This is Maya!  Maya is a very early Sasha studio doll from my personal collection that I am offering for sale.  Maya is a very early studio doll dating from the 1940's.   

She is a book piece and  was featured in the absolutely wonderful Sasha Dolls book by Anne Votaw, Anne Chandler and Susanna Lewis on page 26.

She was one of the first that Sasha created with a full body in gypsum and her face is classified to closely being a "BII " although as you can see, she truly is not a "BII" doll as compared with the final 1940's BII facemask shown in the book on page 129.  Maya has larger eyes that are actually molded; closer to the face IV shown on the same page.   

 She was really a developmental facemold that would become the BII we are much more familiar with.  According to the book, Sasha was continually changing the facemolds at this point and another has not been found with this facemold on a full gypsum body. (Here she is with bangs swept to the side)

I was uncertain as to whether her crudely made jumper and shirt were original to her, but Anne stated that it was, and she had confirmed it with a Morgenthaler family member, that the stitches were most certainly Sasha's.  Sasha was not a really skilled seamstress and would eventually leave that task to others.  In fact, the snaps on the side of the jumper have been sewn on somewhat backwards and were not corrected! 

Maya has very dark "skin" -darker than what is really shown in the book and vivid blue eyes.  Her features are all original to her without any touch up.  She is numbered in pencil on her body and signed on the bottom of her foot with a stamp as described in the book. 

Several years ago, I had Jean Jensen make shoes especially for Maya and I was able to track down a 1940's human hair doll with of good quality that fits her perfectly, and I believe is close to her original color.  I have set it in a 1940's little girl style and have adhered it loosely to her head (not using a harsh, tight glue).   With her chunky, thick body, she perfectly represents a very young child.

No other doll in the 1940's was made in this way - a doll with very dark skin and blue eyes.  At the end of the war, Sasha was working with placing Jewish war orphans.  She had seen the suffering that humanity could inflict on one another because of race and it must have pained her.  Creating a doll with very dark skin and blue eyes in Europe in the 1940's was a daring thing to do in the shadow of the Third Reich's  agenda but clearly something Sasha chose to do to express her position on the beauty of all children. 

  Maya truly represents something VERY special in the art world. 

She was VERY well loved by a child in a Swiss or Austrian nursery years ago and she bears some battle scars.   I have not touched her feature paint at all, but I did a few minor structural repairs to her.   I purchased her directly from Austria nearly a decade ago; in as found condition; unstrung, no wig, etc  and I have been her owner since then.  

Fortunately, because the early gypsum itself was flawed with pocks and dents from the factory before it was painted over originally, these dings seem not to matter as much.  On the inside of one arm, she had some missing gypsum so I filled that years ago with a wood filler and sanded it and it has held perfectly.  Fortunately it was not of a part that had anything to do with holding the hook in; it was at the edge.  In places her original outfit has some very light brown age dots that are small - I think these would come out with a washing and sunning but I never bothered with them; they are also on her original one piece underwear.

I restrung her loose enough to be safe and tight enough to stand.  Her inner joint sockets  are lined with felt as was common for these dolls. 

A small ding on the end of her nose has been concealed as have a couple of places on her arms or legs.  On the back of one leg, she had sustained a really bad bruise which I smoothed over with wood filler and painted.  The paint is not an exact match but fortunately it is in the back. 

Fortunately these dolls are not like composition.  Gypsum is almost like cement and she is a very heavy and "rock solid" doll.  The damage sustained has not been from storage or time, but from being played with very hard years ago and they will not further deteriorate like some of the early hard plastic dolls that split, etc

Maya is truly not just any ordinary studio doll.  She was made so very early in the development stage of what we would later know to be the "classic' studio doll that she is really a prototype of sorts. 

It was difficult to get actual color accuracy when photographing because of the light and the sheen on the surface.  The photograph in the Sasha Dolls book when compared is lighter.  In reality, she is more of a chocolate brown than is shown.  

Additional photos available.

(Depending on your Paypal and Ebay settings, Paypal may give you 6 to 24 months to pay interest free on this purchase)   https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/credit-ezp-ebay? 

She will be shipped Express Mail overnight or Express Mail international and will be double boxed.

I have sold Sasha dolls since 1992 and she is truly very special! 

Photos show:

 Right arm filled pocks

 Left arm filled mainly interior 

 upper thigh and lower calf patches both in the back

Inner arm patch-(one dab of paint rubbed from being in the joint)

Original one piece underwear with rick rack trim.