Name: Baby Dear One
Made by and When: Vogue Dolls, ©1964
Material: Vinyl, cloth, cotton or foam stuffing, synthetic hair fibers, paint, ma-ma crier
Marks: (Heads) VOGUE DOLLS / ©1964 (behind the right upper thigh) ©1960 / E. WILKIN
Height: 18, 12, and 12 inches
18-inch Baby Dear One
Hair, Eyes, Mouth: Short brown straight rooted hair with bangs, brown sleep eyes with bristle upper eyelashes, closed mouth with orange-red lip color
Clothes: Redressed in a period-appropriate pink dress, white bonnet, and off-white booties
12-inch Baby Dear One with Rooted Hair
Hair, Eyes, Mouth: Identical to the 18-inch doll
Clothes: Wears a long pink Vogue-Dolls-tagged fleece gown, white cotton panties
12-inch Baby Dear One with Sculpted Hair
Hair, Eyes, Mouth: Sculpted black curls, brown sleep eyes with bristle upper eyelashes, closed mouth with orange-red lip color
Clothes: A period-appropriate pink cotton dress with strips of yellow and light blue piping at the sleeves and hemline is worn with pink knit footed pants.
Other: Vogue released a series of Baby Dear dolls during the 1960s-1980. The first doll was named Baby Dear. Baby Dear One (with an open mouth and teeth) and a redesigned Baby Dear One with a closed mouth followed. Notable doll designer and children’s book illustrator Eloise Wilkin designed Baby Dear for Vogue. Their distinct Wilkin characteristics include a raised right index finger. All other fingers are curled under. The right thumb is straight; the left is curled under. The arms are sculpted to be in the raised position. All versions have bent baby legs. Except for the left big toe, all toes are curled under.
Baby Dear dolls were available in different sizes. This installation includes closed-mouth versions of 18- and 12-inch Baby Dear One (with and without hair, as described). The 18-inch doll has a ma-ma crier, while the smaller dolls do not.
A Notable Baby Dear One Tidbit: A black version of Baby Dear One is featured in the 1970 episode of Bewitched, “Sisters at Heart,” written by a class of 26 Black students at Thomas Jefferson High School in Los Angeles, California.
Baby Dear dolls were Vogue’s second most popular doll with Ginny dolls being the most popular. Because of the popularity of the first version, other companies made clones or knock-offs and included black versions in their lines. It is uncertain if Vogue’s first Baby Dear was available as a black doll. Reliable Toys’ Darling Baby or Baby Darling is one competitor’s version of the original, chubby-cheeked doll. Eugene Dolls made two similar versions of Baby Dear named Mommy’s Baby and Just Born.
Gallery
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