Name: Faithful Friends Ellie and Will
Made by and When: Heidi Ott, Distributed by Dayton Hudson Corporation, 1996
Material: Vinyl, cloth bodies, synthetic wigs
Marks: Heidi Ott’s signature is incised in the back of the dolls’ necks.
Height: 18 inches
Hair, Eyes, Mouths: Will has short black curly hair. Ellie has long curly black hair accented with a blue plaid fabric bow that matches the dress. Both dolls have brown sleep eyes and open/closed mouths with two painted upper teeth.
Clothes: Ellie wears a blue plaid dress with a white pinafore, white pantaloons, white socks, and brown shoes. (The curator added Ellie’s glasses.) Will wears a white shirt, a brown tweed jacket with a brown corduroy collar and pockets, brown corduroy pants and hat, white socks, and brown lace-up shoes.
Other: In the late 1990s, Target Corporation partnered with Swiss artist Heidi Ott to create a line of 18-inch Target-exclusive dolls. Made along the style of American Girl dolls, Faithful Friends were dressed in nineteenth-century-style clothing and had a historical fiction book series. Meet the Friends by Sharla Shannell Whalen, is the first book in the Faithful Friends book series. Each Faithful Friends doll has a certificate of authenticity.
Gallery
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