Antique Wooden Articulated Doll

Details

Description

On offer is a doll with 19th-century styling, including a center-parted hairstyle and a hand-painted face. Like a typically smaller … Read more On offer is a doll with 19th-century styling, including a center-parted hairstyle and a hand-painted face. Like a typically smaller “penny wooden” doll, which sold for a penny, and hence the term, she has the classic "peg" jointing at the hips and knees. This allowed for limited movement, which would have delighted our great- and two-times great-grandmothers who wanted to dress them up and set them down for tea. But at fourteen and a half inches long, this one’s a little “taller” than the typical period plaything,
Alternately, her well-endowed figure along with her exaggerated long legs and neck—model proportions surprisingly much like Barbie’s a century later—suggest another purpose. Like Barbie’s five-foot, nine inches height at 110 lbs (and wearing a size 3 shoe, thus toppling over should she come to life), this one’s size and detail also made it more expensive. Such dolls, therefore, were sometimes used as an artist’s mannequin or a milliner’s model to show off the latest styles as she was posed in various displays, rather than a standard child's toy like an average penny wooden doll.
But, on the other hand, the slender, elongated torso is a common trait for "lady" dolls of this period, which were often dressed in elaborate handmade clothing. What stories this doll could tell if only she could talk.
Signature/Maker’s mark: Nonexistent See less