Boudoir Belles

This lovely lady belongs to member Michele Thelen.  She is known as a boudoir doll. This gorgeous gal has a composition head and was probably made in the United States.  Her colorful ruffled gown is original and her composition complexion is in excellent condition.

These elongated long-limbed lasses were not made as children's playthings, but for fashionable women to display in their bedrooms and salons, hence the name "boudoir dolls." The boudoir doll was grew out of the art doll movement of the 1910s. Artist Stefania Lazarka moved from her native Poland to Paris prior to WWI. The coming of the war stranded many Polish citizens in France, leaving some without any source of income. Lazarka created the Ateliers Artistiques Polonais, hiring Polish artists to handcraft artistic cloth dolls, with the proceeds going to support their community.  Fashion designer Paul Poiret saw some of the dolls on exhibit and soon his fashion salon was producing similar dolls for his atelier.  He had his models stroll down the runways with with cloth dolls dressed in miniatures of his most recent creations draped over their arms.  Soon boudoir dolls became the "must have" fashion accessory of the season.  Not only did they adorn boudoirs and sofas, women carried them around as mascots and upper-scale night clubs even offered them to their female patrons.  Some dolls doubled as lingerie bags or purses, but the vast majority were purely decorative.  Soon boudoir dolls were being produced not only in Paris, but throughout Europe and the United States.  The dolls were produced in a wide variety of materials, with heads of silk, felt, muslin, or composition.  They varied in size, some a petite 14 inches or so while others stretched to 30 inches or more. Throughout the 1920s and 30s the dolls' dresses became more creative, not reflecting fashion as much as some designer's imagination.  The dolls ranged from expensive artistic creations to inexpensive gaudily-gowned ladies offered as carnival prizes.   By the 1940s the fad had faded.

This example is a petite 14-inches long and has a papier mache head that is stamped Made in Germany. She wears her original clown costume and is "puffing" a little wooden cigarette.  These dolls with a cigarette dangling insouciantly from their rouged lips are known to collectors as "smokers" and are highly sought after.  Sadly, so sought after that some less-honest dealers are cutting holes in the face of more ordinary boudoir ladies and adding often oversized cigarettes.

A close up of her face shows her very daring and detailed eye makeup.

This serene señorita is the creation of Lenci, founded by Elena König in Italy and renown for its artistic felt dolls.  She is 27 inches tall and lavishly dressed in the traditional Charro folk costume of Salamanca, Spain.  She is all original except for her necklaces, rosary and slippers.

The doll as pictured in the 1930 Lenci catalogue.

This boudoir doll head from the German firm of Hermann Steiner is very unusual, not only because she is made from bisque, but also because she is a "living eye" doll.  “Living eyes” were advertised by Steiner in 1926, and consisted of a loose glass disk iris under clear dome; when the doll is tilted, the iris slides back and forth. Most living eye dolls by Steiner  are child-like googlies.  She is incised on back of the neck with an intertwined H and S over Germany 395 0.

Polish Pride

Member Sylvia McDonald has appeared a number of times on this blog, sharing some of her extensive collection of international dolls. Recently, Sylvia generously donated this set of beautiful Polish historical dolls to the Polish Heritage Center in Panna Maria, Texas, the site of the first Polish settlement in the United States, dating from 1854. The dolls themselves were handmade in Krakow, Poland.

This doll represents Jan III Sobieski. He was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1674 until his death in 1696.

This is his queen consort Marie Casimire Louise de La Grange d'Arquien, known in Poland as Maria Kazimiera d’Arquien. She was the daughter of a French nobleman and had come to Poland as a child to serve as a lady in waiting to Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga. The royal couple were deeply in love and are famous for their intimate letters. The king referred to her by the pet name "Marysieńka".

This doll portrays King Stanislaw August Poniatowski dressed for his coronation, which took place on November 25, 1764. He introduced reforms that would have converted the throne into a constitutional monarchy, but was forced to abdicate by Russia, Prussia, and Austria before the reforms could be implemented. The last king of Poland, he died in 1798.

This figure represents King Stephen Báthory, who became king of Poland in 1576.

This lovely lady is Queen Barbara Radziwill, who was considered one of the most beautiful women in Europe.  She married King Sigismund II August in 1547, but there was substantial opposition to the marriage by many in the Polish nobility and she was not crowned queen until December 7, 1550.  She died on May 8, 1551.

Beautiful Baby

You must have been a beautiful baby

You must have been a wonderful child

When you were only startin'

To go to kindergarten

I'll bet you drove the little boys wild

Harry Warren and lyrics by Johnny Mercer, 1938

Continuing our virtual doll meeting, member Jenell Howell shares this delightful diminutive doll. Dating from the early 1950s, this curly haired cutie is part of the Vogue Ginny family known as the Crib Crowd.  Jennie Adler Graves opened the Ye Olde Vogue Doll Shoppe in 1922. An exceptional seamstress and designer, she began by creating outfits and trousseaus for imported German dolls. In 1948, Graves introduced an 8-inch hard plastic doll. The doll was so popular that Graves designed her own version, christening her creation "Ginny," after her own daughter, Virginia.  Ginny and her extensive wardrobe were a huge hit and inspired a new generation of 8-inch tall play dolls.  The Crib Crowd dolls have the standard Ginny head, but curved baby legs.

Her bright brown eyes have painted lashes and she has a caracul wig

Devotion

The Florence Nightengale pledge is a statement of the ethics and principles of the nursing profession and a version is often recited at nursing graduation ceremonies. In the final line of the original 1893 oath, the nurse pledges that, "I shall be loyal to my work and devoted towards the welfare of those committed to my care." In these days of the coronavirus pandemic, nurses all over the world have proven their extraordinary loyalty and devotion to the high tenets of their calling. As part of our club's virtual doll meeting, this blog hopes in some small way to acknowledge and honor the the nurses on the front lines of the epidemic, working long hours, often scrounging for necessary supplies, and even putting themselves at risk in order to care for their patients.

This lovely lady of the lamp belongs to member Bette Birdsong. She is Gene Marshall, 15.5-inch tall fashion doll introduced by Mel Odom in 1995.  Gene's backstory is that she is an actress during Hollywood's golden age, and she comes with meticulously-created outfits, costumes, and accessories based on fashions from the 1930s through the 1950s.  This Gene doll is wearing a nursing outfit based on a picture featured in 1943 Coca-Cola calendar.

This trio of nurse dolls is from the collection of member Sylvia McDonald. The little girl in red is "Doll Hospital Nurse" by the famed company of Madame Alexander. The 8-inch tall doll was introduced in 2002 and holds her own tiny patient. The center nurse doll is from Poland and is made from wood. The final doll is "Gift of Life" Ginny introduced in 2001 by Vogue Dolls. Vogue made a donation for each doll purchased to the Gift of Life, a nonprofit organization that raises funds to bring children to the United States for heart surgery

Another Alexander doll, this "Nurse Wendy" belongs to member Ann Meier. In 1953, the company introduced an 8-inch tall hard plastic little girl doll called Wendy-Ann, named after Madame Alexander's granddaughter. This doll was renamed Wendy in 1954 and became a beloved staple of the Madame Alexander line.