QQ: A Storage Question About Kirsten's Trunk

A Quick Question for Poppets & Posies today. Can Kirsten's Trunk hold both the trundle bed and a sleeping doll? This is the promise given in the catalogs of this treasure from the past, but how does it play out in practice?

Ingabritta has volunteered to be our Houdini to test out the insides of Kirsten's Trunk for storage capacity. She has jumped into the new Playful Polar Bear Pajamas for this experiment.

The trunk pictured is Pleasant Company and the trundle bed is the earlier version as well but possible not as old as the trunk. The red-and-white striped tufted mattress itself is tagged Pleasant Company, but I am unable to verify the age/era of the bed other than the curved top is the older style.

Ingabritta (#56) absolutely fits on top of the trundle bed and mattress with no problem.

The issue seems to be that the poppet's head rises a good inch above the top of the trundle bed's headboard. Already it seems that the lid will not close properly once placed.

Oops! The lid now rests on Ingabritta's head and not the trunk and trundle as designed. The lid rocks back and forth and one can see a considerable gap where it is not closing completely. (Don't worry, I put Ingabritta face down against the tufted mattress so the wooden lid would not scratch the vinyl of her face or nose.)

For contrast, above is the trunk with trundle bed inside--there is no gap. A close up of the same view follows below.

If one *removes* the red-and-white tufted mattress the trundle bed is deep enough to store a Pleasant Company/American Girl doll. However two issues arise from this arrangement. First, the poor doll must rest on the bottom of the wooden bed--this will not harm the doll, but it takes all the magic and fun out of storing and resting a doll in the trundle bed and mattress portion of the trunk. Second, the tufted mattress if removed from the trundle bed now needs to be stored in the limited space below the bed, reducing the available bottom storage area by a full third. 

Another potential issue is if one chooses to store the mattress below the trundle bed is that the mattress must be folded as the 3-compartment arrangement of the bottom area of the trunk does not allow for it to be be stored flat. This may not be an issue for some collectors, but for those looking to preserve Kirsten's items with great care, folding the mattress and storing it in the bottom of the trunk might not be the best option.

So in response to today's QQ (Quick Question), Ingabritta says that technically yes, a poppet can be stored inside of Kirsten's Trunk in the trundle bed, but not in an optimal way. Between the discomfort of the poppet having to lay on mattress-less bed and the loss of storage below to accommodate the dislocated mattress (and all the folding and squishing of the mattress!) the trunk is only moderately useful for doll storage.

Edited to add: I have recently seen other pictures of a doll fitting into the top space *with* the mattress in place. It seems in my case if the mattress was a bit less fluffy that a doll would still just barely squeeze in under the lid, so I am uncertain at this variation as well as why even with a flattened mattress the fit would still be so tight.

Voila! Ingabritta has escaped the trunk safe and sound and plans to sleep on the trundle bed *and* mattress only when they are displayed separately from the trunk and to use the trunk itself for other kinds of storage.

Waiting for Grace: Meet Sari

Happy Saint Lucia's Day (December 13th). My poppet Ingabritia is holding Sari, the doll from Kirsten Larson's collection. 

In Kirsten's Surprise, Kirsten is finally reunited with her beloved rag doll Sari on Saint Lucia's Day. Sari had been packed in a giant trunk for the family's trip overseas from Sweden to their new home in America, but the trunk was not immediately brought to their temporary home at Uncle Olav's farm.

The Sari doll body is made entirely of cloth and soft batting and is very light and squishy. Her face is made with a few simple stitches of colored thread and her hair with braided yellow yarn.

While the dress hems are sewn, Sari's shawl and bottom edge of her apron are left unhemmed and the loose edges made to look like fringe. Her shawl appears to have been glued into place (I do not want to pry it up to look underneath for any stitches). For these reasons this rag doll is best as a prop or display rather than heavy play.

While Sari's cloth body is a light off-white color, her feet are made in a contrasting red fabric, giving her the appearance of wearing red stocking or red boots depending on your imagination. This feature alone delights me to no end for its simplicity as well as for its range of open interpretation in play.

The Sari doll is an easy to overlook accessory from Kirsten's world, especially considering the original price in the Pleasant Company catalogs was $16 for this tiny cloth doll. However, that price looked like a bargain after questing for a Sari doll in pristine condition this summer. Since the face is hinted at with so few stitches of the embroidery needle I was particularly interested in finding a Sari with a symmetrical face and eyes. 

I love this little piece of Kirsten's world because of how the story of Sari captures the love of a girl and her doll. It was never a matter of how expensive or fancy the doll was--Kirsten played with real dedication even with her substitute straw doll--but about the story telling and bond created through playing together.