Lady Barker's Last Bath

The clutter-clearing continues ...

This must be one of the very first dolls I had back in the mid-1950s. She rejoiced in the grand name of Lady Barker! Sadly, she's on her way out - one arm has broken and is wedged in position for this photograph. I do remember filling this toy bath with warm water to bathe her. (You can see my baby teeth marks in the handle of the back-brush.) Perhaps I over-scrubbed her, as both her little thumbs have snapped off, but - unlike many of my dolls of that period (now long gone) - her eyes remain intact and open and close as they always did. The mark on her chest is a sign that the plastic is deteriorating. So it's time for her to go to the big toy-factory in the sky. My earliest memory of playing with her? It was making my mother laugh when I demonstrated "Lady Barker fiddling in the dirt". The 'dirt' in question was wax that had fallen on the lino floor. We must have had real candles on the Christmas tree that year. Talk about 'health and safety' - what a fire-risk! But my parents were doubtless very careful not to leave the tree - or us children - unattended. I don't remember candles on the tree any other year. Must have been a one-off!

She's now immortalised, not only here, but also in my Virtual Toy Museum.