OVERVIEW: Merrymakers Garden Princesses

Rose, Lily, Iris, Tulip

Merrymakers are probably best known for their dolls made for museum shops and ones based on books. They have made plush toys and rag dolls from lots of picture books, and their ones for museum shops are often either historical or based on people featured in specific paintings. They have a doll of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, ones made for Colonial Williamsburg, a gorgeous one of an ancient Greek girl that I adore, and I probably have at least six with an ancient Egyptian theme.

I stumbled across the Garden Princess quartet while looking Merrymakers up on ebay. Tulip was for sale mint in her original plastic bag, while Iris was also available. I bought both of them and loved their detailing once they arrived. Tulip had her original tag, so I knew there were two other dolls in the line: Rose and Lily. It took me from March 2015 until now to finally even see Rose and Lily for sale!

I got very lucky when I saw an auction turn up in my Rainbow Brite saved search on ebay. It was for a lot of dolls, amusingly none of which was even Rainbow Brite-related, and there were Rose and Lily! I made an offer on the lot and they arrived today.

The dolls are small, about 9" tall, with cloth bodies and yarn hair. Their printed on faces are each different. The outfits are removable except for the printed on sandals, each featuring the girl's individual flower.

These dolls seem to have originally been sold with books, too. I've seen listings for them on bookstore websites, but I've never seen any of the books. Not even a picture of one! So even though these are only from 2003, it's practically like they never existed, which is a shame, because they're really pretty little rag dolls.

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.