Types  Of  Dolls

 
 
 
  8 1/2"All-Bisque Child/Kestner 150
H&J Foulke, Inc.
Bisque:
    Bisque is one of the most popular types of dolls.  From 1860-70's most of the bisque heads were put on lady dolls.  The all-bisque  dolls generally represented children.  They were produced in Europe, a few in America and Japan.  At the Paris Exhibition of 1878, Emile Jumeau showed his French "Bebes Incassable", child dolls with bisque heads on fully jointed composition bodies.  A few of this type were recorded as early as 1876.  Then Germany began marketing their versions.  As competion increased, prices dropped.  New methods were developed such as pouring  the slip instead of  'pressing' it.

  17" Sonneberg-type papier-mache with molded hair
H&J Foulke, Inc.
Carton Dolls:
     In the late 1700's bread dough dolls were made by pressing a mass of paper into a mold and letting it harden.  Then it was covered with dough and molded.  Carton (Carton Moule) French terms for a kind of  papier-mache.  At first these dolls had their head and torso of carton.  Later developed into the French papier-mache heads on kid bodies.
 

 
  11" composition/Kewpie
H&J Foulke, Inc.
Cold-Press Composition:
    1890's-1929.  Benjamin Goldenberg and Otto Denivelle were credited with the improvements of, Solomon D. Hoffmann's  Cold-Press Composition.  The problems of peeling were never completely resolved.  Containing glycerin, flour, etc.  the soupy mixture was poured into plaster molds.  Limbs were made by the same process as the heads.  The product was heavy and tended to soften in the warm weather.

  14" Worsted Doll/Horsman
Internation Doll Library/Photo by Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., NY
Worsted Dolls:
     In the 1880's onward, Worsted Dolls  (Woolen),  were  commercially produced.   These dolls had stockinette faces and worsted hair. Their clothes were crocheted or knitted.  Usually cloth features were used on the faces, with buttons, or beads for their eyes.  Often the bodies were made of woven fabrics.
 
 

13" Celluloid Doll/ Parsons-Jackson toddler with molded shoes and socks
H&J Foulke, Inc.
Celluloid:
     Most of the celluloid dolls were made in Germany, but were painted in Italy.  Rheinische Gummi und Celluloid Fabrik registered the Turtle tradmark as early as 1899.  "Toys and Novelties", reported that before 1910 D. Harmonica perfected the making of pyroxylin plastic toys by the blowing method, about the same time as Rheinische Gummi und Celluloid Fabrik.  After years of dispute, both were given the right to produce celluloid toys.  The all-celluloid dolls had either straight or bent limbs.  Generally the hair was molded, and even clothes.  Occansionally larger dolls had wigs.

Wooden Dolls:
     Wood has been used for commercial, folk art, and homemade one of a kind dolls.  Because of it's ease in carving 'Basswood" (linden wood), was a favorite.  The dolls have been made in The American West, England, Kentucky Mountain area, Russia, Switzerland, Greenland, and Wales as well as other places.
 

  12" Wax-over-composition girl with molded hair
H&J Foulke, Inc.
Wax Dolls:
     Ancient times to present people have crafted wax dolls.  These perishable, but popular dolls were often expensive and artistic.  The wax dolls from Paris melted in the summer heat at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition.  The wax-over-composition dolls were usually less attractive, less expensive and more durable than the wax dolls.
 
 

  18" Meatal Head Doll/Minerva mark
H&J Foulke, Inc.
Metal Dolls:
     Numerous dolls were made with the metal heads,  or were all metal.  The all-metal mechanical toys are not considered to be dolls.  One of the earliest metal-head dolls had molded hairdo with a braided bun and comb on back.  This lead colored metal head was painted and affixed to a kid body with wooden arms and legs.  Thus the dolls closely resembled the early molded hair papier-mache head dolls.  The chief manufacturing center of metal heads was Germany.  The heads were stamped out of sheet metal and the two halves were welded together.
 
 

16" Felt/Lenci-type child with glass eyes
H&J Foulke, Inc.
Cloth Dolls:
     Cloth dolls are varied in sizes shapes and forms.  I'm sure we all remember the rag dolls, probably the earliest playtoy for most children.  Cloth dolls have been popular throughout historical times.  They were made in many forms from front and back with two pieces of cloth sewn together to sophisticated types with three dimensional molded and needle sculpted features.  Often they were made at home.  Many imprtant doll manufacturers included a line of cloth dolls.  The artistic felt dolls were among the most expensive dolls of the 1920's.  Cloth dolls 1920-30's by Dorothy Heizer originally cost several hundred dollars.  In 1882 Butterick issued it's first pattern for making a cloth doll.  In 1913 TOYS AND NOVELTIES reported; "The indestructable rag baby is wholly American and is manufactured in many large cities.  A few of these have been exported but they have not proved very popluar with the European child."