Toys - Dolls

Here's a great resource that has quite a few pictures of dolls from 1860 to 1980. Jennifer McKendry has done a great job on this and I believe those of you who are writing during this time period and have female characters, will enjoy browsing through her site.

Jennifer McKendry's A History of Dolls for Dollhouses from 1860 to 1980

Paper Dolls

There were several books sold for Christmas and other occasions of paper dolls. This is not an exhausted list but it will help get you started. Note the various "kinds" of paper dolls.

Here is a list with descriptions:

THE BROWNIE PAPER DOLLS.
By Florence E. Cory.
©1891
Nine designs ofBrownies in characteristic costumes, front and bach, in many colors, and so made that they can be cut out as paper dolls.
I. In book form, with bright covers In colors, i vol., oblong 4to, cloth back 75 cents.
II. With the designs as loose sheets, in a box with bright covers in colon, 75 cents.


A Year of Paper Dolls,"
by Miss E. S. Tucker,
1894
is a beautiful and unique novelty for children, similar in general idea to the popular " Brownie Dolls," which have had such a great success. It has twelve designs of children in dresses appropriate to the different months of the year, front and back, in many colors, and so made that they can be cut out as paper dolls. One of these sets of dolls will furnish amusement to a child for months. One entirely new feature is that with these dolls comes a sheet of calendar dates. The dates of each month can be cutout and pasted on the doll representing that month, the twelve figures making a calendar that will last through the year. This new and interesting feature makes the dolls a source of instruc
tion as well as pleasure to children. (75c.)

The Dolls of A11 Nations.
1895
Figures of girls of different nations, in box. . .50

Lady Dolly and her Fancy Dresses.
1895
Figures of Mother Goose characters, in box...50
These dolls are on a different plan of any in the market, having easel backs to stand up and made very beautifully. Each doll has six costumes.

These next few are wholesale prices from 1894:
One Cent Dolls
New Paper Dolls, 4 kinds
Paper Soldiers, Infantry, 12 kinds
A Buffalo Bill, or the Wild West
Amusements for Children, 12 kinds Large Pictures of Animals to cut out. Cards 6 1/2 by 14 inches very handsomely printed in color.
New Paper Soldiers and Indians, These soldiers and Indians are represented in action, running, shooting, etc.
The sheets are 5 1/4X17 inches,

Five Cent Dolls
French Paper Dolls in Sheets
Paper Furniture, small, 4 kinds,
Jointed Dolls 8 kinds these are undressed dolls 6.5 inches tall.
Jointed Dolls 9 inches tall beautifully lithographed, having their arms and legs jointed so they can move in any position. They are intended to be dressed in tissue paper.

Ten Cent Dolls
My Dolly, 12 pages, with colored and monochrome illustrations, 3 3/8 x 8.5 inches, 6 kinds assorted.

Fifteen Cent Dolls
New Paper Dolls in Envelopes.
Size 7.5x11 inches

Wax Dolls

When I stumbled on the term of a wax doll I just had to look it up and find more information on them. Enjoy!

THE WAX DOLL MANUFACTURE.
To make a real wax doll or one of papier-mache is quite a long process. First of all the limbs have to be made. The legs, either of pot or cotton, have to be filled out with moss and sawdust, and the same process is gone through with the body and arms, the task being entrusted to a number of young women. The head is more diflicult to make. First comes the moulding, from a kind of whity-brown paste, which when hard is almost indestructible. The head is moulded in two halves, the back and the front, and then the two parts are joined together with the same sort of paste. The heads are made by the thousand, of all shapes and sizes, and left for the moment unpolished and sickly looking. Then these frame pasteboard heads are carried to the wax room, where they are passed through some severe ordeals. The papier-mache model heads are dipped in boiling wax, and thus have the appearance of wax dolls. But the genuine article, the real dolls of wax, are made thus:—The boiling wax is poured into a plaster mould; it adheres to the sides as it becomes cold, and when the mould is taken apart there is the beautiful wax head, but simply a shell, and of course very weak. The head is cast complete, and only a small opening is left in the crown of the head. Then a workman takes the wax shell and very carefully lines it throughout with a kind of soft paste about the thickness of cardboard, which soon hardens and gives the head its strength and durability. After this process the head is placed over a hot furnace, the wax is permitted to melt to a very slight degree, whereupon it is dusted with powder made of potato meal and alabaster, to give it a delicate flesh tint. In another room the head is provided with a pair of eyes, and it is no easy thing for the workman to select two exactly alike.

Sometimes, as the children know, dolls squint, and this proves that the workman who put them in was not very careful in his work. Another very skillful workman then receives the head, and finishes off the front appearance of the eyes, scooping off all the wax and aflixing the lids in a charming manner. Then eyelashes have to be aflixed, and then the little lady has to be provided with teeth, which are put in by a skillful workman one by one. A still more interesting study is in the hair dressing room of a doll manufactory. All the dolls that come into this room are complete as far as their heads. The hair for these heads is first worked on to a mesh, which fits the dolls heads so nicely that one cannot tell but that it is a natural growth. Then the rough head of hair, with the doll, is sent to the female hair dressers, who are armed with combs and brushes and hot curling tongs, have no small amount of good taste, and would make excellent ladies’ maids. The hair is made up in the most beautiful manner, in imitation of the very newest fashions; and then when the doll is thus combed and curled, it is provided with a delicate little chemisette, and placed, with a hundred or more little companions, in a huge basket, and transported either to the great store—rooms or to the doll milliner who provides it with clothing and costumes fitting it to appear in the great world. This will only give a faint idea of how wax dolls are made. There are other interesting parts of the process such as how the baby dolls are made to open and shut their eyes and to cry 'papa' and 'mamma' but nearly all children at one time or another looked into these mysteries of doll life, and a description would be superfluous. NY Tribune.
Source: The People's Condensed Library ©1877

Wax dolls have undoubtedly become the favourites of our little English maidens. They have the disadvantage of being perishable, but that is a mere detail in these days of cheap toys. No doll made of other material can be given such a natural expression or such a rich peach-like complexion as the wax doll which is made by the hundred and thousand in German factories. For, alas! although 125 years ago this business was in the hands of Englishmen, it has long since passed over to foreigners. Our photographs of doll-making were taken in one of the half-dozen surviving manufactories in London, and the various operations portrayed will be manifest to the reader. The most tedious work in the perfecting of a wax doll is the insertion of the eyelashes and eyebrows, and consequently these details are omitted in all but the most expensive varieties. There is a wonderful similarity in the features of wax dolls of one make, which is accounted for by the fact that their faces are cast in a uniform mould. When, however, a doll is to be made for Royalty, a far more elaborate task falls to the duty of the workman. As a rule, Royal dolls' faces have to be made according to certain photographs sent with the orders. This year it is said that most of the dolls made for the use of our little Princes and Princesses bear a wonderful resemblance to Queen Wilhelmina, although whether her youthful Majesty feels flattered by the multiplicity of her effigies is a question open to doubt.
Source: The Royal Magazine ©1899

Corn Husk Doll

We've all heard about them, and many of us have seen them but do you know how to make them? Here are the directions to make a corn husk doll that one of your characters might find themselves doing for a variety of reasons.

CORN-HUSK AND FLOWER DOLLS.

O such beautiful dolls as delight the hearts of the children of to-day, ever peeped forth from the Christmas-stockings of our grandmothers or great-grandmothers when they were little girls. In those times there were not, as there are now, thousands of people doing nothing but making toys for the entertainment and pleasure of the little ones, and the motherly little hearts were fain to content themselves with lavishing unlimited affection and care upon a rag, wooden, or corn-husk baby, made and dressed at home. Since then almost every child tired of, and surfeited with handsome and expensive toys, has been glad at times to get grandma to make for her a real old-fashioned dollie which might be hugged in rapturous moments of affection without fear of dislocating some of its numerous joints, or putting out of order its speaking or crying apparatus; and might in times of forgetfulness be dropped on the floor and suffer no injury thereby. Such a doll is just the kind to adopt for the summer. The fine French doll with its delicate wax or china face, silky hair, and dainty toilets, is more suited to the elegances of the parlor than to the wear and tear of out-door life, and everyone knows that summer holidays spent in the country are far too precious to be wasted taking care of anyone's complexion, let alone a doll's; so it is best to leave the city doll in her city home, safe out of harm's way, and manufacture, from materials to be found in the country, one more suited to country surroundings.

Corn-husks, corn-cobs, and ordinary garden flowers can be made into dolls which, although not quite so pretty nor so shapely as those produced from more costly material, yet possess a charm of their own which the children are not slow to perceive.
Little Indian girls, to whom store babies are unknown, make the most complete and durable corn-husk dolls, and the following directions tell just how to construct them:
Provide yourself with the husks of several large ears of corn, and from among them select the soft white ones which grow closest to the ear. Place the stiff ends of two husks together, fold a long, soft husk in a lengthwise strip, and wind it around the ends so placed as in Fig. in.

Fig.112
Select The Corn Husk the softest and widest husk you can find, fold it across the centre and place a piece of strong thread through it (as in Fig. 112), draw it in, tie it se-
curely (Fig. 113), place it entirely over the husks you have wound, then bring it down smoothly and tie with thread underneath (Fig. 114); this will form the head and neck.

To make the arms, divide the husks below the neck in two equal parts, fold together two or more husks and ins e r t them in the division (Fig. 115). Hold the arms in place with one hand, while with the other you fold alternately over each shoulder several layers of husks, allowing them to extend down the front and back. When the little form seems plump enough, use your best husks for the topmost layers and wrap the waist with strong thread, tying it securely (Fig. 116). Next divide the husks below the waist and make the legs by neatly wrapping each portion with thread, trimming them off evenly at the feet. Finally, twist the arms once or twice, tie, and trim them off at the hands. The features can be drawn on the face with pen and ink, or may be formed of small thorns from the rose-bush. Fig. 117 shows the doll complete, minus its costume, which may be of almost any style or material, from the pretty robe of a civilized lady.

Source: How to Amuse Yourself and Others ©1887