In TV writing the writers are constrained. They have an outline, but many details change. We did not see the shawl in Desperate souls or when Bae went in the portal. It took all the way to Manhattan for us to see the backstory, and we were merely told that it had been Bae’s when in the Outsider Rumpel dumped potion on it. They did not go back to a prop we saw in the season 1 scenes.
Also they could not use the shawl as it was in Rumpel’s hands minutes before Henry is kidnapped. The idea is this is an object that PP has had that Rumpel has not seen in a long time. The ball may not have seemed unique enough, and the story of how this toy came to be might have tempted them to sacrifice the foreshadowing of the object as it did with the shawl.
Also, I had this thought–what if Rumpel taught Bae how to make a doll, and this doll is one Neal made for Henry in SB? Rumpel would not have seen it before but he would recognize the style of the toy. Rumpel goes from smashing things to carefully placing the chipped cup away when grieving Belle. I feel he goes from kill mode to weepy in a parallel here. It is not that he is reminded of some other trauma, but it changes his mood.
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” -- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass