Look at my treasures!

Joy Reis has five little dolls.

The Tiny Town Dolls, which were sold at The White House, a department store in San Francisco, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, were created by Alma LeBlanc.

Reis’ father worked for LeBlanc. A tool-and-die-maker by trade, Reis’ father cast the doll’s feet, which were made of lead, in his basement hobby shop. Molten lead was poured into a die. When it cooled, the feet were removed.

Reis was given the job of inserting a pipe cleaner into the die. Lead was poured around the pipe cleaner to create the tiny foot.

Flesh-colored thread was then wrapped around what would become the leg of the doll and the finished product was delivered to the doll maker.

“She was fascinating to me,” Reis said, about LeBlanc. “I had never heard anyone with a French accent.”

There were 34 dolls in the Tiny Town set, and Reis originally had one of each.

Over the years, Reis gave some of the dolls as gifts to family members and to her children. Now, there are only five remaining. Four are displayed, in their original boxes in her china cabinet. The fifth, a little “artist,” complete with smock and painter’s palette, lives in Reis’ art studio.

“I dabble in watercolors in a room my husband made, and I keep that doll down there with me,” Reis said. “She’s my inspiration.”