TOY DOLL

TOY Doll

TOY DOLL

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

Collectors nowadays prize early dolls of all types, whether made of wood, porcelain, wax or even Celluloid. Except in the case of wooden dolls, these descriptions generally apply only to the head; the body may be of another material, such as composi­tion - a mixture of glue and sawdust or wood pulp. However, dolls of any material that date from before the late 18th or early 19th centuries are extremely rare.

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

Small wooden dolls of the late 18th to mid-19th centuries were often 'inhabitants' of a dolls'.They are usually under 8 in (20 cm) tall and are generally much cheaper than full-sized dolls. A Grodnertal peg doll (named after the region in Germany) of this small kind, complete with original costume, would fetch about £200, a larger doll £6oo-£8oo or more.

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.

TOY DOLL

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.

TOY DOLL

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.