This lovely antique black cloth doll with a simple pencil face is stuffed with rags. I can't remember ever having another black doll with a pencil face. Usually the material is too dark for a pencil face to show. Her body is all original and hand sewn. Her clothes are as found when I bought her. Her top is a knit long john shirt made for a very young child and her skirt is a wonderful antique skirt in soft shades of brown and blue and yellow and green...
This doll was made with things at hand and with a simple hand drawn pencil face. She has short folky arms with stitched defined fingers. She is stuffed with rag and straw and cotton. She crinkles a bit when squeezed here and there. She is as found in her mustard colored make-do old calico dress. It is sewn closed so I am not going to take it off. Her head may have been recovered at some point but this covering is old, She is jointed at the shoulders and hips so she sits nicely...
Maybe you are like a lot of women, some days you wake up and feel pretty good then you look in the mirror and say, boy looks like I could use another 8 or 10 hours of sleep. Well this doll doesn't have to worry about that. She can be as beautiful or as rough around the edges as the day produces and we are never going to know it. We will remember her soft and flowing antique blouse and skirt...
At first glance she looks like one to me but a southern belle all dressed up in the 1880's would not ever consider putting forth anything resembling a scowl. To give her the benefit of the doubt it is more of a pensive look. Her bright blue eyes would sparkle with a smile but she is what she is. Her face is watercolor and ink and nicely done. She is 22" tall her body is all original with continuous legs so she has a forced sit, see photos...
Very much played with cloth doll with a painted face and great ears. At one time her cheeks were round circles of pink not it looks like dirt from play. You can see all her features, red painted mouth, a suggestion of a raised nose, (it has been pushed in over the years and very nice ink drawn eyes with probably blue eyes but are not just dark either blue or black. She has a nice little shaped body, she sits well, and she is firmly packed with cotton...
I don't have many left from the earliest days of buying in the 1970's but this is one of them. He is a happy little guy made with a stockinette sort of fabric. His face is nicely embroidered with a fine floss and what looks like hundreds of stitches to make his eyes and teeth. His hair is animal pelts, lots of small pieces sewn onto his head with lots of stitches holding it on. You can see the leather back in lots of places, I think that was the way it was sewn on. He is as found...
I know that look, it says, I know what you are thinking and you better not say it! I wonder if she knows that I was going to comment on her hair-do?
She is hand sewn and has a linen face and body that is cotton stuffed. Her dress looks like it has been on her forever. She has red high top shoes that are sewn on, nice under clothes and real hair that might be original. Her face has a very straight pinched nose, one long of red floss stitch for her mouth and pencil drawn eyes and eyebrows...
Lovely early French enfantine two piece costume from early 19th. century would fit well for Huret , Rohmer , Blampoix or other early fashion doll .
Of purple blue and ecru a two piece enfantine dress jacket and skirt is all hand sewn . A purple blue skirt and purple and ecru checkered jacket .
Lovely Huret style wide silk jacket with front closure and long sleeves. Has rounded neckline and lovely decoration of black glass pearl trim around edged all around...
I was very surprised to find a Poppet doll dressed as a Native American...
Big, heavy rag stuffed cloth doll has big old hands with fingers and thumbs, a great old blue and tan striped ticking body and is just all American through and through. Her big wide open face has button eyes, a couple of stitches for a nose and a straight floss sewn mouth that goes up at the corners for a hint of a smile. I am bet she has had many dresses in her day, but this nice old white and blue calico dress fits her nicely. She sits nicely and holds her head up with just a small back and fo...
How sweet and adorable is she! Red hair, red cheeks, body very firmly stuffed with cotton. Jointed shoulders, elbows, hips and knees so she sits easily. Her big eyes looking, slightly up, melt you the same way as when dog looks at you for a bite of your steak. The repair on her mouth looks like they put a band aid on and then took it off years later. She has a patch on her tummy and a small band around her neck everything else seems to be original. Her hair is yarn sew, each strand, into her sca...
The wooden doll fragment has some original paint. She is all one piece of wood even her tiny nose. She has a touch of original pink on both cheeks. She has some black paint on part of the back of her head that was her hair. She feels lovely to the touch. She is a real treasure. She is not quite 8" tall and is circa 1790-1820.
Antique wooden doll, possibly was a bed wrench converted into a doll or a bed post doll. She is pine and primitively carved and from the early 1800's. She is wearing a later dress but still a 19th C. one. She has no arms and never did and might be the reason she was made into a doll. She has some holes on one leg, see picture but they don't look like worm holes to me they are more of a shallow hole. She is 14" tall, circa 1830 and a great early primitive doll.
Cloth dolls come in all sizes and all kinds of bodies and faces and they can be so unique. This one doesn't really stand out in a crowd but she does hold her own in a spot light setting. She is all hand sewn, has great braided hair framing her face and is wearing a lovely old brown calico dress and velvet bonnet. Her body is stuffed with cotton and she sits easily. She has big feet pointing east and west. She is a charmer. 16" and Circa 1880
Her dress has some shredding on the front above the w...
This very nice hand-carved wooden doll and some original paint on the face and shoulders. She has a very round head, deep-set eyes and a nose carved and protruding but still out of the one piece of wood. Her legs were inset and pegged in place. Now she is a wonderful fragment 10" tall and mounted on a professional frame. (There are a few very old worm holes, please see close-up picture.) Circa 1800-1830.
No mistaking this boy doll as a girl. Again great ears and behold the eyes. Did the mother making this doll know and want this look or did it just happen in the making. He is precious. His face is sepia ink on fine linen. His face is a second face but really old. It would be easy enough to take it off but I would never touch it, he is too good to mess with. He is hand sewn, is stuffed fairly firmly with cotton, he is jointed at elbows, shoulders, hips and knees. He has a big face and head for hi...
Just when I think I have seen it all along comes something different. This doll has a bottle for a body that has the shape of a flask. The bottle and her arms are a heavy twill with the arms having lots of mends. She has sock legs and a sewn on bonnet and embroidered face. She has been through a lot but she is very dear. I have had bottle doll doorstops but never a doll with a bottle body! She is 16" tall and is a real hoot. Circa 1900
She is ready for afternoon tea, dressed in white and looking very demure. She is substantial in height and weight. She is very well made and every bit hand sewn. Her face is painted on the fabric and very nicely done. Her eyes are big and blue. She has hair that is pinned on and she has many layers of underclothes. She has on rather heavy stockings and white leather shoes. She has a mend in her forehead that is darned like you would a sock. It is sort of quaint. She has dainty stitched defined h...