney dolls between 1947 to 1971 so she is probably made somwtime between that but I dont know when. They did make some reproductions in the 1990th but they did not look like this.
The shoe has a stamp under but I don't know what it means. Says Minnie Shoe 318 Gund.

Do any of you know anything about this doll? Or are you a better googler than me, please help

 

[stratasfan]

Well, address zipcodes came out in 1963, so I'd guess anytime before then (or around, as it would depend how quickly they updated their labels) since that company address on the tag doesn't have a zipcode. For the non-typical dress . . . wonder if it was sold with a line of clothes to go along with it? What's the face feel like? Hard or softer?

 

[Sithathoriunet]

I don't have any info on her, just want to say that she is beautiful.

 

[Snoffsan]

Well, address zipcodes came out in 1963, so I'd guess anytime before then (or around, as it would depend how quickly they updated their labels) since that company address on the tag doesn't have a zipcode. For the non-typical dress . . . wonder if it was sold with a line of clothes to go along with it? What's the face feel like? Hard or softer?

That is very intresesting information about the zipcodes. I had no idea! The face is hard. The hands are also hard, but they are a bit sticky so the rubber they are made of seams to have reacted a bit different than the face.

Could absolutely be that the doll came with the regular polka dot and this dress is an extra.

The dolls that looks like her with the same shoes and hands and face all says 1940 but since from what I can read they got the licens 1947 I dont really put much into that.

Im just so curious of her history.

The company still exist so I guess I might try to email them to see if they have any information...

 

[Snoffsan]

I don't have any info on her, just want to say that she is beautiful.

Thank you. I just love her so much! I found her on swedish ebay for about 25 dollars so there was no way I could not buy her. She is now standing in a protective display casing beside my Club 33 Mickey Doll on top of my Display case. Love to have her looking out over our living room!

 

[momin.ator]

Thank you. I just love her so much! I found her on swedish ebay for about 25 dollars so there was no way I could not buy her. She is now standing in a protective display casing beside my Club 33 Mickey Doll on top of my Display case. Love to have her looking out over our living room!

I love that doll!

 

[Snoffsan]

I love that doll!

I do too. I really love old stuff and history. And as a Minnie collector to own something that is almost old enough to be at a toy museum just fills me with so much joy. Im guessing from all the research I have made so far, that she is made between 1950 and 1960. so that makes her at least 60-70 years old. And that she still is in that good condition.

There actually is a Mickey Mouse toy museum here in my town. I am ashamed to say that I have never been but I will make it a mission to go now and see if that might bring some light to this doll. Maybe they have the Mickey version of her and some more info.

My husband thinks she looks creepy and is watching him when he lies in the sofa. But I love her! I think she looks adorable

 

[noone]

Still searching more info but your doll looks very much like D6510 from the Disneyana Book. Minnie made in 1949 by Gund and designed by Charlotte Clark. However yours is understandably missing her Bow which should be between her ears. According to the Disneyana guide Gund was a licensed with Disney as Gund Manufacturing Co. (NYC) for the following years : 1947-55, 1959, 1968- 71. And i believe that Charlotte passed away in 1960.

The distinguishing characteristics from the other dolls in the guide is most Gund's are not hard faced but ragdolls/soft faced. The 1949 Minnie is the only one in the guide i was looking at that matched the proper hands and face of your minnie. However the dress is a mystery given the time they were making the doll it seems reasonable to me that they would have sold clothes for it. However i have not verified that this was the case. However the guide does mention that do to the popularity and shortages of items to buy disney did license clothes patterns to mccalls so people could make there own. So it seems plausible that Gund could have been making their own clothes to fit there dolls given they were popular and sold for a long time. However the pattern of fabric on the dress does seem more modern, however it is not uncommon to get newer clothes for a doll one is passing down to a younger child. But again that's speculation on my part

Lastly, just curious but are the shoes on the wrong feet?

 

[Snoffsan]

Still searching more info but your doll looks very much like D6510 from the Disneyana Book. Minnie made in 1949 by Gund and designed by Charlotte Clark. However yours is understandably missing her Bow which should be between her ears. According to the Disneyana guide Gund was a licensed with Disney as Gund Manufacturing Co. (NYC) for the following years : 1947-55, 1959, 1968- 71. And i believe that Charlotte passed away in 1960.

The distinguishing characteristics from the other dolls in the guide is most Gund's are not hard faced but ragdolls/soft faced. The 1949 Minnie is the only one in the guide i was looking at that matched the proper hands and face of your minnie. However the dress is a mystery given the time they were making the doll it seems reasonable to me that they would have sold clothes for it. However i have not verified that this was the case. However the guide does mention that do to the popularity and shortages of items to buy disney did license clothes patterns to mccalls so people could make there own. So it seems plausible that Gund could have been making their own clothes to fit there dolls given they were popular and sold for a long time. However the pattern of fabric on the dress does seem more modern, however it is not uncommon to get newer clothes for a doll one is passing down to a younger child. But again that's speculation on my part

Lastly, just curious but are the shoes on the wrong feet?

Thank you for all this detective work! I do not have the Disneyana Book but will for sure try to look this up. A lot of interesting information there.

I did notice that she does have a bow on most the photos. I will take mine down when I get home from work and see if there is any sign of a bow being on top of her head. I see that the ones with only a skirt as clothes seams to have a bow under the chin as well. My Minnie has those kind of dried flowers on the dress instead.

I will examine the dress more in detail as well. It does not look home made and the tag is added in what looks like a proffesional way. I also think the pants underneeth is stitched togehter with the dress. But I have not taken the dress off so I dont know about all the details. Will try when I get home to see more how she look underneath.

The dress is a mystery.

Good point about the shoes. They do look like they are on the wrong foot! I did not dare to remove them because I did not know how fragile the rubber would be. I will look at that too when I get her down.

Thank you again for all the work. I really love learning about her. She is so amazing and I love her so much and I just want to know everything.

One really strange thing I found on Worthpoint is one post that says she is a musical doll. I have no idea what that means and how she would make any sound, but I will look for that as well. See if there might be a squeek toy inside her on something. The ears does not match perfect with my doll though. They look like fabric of some kind from those pictures. My doll has more of a plastic/leather kind of feel to the ears.

Vintage Gund Musical Disney Minnie Mouse Doll | #134030986

 

[noone]

Given that the shoes appear to have been played with at some point in the dolls history I would guess that the dress was added later for play. It (the dress) does appear to be a genuine gund dress. (I'm wondering if they put Minnie Mouse on the tag so that people would know which clothes fit which dolls?) I'm just guessing that it was purchased later to hand the doll down to a younger child. Totally understand not touching the shoes as you wouldn't want to destroy anything that old. I would be hesitant to mess with anything myself as well.

Overall yours looks in great condition to me, the coloring on the face is nice and not badly faded or worn. It matches the ones in the Disneyana book very well, including a perfect match for your ears. You can find that book on Archive dot org Look for the 1985 copy i think it is and it will be on page 15 although i also consulted some other books too

Also i would not expect yours to be musical an important differance in that model you can see in the mouth that one has a flesh color under the mouth while the one i mentioned is black under the mouth like yours

 

[Snoffsan]

Thank you @noone for your very interesting information. I had no ide that library site existed! I looked through so many books yesterday!

I did send a message to the company Gund on Facebook since I could not find any email address on their site. They got back to me after a few hours. Im not really sure how much they actually tried to get the right information about the dolls because they did not answer some of what I thought was easy questions. Like what the stamped number under the shoe meant. I wanted to know if it was like a model number or if each doll was given different numbers. But they did not know that.

I'm a bit worried that I just got to chat with a social media person that did not really know much about the company and history and instead just asked a collogue and then grew tired of my questions and said they had no more information to give.

Anyway the answer they gave was: This item is from approximately 1957 and it was manufactured in NY at the time.

When I asked about if the dress was sold separately or if the doll originally had it on they replied: The item does come as part of the Minnie Mouse.

And that was is.

I guess I will keep looking on Ebay to see when dolls like her come up for sale and see what information the sellers give. And if I ever find one with the same dress. Maybe it was not as popular since Im sure most people wanted her with her polka dot outfit.

I will also look for photos of the shoes and see if I find any more shoes with the exact same stamp and if they have the same number of a different one.

 

[noone]

I have located an Apron Dress on a certain auction site that is from a Gund Minnie that is clearly a vintage fabric pattern. I think it is interesting to compare this photo they have posted in the listing and compare it to the one on your Minnie. Keep in mind the dress below went on a tiny Minnie and so the tag is likely to be a different shape to scale to the tiny dress. Things i think are worth noting are the older Disney Font for Minnie Mouse, the use of an older Gund logo and especially the "REG. TRADE MARK #" Which to me notes that this dress was dedicated to this one doll only and the trademark for the doll is on the dress, at least that's my assumption. Also the one below has no glossy finish to it, it is an older flat non shiny fabric.

I'm also curious if the flowers on your dress are pinned on? As perhaps they were added or transfered over from an earlier dress? They seem to be aged more towards the condition of the rest of the doll where as the white trim and dress fabric all seem to be in a newer condition. Anyways pieces to the puzzle. Hope i'm not getting to into the weeds here but i love a good mystery

Edited to add:
I also found info on a different Gund Minnie one of the soft ones without hands etc but still plastic faced, i'm included a photo of it and its tag to also compare with Unfortunately they did not photo the other side of the tag though.

 

[noone]

Anyway the answer they gave was: This item is from approximately 1957 and it was manufactured in NY at the time.

When I asked about if the dress was sold separately or if the doll originally had it on they replied: The item does come as part of the Minnie Mouse.

That is interesting as that year they are not recorded to have been licensed to produce the doll by Disney and that design certainly doesn't seem very 50's to me. per Disneyana which was a big big deal book to collectors at the time, Gund was a licensed with Disney as Gund Manufacturing Co. (NYC) for the following years : 1947-55, 1959, 1968- 71. Ah well perhaps if i could find a Gund collectors group, i wonder if Hobbytown USA still has a doll museum as they might know. Also curious if the Disney Library (is that what its called?) would have any information? Curiouser and Curiouser