Sasha dolls are charming, vinyl dolls which were originally created by Sasha Morgenthaler. Sasha Morgenthaler was born in 1893 in Berne, Switzerland and died in 1975.

She trained as an artist in Geneva and Oschwand, but after marrying Ernst Morgenthaler in 1916 she turned to sculpture. Eventually in the 1940s the first Studio Sasha dolls were created and from these dolls emerged the Gotz and Trendon Sashas with whom most people are more familiar.

Frau Morgenthaler continued to make the studio dolls until her death in 1975, and such one-off dolls are now highly collectable and very valuable.

There are three periods of factory made Sasha dolls. In 1964 Sasha Morgenthaler signed a license with Puppenfabrik Hans Gotz in Germany, and this factory made Sasha dolls until 1970. A license was also signed with Frido Ltd in Stockport in 1965, and Frido Ltd continued to make the dolls known as Trendon factory Sashas until the factory's closure in 1986. Finally Gotz again received a license to make Sasha dolls in 1994, and continued to make them until 2001.

Sasha dolls come in three sizes, 12 inch baby, 13 inch toddler and 16.5 inch - 17 inch child sized doll. The factory made babies were first issued by the Trendon factory in 1970 and then by the Gotz factory from 1994. The Trendon factory also created toddlers in the final year of production but these were never issued so the only factory made toddlers you will see on sale were made by Gotz. The child sized dolls were made by all three productions.

The photo below shows a number of Trendon Sasha dolls from my own childhood collection. These are all from the 1970s; the red haired doll and black girl are late 70s and the others are early 1970s.

Sasha dolls come in different skin colours - there are black dolls as well as the brown vinyl dolls and Gotz produced some fair skinned dolls in the final production. There are also a number of different hair colours - black, brunette, blonde, honey blonde and red. Both boy and girl dolls are available in all sizes. Some Sasha dolls are much rarer than others so it pays to do your homework before purchasing one. If buying your first Sasha doll it is better to buy from a reputable dealer than attempting to purchase from eBay which can be risky.

Sasha dolls can be dated by studying string colours, face painting, clothing (if available) and doll size - the no-philtrum dolls produced in 1966 are about an inch smaller than the early 70's Sasha dolls and the later Trendon dolls are slightly bigger. The best thing to do if you want to date and value your Sasha doll is to ask the experts which can be done by joining one of the three Sasha doll mailing lists at Yahoo groups.

One of the best things about Sasha dolls is that they are wonderful to dress. The 16" child sized dolls can wear the same clothes as Magic Attic and Kathe Kruse play dolls, and also are similar in size to some Natterer dolls.

Many knitting, crochet and sewing patterns are available and more are produced regularly. Although Sashas are no longer made there is a thriving collector's market and prices are slowly going up, but with dolls starting at around £80 - £100 sterling in the UK they are still affordable play dolls.

Sasha doll collectors' mailing lists
Sasha-L
Sasha Mart (the most active of the three)
Sasha Dolls

Online doll shops
Nancy Miller's Let's Play Dolls (USA)
Kelly's Site (USA)
Ruth's Dolls (UK)

General sites
Susanna Lewis's Site
Sasha-Dolls

Gillian Buchanan's BellaOnline site
Knitting at BellaOnline