ca. 1913-1922 Girl with flirty eyes and open mouth.

American Beauty Dolls

by PD Smith 1913-1922

Not much is known of the American Beauty Doll Company, who began making composition dolls during World War I, when bisque head German dolls became scarce, due to the war.  This was a family run business of hand made artist dolls by Putnam David Smith, his wife Mabel Smith and young daughter Margaret Smith. 

American Beauty, PD Smith dolls were sold on the west coast of California, each composition doll was hand made and unique, most the dolls have cloth stuffed bodies, others have a composition ball jointed German type body.  Very few of these artist dolls were made, sold or have survived, as it proved to be unprofitable to make the dolls and the short duration of the company. 

ca. 1913-1922  American Beauty Doll, PD Smith, Girl Doll, 22" tall, shown at left, composition shoulder head and limbs, stuffed cloth body, mohair wig, one stroke painted eyebrows, glass flirty eyes, painted upper and lower lashes, open smiling mouth with teeth.

The two dolls shown below, are similarly made with composition shoulder heads - but these PD Smith shoulder head dolls are not typical - they are more like a socket head attached to the shoulder plate which is a fixed to the cloth body, thus the neck can swivel.

These character faced dolls with flirty side to side eyes, winsome smiling mouths, are truly unique and unusual.  What a delight to add these dolls to your collection, if you could find one.

ca. 1913-1922 American Beauty Doll, PD Smith, Boy with flirty eyes, composition shoulder head and and limbs, stuffed cloth body, short mohair wig, one stroke painted eye brows, flirty eyes, open smiling mouth with two lower teeth.

 ca. 1913-1922 American Beauty Doll, PD Smith, Girl with flirty eyes, composition shoulder head and and limbs, stuffed cloth body, wig, one stroke painted eye brows, flirty eyes, open smiling mouth with teeth.