Wooden dolls |
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| Title : | Wooden dolls |
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| Source : | [Dutch dolls] [toy] | ||
| Format : | Toy | ||
| Contributor : | State Library of South Australia | ||
| Catalogue record | |||
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| Description : |
Two wooden dolls, 29.5cm and 17cm in length, folk-made, with face and hair painted. Variously called Penny Wooden, Dutch Dolls or Wooden Tops, depending on their period, these dolls were cheaply and readily available. Jointed and waisted the dolls could be manipulated carefully into position and provide some semblance of action. The dolls would be carved in one region and then farmed out to peasants for decorating: one woman is recorded as painting 1,200 dolls a week, carefully applying the dabs of black paint for eyes, brows and hair one day, and the other colours on other days to carefully conserve her paint supply. Finally, a coat of varnish was applied. The early penny woodens are distinguished by a double hairline, which gave a suggestion of the hair being drawn back. Most wooden dolls were made in Germany with it generally accepted that 'Dutch' is a corruption of 'Deutsch' rather than a reference to the Netherlands. Wooden dolls were a popular subject in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for children's stories, including those about Catharine Susan by Kathleen Ainslie. |
| Subjects | |
| Further reading : | Ainslie, Kathleen. Catharine Susan's calendar 1906, London: Castell Brothers; New York: F.A. Stokes, [1905?] Cieslik, Jurgen. Dolls European dolls 1800-1930, London: Studio Vista: Christies, c1979 Coleman, Dorothy S. The collector's encyclopedia of dolls, New York: Crown Publishers [1968]-c1986 King, Constance Eileen. The collector's history of dolls, London: R. Hale; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1978, c1977 St. George, Eleanor. Dolls of three centuries, New York; London: Charles Scribner's Sons, c1951 |
| Internet links : | |
| Exhibitions and events : | State Library of South Australia: Mortlock Wing exhibitions. To be a child August 2004- |
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