Doll News Summer 2018 - 130

This Royal Wedding pair was distributed under the name of
Royal Britannia by Goldberger Brothers.

Prince Charles in a dashing military uniform complete with
busby is paired with Princess Diana in the "Hachi" gown. These
are Royal Britannia vinyl dolls.
130

Summer 2018

In 1983 the Danbury Mint began selling copies of
their Royal Wedding dolls, which featured not only
the new princess, but also the Prince of Wales in his
ceremonial naval dress uniform and a little "flower
girl." In fact, then five-year-old Clementine Hambro,
the inspiration for the flower girl was actually a
bridesmaid. The adult porcelain and cloth dolls are
19-inches tall, while the little flower girl is 12-inches
tall. Princess Diana wears a beautifully-made copy
of the original gown in ivory and has a sweet smile.
The train is to scale at six feet. The tiara, a replica of
the Spencer tiara, contains a ¼-point real diamond.
The company assembled an amazing spray of flowers
as the royal bouquet. Prince Charles wears no hat
but has his medals and sword. Both adult dolls have
painted-on shoes. The little bridesmaid also has a
lovely copy of the bridesmaid dress in a delicate
yellow, a flower wreath and a basket of flowers. Pale
yellow shoes complete her attire. The dolls were an
open edition and marketed for several years.
In 1982, Effanbee created a vinyl portrait doll
limited to no more than 4,220 copies. The 18-inch
Princess Diana Bride doll was available only through
the Effanbee Limited Edition Doll Club. The tiara
and the bouquet are simple approximations of the
real ones, rather than replicas. Lesser known doll
manufacturers also marketed their interpretations of
the young royal bride. Among them were Lady Ann/
Williamsburg Dolls, Signature/Dollspart, and even
London Antiques.
The Danbury Mint, noted for its exquisite Princess
Diana Bride doll, presented a 14-inch vinyl doll
dressed in a long-sleeved pink bolero and matching
gown. This was the introduction to a series of outfits
based on ones worn by Princess Diana and made
available by subscription. Each dress, suit or gown
came on a dress form, with matching accessories
and a descriptive card. The descriptive cards each
carry a photo of the princess, details of the outfit
and its accessories and the most important occasion
on which it was worn. Although the company had
planned for the complete set to number twentyfive garments which included the one on the doll,
the actual number is twenty-seven! In addition, the
Danbury Mint provided a vinyl portfolio in which to
house all the descriptive cards and a red-enameled
metal wardrobe trunk. After the untimely passing of
Princess Diana in 1997, the Danbury Mint decided
to reissue its Royal Wardrobe collection in 1998, but
with fewer fashions.
As various companies introduced their dolls,
two members of the British Doll Artist Association
(BDA), Ellen Bedington and June Rose Gale each
created porcelain and cloth dolls dressed in the
blue suit that Lady Diana wore for the official
announcement of her engagement to the Prince
of Wales. Fellow member Vina Cooke, of the Vina
Cooke Doll Museum, made a lovely Royal Wedding
pair of all-cloth dolls for her museum.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Doll News Summer 2018