Mastery of Design: A Doll's Earrings, 1690-1700

Earrings made for the Lady Clapham Doll
England, 1690-1700
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This set of mismatched earrings belonged to a doll.  The Lady Clapham doll--the be exact.  The Lord and Lady Clapham Dolls were made in the Seventeenth Century for the Cockerell Family--descendants of the famed diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) who first recorded Mr. Punch's presence in Covent Garden.


The dolls were outfitted with complete wardrobes and furnishings befitting full-size nobility.  Among Lady Clapham's accessories were these earrings.  The stud is made of brass and backed in silver while the more formal drop is a paste set in a silver mount.

The Home Beautiful: The Thomas Risley Doll's House, 1889

Doll's House
Assembled in 1889 by one Thomas Risley
Possibly from a kit by an unknown model co.
Click to enlarge the image
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Made by Thomas Risley in 1889 possibly from a kit, this villa puts me in mind of Queen Victoria’s Osborne House, though it is a doll’s house. This beauty is rendered in the style of a brick house which would have been quite the fashion about 1860—with a glass conservatory and coach house on each side.

When we hear the words “doll’s house,” we automatically imagine that this was made to be a child’s plaything. But, not. This was not for a child. It’s far too fragile. This was meant as a collectible pursuit and a hobby for an adult, and quite probably for a male with an interest in architecture and design.

Made of wood, it is painted a deep cream, with a striped yellow and white awning over the front entrance. The coach house has been made to look as if it is a brick structure, and the conservatory is constructed of real glass. A set of railings with two gates run around the front of the house. 

Ephemeral Beauty: Another Spooky McLaughlin's Paper Doll

The McLaughlin’s Coffee people wanted to capture the attention of their Nineteenth Century clientele and, so, they produced a series of paper dolls with detachable heads and swap-able bodies. We’ve looked at some from my collection before. 

After a century, many of them have donned a patina which gives them a rather spooky look which I find particularly charming. This one is, in my estimation, the spookiest of the lot.

On the reverse, she says the same thing that her scary sisters say:

16 DOLLS IN THIS SET 

.4 Baby Dolls.

..4 Girl Dolls.. 

...4 Boy Dolls... 

..4 Mamma Dolls.. 

THE HEADS COME OFF 

YOU CAN DRESS AN UN- 

DRESS THEM AS YOU PLEASE. 

SECURE THE WHOLE FAMILY. 

One Doll in Every Package of 

McLaughlin’s 

XXXX COFFEE 

Ephemeral Beauty: A McLaughlin’s Coffee Paper Doll, c. 1890

"One of us.  One of us.  One of us.  One of us.  One of us."

Click on image to see what puts the fourth X in McLaughlin's XXXX Coffee.

This spoooooooky young lady with her glasses and her Audra Lindley curls is happily whipping up a little snack for you. Oh, and, her head comes off.

Thankfully for her, her arms are attached to her head. But, curiously, not to her frying pan.

Clearly, she’s a paper doll. She was part of a pretty clever ad campaign from the late Nineteenth Century for McLaughlin’s XXXX Coffee. I wonder what gave it the extra “x.” It must be because of the detachable head.

So…

McLaughlin’s had sixteen little, flat doll bodies with detachable heads which it offered as a premium. The idea was that you could swap their little heads around and put them in different outfits which folded over the heads. Most heads had arms, too, so that the figures could “hold” things and make flapjacks or something. The reverse of each was printed with some variation of the following--odd, random, incomplete ellipses and all:

16 DOLLS IN THIS SET 

.4 Baby Dolls.

..4 Girl Dolls.. 

...4 Boy Dolls... 

..4 Mamma Dolls.. 

THE HEADS COME OFF 

YOU CAN DRESS AN UN- 

DRESS THEM AS YOU PLEASE. 

SECURE THE WHOLE FAMILY. 

One Doll in Every Package of 

McLaughlin’s 

XXXX COFFEE 

What? No Papa Dolls? Hmph.

Since I’m told that I can dress and undress them as I please, I’d best get busy…  Just don't be surprised if you see some paper dolls in the next few days dressed like Wayland Flowers and Madame.  Or...Shirley Jones.  Or...Dick Gautier.  You know, the greats...

Oh!  Wait!  Elizabeth Montgomery and Agnes Moorehead!

Because that's what I please.

The Art of Play: The Eleanor Lloyd Doll, “Amelia Ann”, 1955-65

Composition Doll (left) in hand-sewn uniform, 1955-65
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Here we see two dolls which once belonged to one Eleanor Lloyd and her sister. Let’s take a look at the blonde.

She has been dressed in the image of her owner.  Eleanor Lloyd, along with her sister were active in the Brownies and Guides respectively.  The girls hand-sewed outfits for their dolls to look like them in their uniforms.

In making the outfit for her doll,  young Eleanor demonstrated great attention to detail, recreating her uniform exactly and even hand-embroidered skill badges including “the hostess badge”, “the pony rider badge” and the “first aid badge”—all badges which Eleanor herself had attained.

Eleanor called the doll “Amelia-Ann” and pretended that her little stiff friend belonged to the same pack that Eleanor attended—“The Gnomes.”  This is identifiable from the badge on Amelia Anne’s left arm.

Amelia Ann is a doll of composition. Her hair has been cut in to a stubby fringe with shoulder-length waves. She has red-painted finger nails and lips, a jointed neck, upper-arm and leg sockets.

To make matters more exciting for Eleanor, the doll is a “walking/talking” model and the head moves from side to side as the leg joints are moved to mimic walking. Sadly, “Amelia Ann’s” voice box has been broken and covered over with a “plaster” as if she were really suffering from some illness.

The Art of Play: Queen Anne and her Children Doll Group, 1835-1850

Queen Anne and her Children
1835-1850
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Since the Eighteenth Century, wealthy families—especially the English—had a distinct love of enlcosing decorative artifacts in glass-fronted frames and boxes. This paractice reached the height of fashion in the 1850s.

Aside from souvenirs, artifacts, religious relics, personal items and memorials, these cases often held delicate playthings such as this group of dolls which is housed in the Victoria & Albert Museum. The name of this group of dolls is “Queen Anne and her Children” which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and has long been considered rather mysterious.

As the curators of the V&A put it, “Queen Anne (reigned 1702-1714) had such a tragic experience of motherhood.” The group of dolls shows three adult females in addition to the queen. Even if the three additional figures are ladies in waiting, or the governesses of the Queen’s young children, at no point did Queen Anne have children who survived to the ages represented here.

Queen Anne married Prince George of Denmark in 1683 and had at least thirteen miscarriages or stillbirths. Five surviving children each died young - Mary and Anne under the age of two, and George and a second Mary a few hours after birth. The longest surviving of her children, William, died of smallpox in 1700, at the age of eleven.

Another mystery is the figure of the queen herself. The doll is fair-haired whereas Queen Anne was dark. Similarly, the costumes are from 1835-50, rather than 1684-1700 when the Queen was at her height. While this may be artistic license such as that of painters like Charles Robert Leslie, the queer costumes are hard to overlook. And so, the group does not match its historical counterparts at all. Why it is so named, no one knows. Yet, the name has stuck for almost two hundred years.

The group of dolls—eight in all—rests in its original fronted wooden box which is covered with white and gold-colored paper and lined with red and gold paper. The whole is trimmed with gold tinsel and imitation pearl ornaments. The dolls have cotton bodies and limbs, and leather hands with separate fingers and thumbs. Their costumes are of silk trimmed with lace, artificial flowers, pearl beads, metallic lace, gold foil and mother-of-pearl.

Two panels of red velvet, edged with mock ermine adorn the Queen who wears a crown of metallic lace decorated with beads and gold foil and holds an orb and sceptre. 

The Art of Play: An English Pandora, 1755-1760

The Art of Play: An English Pandora, 1755-1760

Pandora
England, 1755-1760
This and all related images from:
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Made between 1755 and 1760, this Pandora (a fashion doll) was created to convey the latest fashion among the courts of Europe. Pandoras were in use from the Fourteenth Century, but the practice reached its apex the Eighteenth Century as these three-dimensional fashion plates were sent all over Europe and America to promote the wares of dressmakers. By the end of the Eighteenth Century, Pandoras gave way in importance to fashion magazines.

Technically, these were not designed as toys, but, after they had served their original purpose, they often found their way into the eager hands of children.

This wooden Pandora is dressed in a silk sack-back robe, luxuriously sparking with glass beads, with a matching petticoat and stomacher. The figure wears all of the accessories and underpinnings expected of a fashionable lady of the late 1750s. Since the clothes are secured with the original pins, we can see that the garments have remained in position since the 18th century. Clearly, this figure was never played with.

The doll is marked "Eliz. Bootle, London.” This Pandora is associated with the Loveday family. According to the V&A, the Bootle name entered the Loveday family, “on the marriage of Robert Wilbraham to Mary Bootle in 1755. Robert took Mary's name under the terms of her uncle's will, therefore the Wilbraham-Bootle family of Rode Hall, Cheshire became the Bootle-Wilbraham family (connected to 1st Baron Skelmersdale).”

Prior to being acquired by the V&A in 1980, the figure was displayed for a number of years in the Fashion Gallery as a long loan from the family.

The Art of Play: The Tate Baby House,1760

The Tate Baby House
Dorset, 1760
This and all related images from:
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This toy house was last owned by a Mrs. Walter Tate in whose honor it is named. Made in Dorset, the dolls’ house is said to have been modeled on an Eighteenth-century Dorset house.

Unlike many other dolls’ houses of the Eighteenth Century, this one features a very complex structure which comes apart in several sections so that it could be easily taken on trips.

Since journeys at the time were predominately taken via carriage, they took a long time, and therefore, trips and visits lasted much longer than they do today. Therefore, careful planning was involved and people would take a variety of different items which we would never consider bringing along with us today—like this dolls’ house.

A “Baby House,” such as this one from 1760 was designed as a plaything for an adult woman who was encouraged to decorate the house, furnish it and use it as a model for her own home in some ways.

The furniture that we see here is not contemporary with the house which was first updated in 1830 and, then, at regular intervals afterwards by its various owners. After all, that was the point of the thing—to use it as a model for a real home as well as afford a lady a fun thing to do. In some households, in fact, houseguests would bring small presents for the “baby house,” such as little silver kettles or salt cellars.

This house is constructed of painted wood with a balustraded external staircase leading up to the first floor level, A pedimented entrance door has a Venetian window above with four windows on either side. Above the cornice is a parapet formed of pilasters and turned balusters, behind which is a glass lantern lighting the staircase hall. Oeil de boeuf windows flank the basement door. The original windows were replaced in the Victorian era and the roofline and base are Edwardian alterations.

The Art of Play: The Duke of Connaught Doll, 1850-51

Doll
Prince Arthur
1851
Made by the Montanari Family
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Here we have a baby doll with shoulders, head, lower arms and hands of poured wax, a body of stuffed, white-glazed cotton with wax, and composition legs. The doll is embellished with blue glass eyes, and inserted blond human hair.

Though sometimes infants’ fashions of the Nineteenth Century make determining the child’s gender rather difficult, in this case, we know that the doll is meant to be a boy. He is dressed in a chemise, barracoat (a robe-like, outer gown), petticoat, long gown (beneath the barracoat), lace sacque jacket, lace bonnet, knitted wool bonnet and knitted wool socks. I am astounded that babies were dressed in that many layers without being strangled, but judging by the amount of people on the earth, clearly some babies from the Nineteenth Century lived to grow and reproduce.

This doll is by the The Montanari family—celebrated as among the best known of the UK producers of wax dolls in the Victorian era. (Richard) Napoleon Montanari (born circa 1813) was a wax modeller and responsible for the heads and hands. Napoleon’s wife, Madame Montanari, (nee Charlotte Augusta Dalton) was a dollmaker known for creating elaborately dressed dolls. Later, their eldest son entered the business as a wax modeller and doll maker.

The Montanaris often made dolls representing royalty. This particular example made in the year of the Great Exhibition (1851) depicts the seventh child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert, later the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, who was, at that point, the most recent addition to the Royal Family.

Object of the Day: A Trade Card for Diamond Dyes

Click on image to just dye.

“It’s easy to dye with Diamond Dyes,” says the front of this handsome, colorful and nicely-drawn Victorian trade card.

It’s also, apparently, easy to bring mayhem and terror to your home. You see, this little girl has decided to dye not only her unsuspecting doll, but also, a truly horrified kitten. But, this is what happens when you leave your toddler alone in a room with a bowl of red dye and a cat.

At some point, one must wonder why this child’s mother (or nanny, more likely) thought it fitting to leave the girl with the clearly-labeled bowl of dye. Or is it dye…?

Let’s assume that it is.

The girl seems quite pleased with the destruction she’s caused. Take a close look at her eyes. This isn’t her first time at the rodeo. She’s dyed other toys and household pets before. She’ll do it again. Oh, yes, she’ll do it again.

Just give this girl a slapstick and she’d be in business.

The card was published, I should note, by The Forbes Co. of Boston.

Let’s see what the makers of the dye want us to take away from all of this.

DIAMOND DYES 
SIMPLEST
STRONGEST
FASTEST 
They have no equal! 
Three 

New Colors 

Fast Stocking Black, Turkey Red for Cotton
Brown for Cotton. One package of the Stock-
ing Black colors four pairs of Cotton Stockings
a rich, fast Black that will not crock,
     The Brown and Turkey Red are new discoveries , and are the
best Dyes known for those colors on cotton.A CHILD CAN USE THEM 

Sample cards and full directions for dyeing all kinds of goods,
Coloring photographs &c., and making inks, wood stains, bluing,
&c., &c., sent free by the proprietors.WELLS, RICHARDSON & CO., Burlington, Vt.
For Gilding or Bronzing Fancy Articles USE 
DIAMOND PAINTS Gold, Silver, Bronze, Copper. Only 10 Cts. 
Compliments of 
STEARNS & BAKER, Druggists, 
73 W. Milwaukee St., JANESVILLE, WIS.

The Art of Play: The Thomas Risley Doll's House, 1889

Doll's House
Assembled in 1889 by one Thomas Risley
Possibly from a kit by an unknown model co.
Click to enlarge the image
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Made by Thomas Risley in 1889 possibly from a kit, this villa puts me in mind of Queen Victoria’s Osborne House, though it is a doll’s house. This beauty is rendered in the style of a brick house which would have been quite the fashion about 1860—with a glass conservatory and coach house on each side.

When we hear the words “doll’s house,” we automatically imagine that this was made to be a child’s plaything. But, not. This was not for a child. It’s far too fragile. This was meant as a collectible pursuit and a hobby for an adult, and quite probably for a male with an interest in architecture and design.

Made of wood, it is painted a deep cream, with a striped yellow and white awning over the front entrance. The coach house has been made to look as if it is a brick structure, and the conservatory is constructed of real glass. A set of railings with two gates run around the front of the house. 

The Art of Play: The Tate Baby House,1760

The Tate Baby House
Dorset, 1760
This and all related images from:
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This toy house was last owned by a Mrs. Walter Tate in whose honor it is named. Made in Dorset, the dolls’ house is said to have been modeled on an Eighteenth-century Dorset house.

Unlike many other dolls’ houses of the Eighteenth Century, this one features a very complex structure which comes apart in several sections so that it could be easily taken on trips.

Since journeys at the time were predominately taken via carriage, they took a long time, and therefore, trips and visits lasted much longer than they do today. Therefore, careful planning was involved and people would take a variety of different items which we would never consider bringing along with us today—like this dolls’ house.

A “Baby House,” such as this one from 1760 was designed as a plaything for an adult woman who was encouraged to decorate the house, furnish it and use it as a model for her own home in some ways.

The furniture that we see here is not contemporary with the house which was first updated in 1830 and, then, at regular intervals afterwards by its various owners. After all, that was the point of the thing—to use it as a model for a real home as well as afford a lady a fun thing to do. In some households, in fact, houseguests would bring small presents for the “baby house,” such as little silver kettles or salt cellars.

This house is constructed of painted wood with a balustraded external staircase leading up to the first floor level, A pedimented entrance door has a Venetian window above with four windows on either side. Above the cornice is a parapet formed of pilasters and turned balusters, behind which is a glass lantern lighting the staircase hall. Oeil de boeuf windows flank the basement door. The original windows were replaced in the Victorian era and the roofline and base are Edwardian alterations.