Mystery Dolls From The 1800s:
Update
One Mystery Solved!
Last week's article was about several very old "mystery" antique dolls about which little was known.
In
an incredible coincidence, I FOUND some answers about some of these dolls this
weekend. While in a Borders bookstore, I picked up a book called
"Dolls, A Collectors Guide" which was written by Olivia Bristol, an
associate director of Christies Auction house, and head of the Doll and Teddy
Bear Department there. I had not seen this book previously. The book
jacket said the book contained "photos of many dolls never before seen in
print." Well, somewhat skeptically (after all, I DO own slightly over
200 books about dolls at last count) I picked up the book to see if there was
anything interesting in it.
Well, on page 46 in the "Early Wax" category, was a picture of an excellent example of one of my little wax mystery dolls! I couldn't believe it! This was DEFINITELY the same type of doll that my wax dolls were, in a similar costume (although the picture of the doll in the book shows their doll to be in much better condition than mine).
Trying not to jump to conclusions, I read the entire entry about the doll. The book said that "a common material for early wax dolls was beeswax, which was either melted down and pored into a mold, or simply carved, giving the yellowy tint seen in the face of this figure, made c. 1795 (um, wow, I had NO idea these dolls were that old; makes them the oldest in my collection). The book continued: "The fact that beeswax was expensive is reflected in the small size of his head (MY wax dolls have similarly sized tiny heads). "His hands are also made of wax...his body of cloth." (a match here, too--although the hands are off one of my dolls, and the largest one pictured above seems to have wooden replacements, one of my set has the same wax hands as does the book example, and they all have cloth bodies with some sort of metal wire ).
Book goes on: "Typically For early wax dolls, he has black bead eyes" (by this time, I know I have a match--yup, black bead eyes in my wax dolls, too!).
And, this was the most interesting part. In
the original article, I speculate that perhaps the dolls were some type of crèche
figures because of the elaborate Eastern-look costumes. Well, my
speculation was incorrect! The doll in the book is "dressed in
a very elaborate Turkish costume of the type that was
fashionable in the late 18th century." Turkish costumes--I would
never have figured that out otherwise, but that could be what my wax dolls are
wearing! And, like the doll in the book, my dolls have metallic trim on
their costumes. There are even similar sequin-type trims on the headdress of the
doll in the book and the enlarged photo of my doll, shown on the left
above. The dolls are small--10" in the book, which is a bit
larger than my dolls. The largest of my wax dolls, with headdress, is
8").
Mystery solved, and some good, interesting information on these intriguing dolls found! Although the book lists the value of this sort of doll to be $1,000 to $2,000, the doll in the book is clearly in amazing condition, and my dolls, well, LOOK like they have been around for over 200 years. However, I paid only about $150 for each of my dolls, which, for their antiquity and rareness, seems like quite a bargain to me now!
Read the Full Article on Mystery Dolls
What do you think of mysterious
antique dolls, and do you have any favorite mystery dolls in your
collection? Discuss in the Dolls Forum!
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©Denise Van Patten 2000
All Rights Reserved.
