This item has a great back story from the consignor Cecil Munsey, author of "Disneyana" the first definitive book on Disney collectibles (see copy signed by him #1604). These well-crafted 21" dolls were made using the 1932-1939 Charlotte Clark-designed, Disney-approved McCall pattern #91. The story, as related to us by Cecil and further detailed in his book is as follows: In 1973, while spending the summer in Burbank at the Disney archives researching for the Disneyana book, Munsey interviewed a number of people including Bob Clampett who was one of the pioneers of American animation and involved in the design of the first Mickey Mouse doll for Walt Disney. According to Bob, when he was 14 years old (1930) he was asked by his neighbor Charlotte Clark to sketch a picture of Mickey Mouse. Charlotte had been asked by Walt Disney to make a Mickey doll. Charlotte and Bob supposedly made the first doll together. The dolls at the start were hand-made and Bob was also hired to stuff the dolls which was done at a house near the studio rented by Roy Disney. Bob earned 30¢ per doll. Charlotte couldn't keep up with the demand for these dolls and the companies Walt hired to make them commercially couldn't either. It was decided to release Charlotte's pattern for the dolls to the public and let them make their own with whatever materials were on hand, hence McCall pattern #91. Cecil's connection to Bob lead Bob to sell this set to him. A combination of high quality material was used to produce these dolls with great attention to detail. This includes Mickey who has an ascot, mother-of-pearl buttons and Minnie who has flower attached to hat, eyelashes. Both have long tails with wire inserts for posing. Each shows just very light aging, mostly to white areas of the faces which do have some small faint stains but not very distracting. Slight color fade on Mickey's ascot. VF. The nicest pattern dolls we've ever seen. A superb set of dolls enhanced by their connection to Clampett and Munsey. Comes with COA signed by Cecil Munsey and Ted Hake.