Whether
you collect them for their craftsmanship or beauty, their fine
clothes or delicate features, the special charm of antique dolls
comes from the fact that they were once the beloved companions of
children of the past.iniature
figurines
have been made in various parts of the world for many thousands of
years. The earliest almost always had a religious significance
and were hardly dolls in the modern sense. But dolls as children's
play things can be traced back to the ancient Greeks of 3000
bc. Some
examples from this period have survived because they were buried
with girls who had died in childhood.
TOY DOLL |
WOODEN
TOY DOLL
The
value of late 17th and early i8th-century wooden dolls (later called
'peg' dolls because the limbs were pegged together to allow them to
move) has soared over the past few decades, thanks to their rarity.
In 1974, two William and Mary wooden dolls sold at auction for
£16,000, but in 1991 a single doll of similar type fetched £71,500.
TOY DOLL |
PAPIER-MACHE
AND WAX TOY DOLL
During
the first half of the 19th century, dolls with a papier-mache head
and a kid, cloth or wooden body were produced in France and Germany.
The features are less attractive than those of porcelain dolls, and
the eyes painted rather than made of glass. Like early wooden dolls,
they require special care to protect the delicate top layer of paint
and gesso. It is possibly because of their fragility that
the market for these dolls is small, although prices have risen
steadily.
A
papier- mache doll in good condition with unusual moulded hairstyle
and authentic clothes may now fetch £1000. Dolls from the 1840s are
sometimes sold for as little as £200, hut often the clothes are not
contemporary or the paint on the face is slightly crazed.
The
most valuable wax dolls are of the 'poured wax' type, with the head
moulded from liquid wax. In contrast, 'waxed papier- mache' and
'waxed composition' dolls are finished with a layer of wax over
papier-mache or composition. In so-called 'pumpkin-head' dolls, the
wax layer extends to the hair, piled up in pumpkin-like mounds.
Some
i8th-century English wax toy dolls can still he found, hut seldom in
good condition. Nineteenth-century dolls are much more common.
They
were made in large numbers in both England and Germany by makers such
as Madame Montanari, Edwards, Pierotti, and the Meech and Marsh
families. Unfortunately few dolls were stamped with their
maker's mark, so identification is difficult. Auction
prices for wax dolls have fluctuated over the past few years,
with the poured wax type becoming increasingly popular.
Today,
a poured wax doll dressed in authentic clothes can fetch £800, or
over £1000 if the clothes are particularly fine. Other wax dolls
have not kept up with inflation and can he found for as little as
£80.
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