Antique Papier Mache Dolls

Alicia's flirty-eyed papier mache reminded me

of two dolls I saw at the Richard Wright auction last October.

Above is a wonderful glass-eyed papier mache doll.

I love the way that patina and wear

create an interesting surface on these old dolls.

Her apron is divine.

Look at the great shoes!

This doll below has side glancing glass eyes:

Here are some additional pictures of her details:

And last but not least, here is a Voit doll owned by Edyth O'Neill.







Enjoy!

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1840's Papier Mache Doll with Rare Flirty Eyes

Alicia Carver of Signature Dolls shared pictures of this lovely doll to post here in as inspiration for inspiration. At 18.5" tall, this so-called milliner's model has a kid body with wood lower legs and lower arms and a papier-mache head. Her head features an early 1850's style with long ringlets which are nicely modeled in the back. Alicia redressed her in period style clothing from antique silk velvet and early lace. Alicia says,

"What is most unusual about her are her flirty eyes which, according to Christiane Graefnitz, a renown papier-mache expert, means she was made by Andreas Voit as he is the only doll maker in Germany who used flirty eyes in the early dolls."

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Edyth's Brown Dress

Note from Dixie: Edyth let me borrow a dress for study and tracing a pattern. This was originally posted on Northdixie Designs in November of 2009. I still have yet to make the dress, but I hope to get to it SOON. This is an interesting dress to look at, because the design is simple and the use of trim can customize it in a number of ways.

The amazing thing about the internet is that I have friends I've never met. :-) Edyth O'Neill is such a friend - she sent me a box of stuff a couple of weeks ago, and in the box was an antique dress for me to study and make a pattern from and then return to her. This was challenging to do as I didn't want to use any pins.


The opportunity to look at this old dress was so fun for me. As I usually do, I took loads of pictures so that I could refer to them later when I make the dress up. If you are an antique clothing buff/expert, I welcome any feedback you have about the dress and it's age. It is a fairly basic princess seamed dress style. My guess after looking at the online collections at Wisconsin History.org is that it's from the 1870's. The brown dress seems to be constructed by machine, but there is also a lot of hand sewing in it's construction. The seams have a kind of twill tape which was attached at the time the seams were sewn. I'm assuming this was done to give stability to the curved seams.

The twill tape was basted to the outer part
of both sections jointed together
and then pressed to the side.

The charm of the dress
is the simple style,
and it shows how applied trim
can transform a basic dress.
There are bias tape bands
sewn at the hem
of the skirt and the sleeves.

There is shark's tooth trim at the neck,
and the buttonholes are done by hand.

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Antique Clothing and the Use of Trim

One way we can learn about making antique inspired doll clothing is by looking at clothing of the period. While searching through another group I came across these lovely antique clothing pieces on Ebay. So I emailed the seller, The Lady's Repository Museum, to ask for permission to post the pictures here. These items are presently at auction and might be appropriate in scale for a large doll from 1800's, or for an antique inspired doll.

The first item is an incredible Victorian child's dress and matching cape which could be for either a boy or a girl. The wonderful deep cherry red wool has white wool braiding and vegetable ivory buttons, and hand done button holes.

Look at the intricacy of the trim!

Both the cape and the dress are fully lined in white cotton. The cape closes in the center front with one hook/eye closure.The dress measures 19" from shoulder to hem and the cape measures 14" cape from shoulder to hem.

Plaid is the name of the game

in this next sweet 1860's boys' garment.

But look what happens when you add
a band of green with trimmed edges
to the plaid? Bazinga!

Double rows of braid make the blue skirt something special.

Imagine these pieces without the trim. What a difference trim makes!

Talk about texture!

The trim on this incredible

white dress below makes this dress.

The dress above is made from a ribbed cotton pique with hand applied matching soutache trim and white embroidered lace at the neckline and hem. It is most likely from the mid to late 1850's, according to the seller. It has one shell button waistband closure. The bodice has a button back closure with superbly hand stitched button holes, but all back bodice buttons are missing From the seller:

What sets this set apart form others, besides the near mint condition, is the wonderful tabbed bodice with long revers that extend well below the waist line~ this most definitely belonged to a very well to- do little girl!

A closer look...

And still closer. Wonderful!

I hope you enjoyed looking at these wonderful antique garments. If you are interested, please click the pictures to visit the auctions for more information. Many thanks to Rachael of the Ladys Repository Museum for sharing these lovely pictures of antique clothing. Click here to see more items in the museum.

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