Swivel Head Dolls. A Swivel Head is a variation of the Shoulder Head. It has a head and shoulder plate but the neck area is divided. The neck of the head ends in a ball shape which fits into a cup cast into the neck area and plate. The two pieces are usually held together by a metal bar which runs from the head down into the body. The cup is usually lined with kid to prevent rubbing and scuff marks on the neck end of the head and to ensure a smooth movement. Reference: Understanding Dolls by Caroline G Goodfellow.

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Wooden dolls are probably some of the earliest examples of dolls. “Paddle Dolls” are some of the earliest, found in the tombs at Egypt. These “Paddle Dolls” were not likely to have been made for children but were more fertility items. Wooden dolls more likely to be collected by doll collectors are the wooden dolls often referred to as Dutch dolls.

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From the earliest of times, poor children would play with bundles of rags tied with string to form a crude head and body. Wealthy children would have played with more elaborate cloth dolls made of superior fabrics.

Many early cloth dolls have not survived due to their short life spans. Once dirty or damaged many would have been discarded. Most surviving rag dolls date from after the last quarter of the 19th century.

Commercially-made fabric dolls began to be produced in larger numbers during the 19th century. Madam Montanari, a notable wax doll maker, is recorded as winning a prize for a cloth doll at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851.

In the first half of the 20th century, cloth dolls became very popular, sometimes with papier mâché heads, but more often with faces made from pressed felt or stiffened buckram. Companies including Chad Valley, Dean’s Rag Book Co and Norah Wellings produced thousands of fabric dolls. Although they were lovely dolls, the drawbacks were that they couldn’t be washed and moths liked them so they slowly disintegrated.

In Italy, fabric was used to make expensive ornamental dolls primarily intended for adults. Lenci pioneered the art doll during the 1920’s These elaborately dressed dolls epitomize 1920’s elegance.

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The majority of china / parian dolls were German and were exported in large numbers from the early 1800’s up until World War I.

Colors of china head dolls

The most common china head dolls are white. Creamy white are finer and the rarest ones are made from a pink china, which is really a delicate flesh colour known as pink lustre.

The white and cream colour dolls often have homemade bodies as well as professionally made bodies of cloth or kid. Some have china arms and legs but some of the very fine ones have kid arms and legs, with the fingers and toes indicated by stitching. The larger ones may have kid hands with fingers which are separate and distinct.

China Doll Shoes

The shoes are an excellent way to help identify the age. Flat soled shoes are more likely to date before 1850 whereas shoes which have a definite heel would be after 1850.

Identifying age of doll from the head

Dolls heads which were made prior to 1860 were not marked and records are often lost. After 1860 it is possible to identify some heads even if they are unmarked by comparing them with later identical doll heads which do have marks. Hair styles are also an indication of age but it should be noted that old molds were often used.

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Dolls have been played with by children from all over the world for centuries. This page shows some of the dolls found from all cultures around the world.

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Before newspapers and mechanical means of printing, the French used their large  dolls to advertise the latest fashions. The doll was used to popularize French fashion abroad. From the 14th century, elaborately outfitted dolls were sent from France to all the courts of Europe, so that royal ladies could have the latest fashions copied right down to the last detail, including the underwear. The clothes would be an exact copy of what the most fashionable ladies would be wearing including the hair. These fashion dolls were considered so important that even wars could not stop them from being dispatched and special passes were given to ships carrying them. These dolls were mainly life size although a few were half life size.

When Henry IV of France was about to marry Marie de Medici as his second wife, he sent her several model dolls “as samples of our fashions”, presumably to impress her with the desirability of life at the French court.

The great age of the Fashion doll was the eighteenth century, when European travel became freer, and numerous small continental courts sprang up and flourished, with consequent demands upon the wardrobes of their great ladies. It became the fashion for ladies to own a pair of dolls, one dressed en grand toilette, and the other en déshabille Pandore respectively, and were the subject of every extravagant whim of stylish dressing: hats, dresses, shoes, elaborate hair-styles and a great deal of miniature beads and jewellery.

These Pandoras were sent out by French fashion houses to England, Germany, Spain and Italy in order to exhibit the details of their dress, and sometimes for the details of their coiffure alone.

As their importance grew, the Pandoras came to be known as “poupées de la Rue de Saint-Hororé, or even les grands courriers de la mode.

In 1790, the English invented a new type of Fashion doll, whose popularity lasted throughout the 19th century. It was the flat card or stiffened paper doll figure, onto which could be attached a series of different dresses. Originally they were made about eight inches high and sold for about three shillings, which made them far more economical than the elaborate life-size figures.

The later French doll, now known as a “French fashion doll”, had nothing to do with publicising of French fashions abroad but was just a beautiful, luxury doll, although sometimes it may have been used for display in shop windows.

Between 1955 and 1964, a German company called Bild-Zeitung produced a fashion doll based on a cartoon character, called Lilli. The doll was named the Bild Lilli Doll. It was this doll which inspired an American business woman, Ruth Handler, to create the Barbie doll for Mattel, Inc. It was when Mattel acquired the rights to the Bild Lilli doll in 1964, that Lilli stopped being produced.

In 1963, a rival to Barbie sprung up in the UK. She was called Sindy and was the product of Pedigree Dolls & Toys. Between 1968 to 1970, Sindy was the best selling toy in the UK which was partly due to her “girl next door” look. However, when attempts were made to introduce her to the American market, she was changed to look more American and it was hard to compete with the already successful Barbie. Sindy was relaunched in the UK in 1999.

In 1964 the first Palitoy product to be promoted on TV was “Tressy”, the twelve inch teenage fashion doll. She came with a special key which when pushed into her back, enabled her hair to grow or withdraw at will. Her retail price was 30 shillings. Tressy came in various hair colourings including dark brown, platinum blonde and beige with “secret strands of matching hair to lengthen or shorten, to provide different hairstyles”. The doll was sli and attractive with head and arms of hard vinyl, dressed in a sleeveless shift dress of cotton jersey in lemon or turquoise. Tressy soon acquired a young sister called “Toots” with the same growing hair mechanism. She came only with beige hair and wore a pretty white ballet outfit.

In 2001, MGA Entertainment created the Bratz fashion dolls. They have become a rival for Barbie.

References:

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Bisque, sometimes known as biscuit, is an unglazed porcelain or earthenware which has been fired only twice. During the refiring, the features are tinted and refired at a lower temperature. This technique resulted in very realistic faces. Porcelain or bisque doll kits can still be purchased and some are still made from the old molds. These kits are ideal for doll artists who wish to recreate the beautiful dolls of the past. These can be tinted or left white for the doll artist to paint themselves. Bisque dolls were extremely popular from the mid 19th century and into the 20th. Bisque dolls are still made but are now for collectors and not for children.

The most beautiful antique bisque dolls were those made in France. Some of the most desirable of French doll makers were Juneau, Bru, Gaultier and Steiner.

A popular type of doll made in France was the “bebe”. Although their name of “bebes”, or “bébés”, tended to mean baby doll, “bebes” were actually dolls which represented infants to children of around 8 years old.

Germany also produced many bisque dolls and although many of these are excellent and very collectible, they are not as exquisite as the French dolls. However, the German dolls were cheaper than the French dolls and thus, provided competition for the French doll market.

Popular German doll makers included Simon & Halbig who made many porcelain doll heads, many of these were on doll bodies made by Kammer & Reinhardt. These two companies eventually merged. Armand Marseille made many bisque dolls.

Due to the German doll competition, the French doll makers formed a consortium, the Société Francaise de Fabrication des Bébés et Jouets (SFBJ).

References:

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