Irish #26 Nancy Ann Storybook Doll, 1930s store Around the World Collection

This sweet Nancy Ann Doll is from the Storybook Doll “Around the World” series, and is Irish, number 26. She comes in her original labeled box with brochure and cardboard restraint.

NOTE: Irish was purchased in a mislabeled “Hungarian” box! While she has clothing characteristics similar to her Hungarian sister, she has the signature Irish red hair, bonnet and green dress.

Irish is a five inch tall bisque doll with jointed legs and the signature “pudgy tummy”, and has the rare skin colored “molded socks” on her feet.

This doll was purchased for one very sweet only child, my mother Helen, in the late 1930's. Helen had a very large doll collection, but the Storybook Dolls were her favorite. She would have loved to see them find a new forever home.

Nancy Ann Dolls was established in 1936 by Nancy Ann Abbott. She began making small bisque baby dolls in her apartment using doll bodies from Japan. She began producing the Storybook Doll collection in late 1936. Doll bodies were made in California beginning in 1939, and artists hand painted the store facial features giving each doll their own look and personality.