Doll News Fall 2016 - 26

Antique Dolls Text by Elizabeth Ann Coleman * Photographs by Cynthia E. Musser at the 2016 Denelle Denery Exhibit Chair Exhibitors: Jennifer Bell, Diane Buck, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, Donelle Denery, Valerie Frazier, Robyn Katz, Margaret Kincaid, Nancy Smith, Kathy Turner, UFDC Collection. Exhibit Helpers: Jennifer Bell, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, Eleanor Champion, Donelle Denery, Carolyn Goodfellow, Susan Sirkis, Diane Vourderis Dress Forms funded by Sugarland Searchers Doll Club and made by members of the Williamsburg Doll Club Sewing Group * Display Cases sponsored by the UFDC Convention Extra Special Thanks - This Special Exhibit would not have been possible without the many long hours devoted by Elizabeth Ann Coleman all the way from doll selection, room layout, signage, display concepts, set-up, illustrations, brochure, and the numerous dolls she has brought to generously display. She is truly a treasure to the doll world. ust as any child, or for that matter adult doll collector, wishes their doll to be attractively dressed, so, too, do they covet a doll with a wardrobe of pretty or handsome outfits. One tends to think of female dolls as having wardrobes, but a surprising number of male dolls did too. Dolls by themselves tell many stories. Dolls with wardrobes tell even more. The exhibitors for this UFDC special exhibit were challenged to share dolls that date between the 1830 and 1930 that imparted some of the various ways of looking at dolls with wardrobes. The display's selection covered many bases including sewing skills, reuse of materials, attention to fashion, rites of passage, merchandizing methods, and cross-generational usage for example, as well as the role a particular doll played in a child's life. Now all UFDC members can discover what these selected dolls and their wardrobes tell us about their lives when they were young. Dolls boasting multiple garments and amazing accessories forming a wardrobe can be traced as far back as the 1690s. An example is Lord and Lady Clapham, a pair of English wooden dolls, currently residing in London's Victoria and Albert Museum. For each their secondary garment is an informal robe-like item called a banyan, Even at this early date the global nature of apparel is in place - the name of the garment is East Indian in origin; the cut is based on the Japanese kimono; and it is an enduring wardrobe item in the west lasting to this very day as a robe. It is still worn by both males and females as informal attire. T-shaped banyans are easy to cut and sew and they can slip over often non-removable doll garments. In other words, banyans, and later robes, were perfect garments for childhood play and education; and stepping-stones to the construction of more complex items. Many of the garments in this display are the creations of little hands learning the intricacies of important domestic tools in sewing and understanding more about appropriate attire. Because so many of the dolls of the 1700s and 1800s came with securely stitched, nailed or glued on garments that once taken off were hard to replace most early dolls lived their entire lives in one outfit. Then thanks to the growth of the Industrial Revolution fabrics and mass-produced trimmings became more plentiful, more diverse and cheaper, as did dolls that, in their turn, would become consumers. By the 1830s there was more interaction between children and their dolls. Girls in particular could advance their sewing skills under the watchful eye of experienced adults, often as a multigenerational project. By the early 1860s on both sides of the Atlantic two races were on. One was for patenting more flexible doll bodies, and the other was for published garment patterns, both stand alone and in periodicals designed for adult or youthful readers. Such garments, and of course accessories, were designed for both specific types of doll bodies, such as Huret's fashion body, and also for the generic home-crafted ones. By the late 1890s one could order garments and accessories designed and sized for specific dolls 26 Fall 2016 from store catalogs. Doll clothes, especially homemade ones, became gift items for adults to bestow on children; additions to dolly wardrobes became, for many, a Christmas tradition. Because of the emotional attachment, dolls from one generation would frequently be passed down to another, all the while accumulating items for a multi-decade and multigenerational wardrobe. Even within their own playtime a doll may have a wardrobe that, from a fashion standpoint, covers a decade or more, even longer if it is passed from sibling to sibling. Frequently it has been observed that a doll that starts out with baby clothes might grow, in its later years, to have adult garments in its wardrobe. And for a surprising number of dolls their wardrobes, even within the play time of a single owner, may have apparel appropriate to a baby, a child and even an adult - in other words anything to encourage the imagination of a child at play and also educate for the child about the stages of life. A wardrobe for a given doll can be anything from a mere one or two extra outfits to hundreds of items - French dolls outfitted for the last Russian Princesses demanded a special train car in which to transport breathtakingly extensive wardrobes. By the 1870s more than 150 items were listed as being suitable for a fashionable doll's wardrobe. As with their human counterparts baby dolls would have the layettes and brides trousseaus. Surprisingly, many 19th and even early 20th century dolls boasted black widow's weeds among their otherwise colorful wardrobes. Sports attire and garments for other specific activities can include riding habits, swimwear, skating ensembles, and gowns suitable for dancing. Seasons are acknowledged through winter wools and furs and summer sheers. While many of the garments seem archaic now - a long nightgown and sleeping cap - many of the garments remain in our wardrobes to this day - ones for play and party time, and even various kinds of suits for men. But no matter how richly or humbly dressed any female doll until at least 1920 is it is likely to have at least one apron or smock in its wardrobe. After all, dolls have work to do, too.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Doll News Fall 2016