Name Doll

Collecting Wax dolls

For those of you who do not know, I was joint editor of a popular UK doll magazine for 5 years (Kinloch and Sellers Catalogue). This was long before the days of computers. Claire and myself used to do everything by hand. It is my intention to post some of the articles.

The first was written by Claire Kinloch in March 1985 – Issue 38

A short history of wax dolls

Waxed twins – Bethnal Green museum

Waxed dolls were made from the 18th century onwards, but the earliest dolls a collector is likely to come across are the ‘slit heads’, which were made in quantity from the 1820s. These dolls, with their alert, smiling, primitive faces, surrounded by bobbing ringlets, are described as ‘Mad Alices’ by a dealer who is particularly fond of them. The hair is set into a slit on the top of the head, making a centre parting, and roughly glued to an unwaxed papier mache area of the head. Usually the eyes are fixed and of the black pupil less type, but some have early sleeping eyes, with waxed lids, which are operated by pulling a wire which appears discreetly down by the doll’s hips. The other colour used at the time for eyes was a brilliant cornflower blue..

Most early waxed dolls are heavily crazed with hairline cracks, as the heads were made of papier mache or composition (a mixture of sawdust, rags, glue and anything else available), the mixture pressed into a two part mould, and when complete, gessoed or painted with a base coat, and then the features were painted on fairly simply   no fine details such as eyelashes   and then the head dipped in hot wax two or three times until well covered. This wax coating expanded and contracted at a different rate to the composition base and is very rarely found in perfect order.

These heads were sold on cloth bodies, mostly the one piece cotton bodies with long legs and turned in feet. The lower arms were made of leather, and sewn to represent gloves, with fingers and inset thumb. Sometimes all four fingers are present, sometimes only three. The gloves are in various colours, blue, red faded to pink, tan or white. As many of these dolls predate the use of the sewing machine they are handsewn.

Clothes are again handsewn, and the early underclothes are much plainer and simpler than the late ones. Drawers were only just beginning to be worn, and separate leglets are sometimes sewn onto the legs. Several petticoats are usual, flannel, cotton and muslin, with perhaps one or two pintucks for decoration, and deep hems. The dresses are often of muslin, or printed cottons, with dropped sleeves and high waists or pointed waists from about 1830. The material is gathered and shirred finely into the waist and neckline usually low.

Following the slit head came an improved waxed doll, with a wig, waxed lower limbs, and a more child like appearance and larger head. Their arms were also large in proportion to the body, and  they were rather heavier altogether. Clothes became more elaborate, and bonnets and capes and professionally made clothes were seen more often.As the now had proper feet, they could wear proper  shoes, rather than home made slippers and boots.

31 inch waxed doll, Bethnal Green museum

In the 1850s and 60s other types of waxed dolls appeared the Pumpkin headedolls with their blonde waxed hair and black painted Alice bands.They also had cloth bodies but with painted wooden spoon shaped hands and flat orange, blue boots painted on their wooden lower legs.These are flat heeled boots, which dates most dolls, especially the china headed ones, as being 1860s or earlier. The Motschmann baby dolls were copied from the Japanese dolls with their ‘floating’ limbs, and have very different bodies to the others.The jointed wooden arms and legs had realistic hands and feet set loosely in them and  were joined to the torso with unstuffed cotton fabric. The cotton torso was reinforced inside but the whole doll was floppy and moved more like a real baby. The heads looked rather oriental  the Japanese dolls at the 1855 Paris Exhibition created a great impact!

In the 1870s, 80s and 90s, the most commonly found waxed dolls were the German lady dolls, made by Dressel, Schilling & Kestner, but not always easy to identify, as dolls were only just beginning to be marked. The Dressel dolls often have brightly coloured high heeled boots, and while the shoulder heads are waxed, the arms and legs of all these dolls are often composition; only sometimes waxed on the more expensive models.

French Schmitt wax over composition

The German waxed dolls were very pretty dolls, with fixed eyes and closed mouths. The painting of the features was very fine, and they have two tone mouths and well drawn eyelashes. The bodies are of cotton or waxed fabric, and they are usually stuffed with straw or sawdust, often with a squeak box in the torso. The lower legs are sometimes modelled as bare feet and sometimes with boots or shoes. On the earlier dolls, the shoulder plate is quite deep to allow for low necklines, but at the end of the century some of them are very shallow   particularly on the cheap versions, such as the fairy dolls for Christmas trees.

Turning to the poured wax dolls   these also originate in the 18th century, as creche figures and dolls house dolls  ‘beady eyed’ little dolls of very thin wax, with the whole body made of wax and without any moveable limbs. The great era of the wax doll began about the 1850s, when Mme Montanari’s baby dolls at the Great Exhibition were thought to be too lifelike, and therefore not good for children’s  imaginations. These were the elite of dolls,costing around £5 upwards. The hair inserted separately in the scalp or in tiny clumps. Mohair or real hair was used for this purpose. Real hair might also be used for eyebrows, which were varnished to hold them in place, and some dolls also had inserted eyelashes. The eyes were usually fixed, and mouths closed. Many of these dolls predate the use of the sewing machine they are handsewn.

Please visit my antique doll site for more information about dolls

About the Author

Kinloch and Sellers Catalogue 1981-1986

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