I'll admit it: I love old dolls. Yes, they're glimpses into the everyday past as well as fashion, and often beautifully crafted, but what I like best is knowing that they were the confidantes of some long-ago little girl (or girls.)
Dolls were partners in games and theatrics, allies in wars with obstreperous brothers, and comforting friends to keep away monsters in the dark at night. Although they were outgrown and put aside, they're still survivors, and all those whispered secrets and pretend experiences imbue them with a special aura ordinary antiques just don't have. They're powerful with little-girl magic.
Yeah, a little woo-woo, I know. But when I saw (or met?) this elegant doll in the study drawers of Colonial Williamsburg's costume and textile department earlier this summer, I couldn't help but imagine the special place she must have held in at least one girl's imagination. She must have been an expensive plaything for a privileged girl, and she has miraculously kept her elaborate wardrobe over the centuries, down to her tiny brocade shoes, lower left. (Click on the photos to enlarge them for details.)
Here's the CW's catalogue description:
"This large doll is beautifully carved, gessoed, and painted, and represents the best of doll production in the eighteenth century. The doll retains her original clothing, complete with the underwear out, fastened in place with sixteen period straight pins with wrapped heads, just as a grown woman would fasten her clothing. The doll's first layer is a white linen shift with knee-length skirt, underarm gussets and a low neckline trimmed with a ruffled that showed above the gown.
"A pair of stays is worn over the shift, closely fitting the doll's fashionably shaped torso, with its small waist, bosom flattened and pushed upwards, shoulders placed well back, and flat shoulder blades - a shape resulting from girls wearing stays since childhood. A quilted petticoat, pleated to a tape waistband and backed with striped worsted, is tied over the shift and stays. The silk gown has a bodice opened at the front to show off the stomacher (in this instance made as one with the stays). Cuffs have removable white sleeve ruffles at the elbows. The skirt is opened at the front to reveal the petticoat. The doll wears knitted stockings that reach above the knees, held in place by ribbon garters tied around the upper leg. Accessories include a silk apron (possibly a later addition), square handkerchief, kid mitts, and a white linen ruffled cap."
It's an impressive wardrobe. I only wish she could talk....
Many thanks to Linda Baumgarten, Jan Gilliam, and Christina Westenberger for "opening the drawers" of the collection for me, and for their assistance with this post.
Above: Doll and original clothing, Great Britain or Europe, 1740-1760, Collection, Colonial Williamsburg. Photographs by Susan Holloway Scott with permission of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
One of us -- 
9 comments:
Not to take away from the little girl magic, but I wonder if this could be a fashion doll (poupee) intended to show the latest fashions in clothes?
Dee
I, too, wondered if it might be a fashion doll, but lovely as the clothing is, I don't think it has that fashion look so much as an everyday look... my gut instinct is that it's a plaything not a fashion poupee. I've been collecting dolls as long as I can remember - nothing of that vintage, alas - and reading about them too, so I hope my instinct is correct ....
My first instinct was also a fashion doll. AS a toy it must have belonged to a very rich girl . If all the clothes are in good order, I would wonder if it ever was told secrets or treated as a friend. Some girls can keep dolls looking band box new but rarely if they are loving it and carrying it around. It sounds like a display doll rather than one in which to confide secrets.
in which case it was probably the sort of doll the poor child was only allowed to have out to look at on Sundays. Or it might have been that she was expected to learn sewing by dressing it, in which case it may have been more of a schoolroom item than a toy. It's certainly not well cuddled.
One could, however, equally hypothesise that it was bought for a wealthy but sick child, who was too ill to do more than have it lay beside her on her bed, where she may have died... I have too much imagination though.
My first thought was that she was a fashion doll, too. However, the clues are apparently in her clothing. Dolls meant as toys were usually sold undressed, then dressed at home or professionally by a mantua-maker or milliner. As elegant as this doll's clothes are (particularly the accessories), the dress and petticoat are pieced together from different, albeit expensive, scraps of cloth. That "color blocking" looks very contemporary now, but it wouldn't have sold many dresses in the 18thc. Makes you wonder if she began life as a fashion model, and became a plaything....
As for her not being worn enough to be toy: just from the casual observations of my daughter's friends, some girls totally trash their dolls, while others keep every tiny Barbie shoe pristine. Doesn't mean they don't love them, just a matter of each girl's habits.
I agree that she may have been some girl's specially well-treated plaything. Girls of the era were probably trained from early on to care for their belongings -even well to do children seldom owned many toys, and if a child damaged a toy through carelessness, a responsible parent would not replace it for fear of encouraging thoughtless behavior.
Not in the same class, of course, but I've have a Vermont Maid maple syrup doll for maybe 50(?) years, and she is in fine shape except I lost her shoes somewhere along the way. I tend to think this type of doll is not cuddled the way soft dolls are.
All my teenage dolls suffered from having historical hairstyles forced upon them. And being ruthlessly dressed.
Susan, have you been to the Shelburne Museum in Vermont? They have an extremely large collection of dolls which have been restored/curated very well. If you are ever up in New England, I highly recommend it. (And the rest of the enormous museum collection too, of course.)
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