Hand Painted China Head Doll in Very Old Dress.

This is a hand painted china head doll in a and extremely old dress, with knickers that are actually sewn on to her legs by the feet and the waist of the cloth body. Parts of the dress also appear to be hand sewn on to the body in places. Even the sleeves are sewn on to the elbow area where the china arms end and the cloth part of the arms begin. Because of this, I would definitely say that the dress is original to the doll. I should also say, at this time that I did personally see a photo of the original girl-child owner, at age 5 or so with this doll as I show it although the lace was intact, and the colors were much brighter. This was a 5th birthday present for the little girl who was the great grandmother of the lady who consigned this with me. . The dress is very sun faded and the off white lace is extremely fragile to the point of falling apart at the gentlest touch, and coming off at the back and in the front. The black trim that you see is all glass beading, some of which has come off by the back of the neck. The doll is 15 1/2" high and on the back of the doll beneath the neck of the dress you can see indented numbers "203 -" . I went to pages 48-50 in my 1995 edition of Patricia Smith's Doll Values, Antique to Modern price guide to try and figure out the style of hairdo that she has and of all of the hairdo's that are pictured on those three pages, it is the Dolly Madison hairdo that is the most similar. (which according to the book was used from 1870- 1880's) but there is no bow and the front curls are not as pronounced as that. Here fingers are all there and her feet have painted on shoes. There is some very minor elongated crazing in the glaze on both the arms and the legs, but it has not discolored like some dinner plates do from moisture. (I worked in the manufacturing of ceramics, porcelain and china for 15 years, was internationally accredited as an instructor and can tell you that crazing happens for many reasons. I don't think that the head and arms were fired in the same kiln. When something is fired, one of the variables is when the items were removed from the kiln. If the items were still too warm when they were removed from the kiln, the glaze may craze. Sometimes it does not show up immediately, but creates a weakness in the glaze that shows up as crazing many years later. Also, even if the items were removed from the kiln at the proper time, just by being in changes of temperature during storage, lets say from a hot attic during the summer to a freezing attic during the winter, will cause crazing, and the thinner the body of china, porcelain or ceramic next to the glaze, the more that will happen. Thicker items hold their own temperatures longer, and react to changes in temperature much less than thinner items. So, if the head was poured thicker than were the arms and the legs as is often the case, the arms and legs would be much more apt to craze than the head. The consigner does state that the doll has never been repaired, either by the family, nor professionally. I date this doll from the very late 1870's as the little girl owner was age 5 in either 1878 or 79, (my present relative-consignor says that there is a discrepancy as to her actual date of birth) Happy Collecting.!!!!

Item ID: con1517

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