Hitty Dolls - What's Not To Love!

If you've never heard of the Hitty book entitled "Her First Hundred Years" it's a children's book written by Rachael Field and Published in 1929. It won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1930. It's a book about a lttle dolls adventures.

According to the Hitty Wikipedia page: The book details Hitty's adventures as she becomes separated from Phoebe and travels from owner to owner over the course of a century. She ends up living in locations as far-flung as Boston, New Orleans, India, and the South Pacific. At various times, she is lost deep under the sea and also under sofa cushions, abandoned in a hayloft, serves as part of a snake-charmer's act, and meets the famous writer Charles Dickens, before finally ending up in an antique shop in New York City among other, fancier dolls of porcelain and wax. There Hitty is purchased and taken to her new owner's summer home in Maine, which turns out to be the original Preble residence where she first lived.

If you would like to read her book there is a .pdf of the words and chapters here.

If you would like to see all of the illustrations by Dorothy Lathrop for Rachael Fields book they are here.

17th, 18th, and 19th Century Wooden Dolls

Online Collections (The Strong) / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

I can't help falling in love with the beauty of the Queen Anne Doll, shown in the picture above, from The Strong National Museum of Play.  She is an exceptional wooden doll circa 1750-1800.

Credits: Queen Anne Doll, 1750-1800, Material wood, Origin England, Style Queen Anne, Object ID 79.451

I would love to see this doll.

Online Collections (The Strong) / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

The unbelievable Earliest Queen Anne Doll c. 1690, is also from the Strong National Museum of Play.   How amazing is she?  Just incredible.

Credits: Doll ca. 1690, Material wood, Origin England, Style Queen Anne, Object ID 73.1447

According to their description: A simple, jointed body and carved face decorated with stylized eyebrows and brightly rouged cheeks characterize this "Queen Anne" style doll made in around 1700. Manufacture of these wooden dolls originally predated their namesake, Queen Anne, who reigned only from 1702 to 1714. English woodcarvers and craftsmen began making these dolls in the 1600s, and the craft continued through the 1840s. Affordable only to affluent families, the vast majority of Queen Anne dolls were owned by women, who dressed them in the fashions of the time. Because the clothing obscured the plain wooden bodies, carvers focused their artistic attention on the faces. The dolls' painted, almond-shaped eyes, though distinctly conventionalized, changed to glass or porcelain in later years, and limbs came to be made of fabric or leather. Dolls made prior to the mid-19th century are scarce: some reports note that fewer than thirty seventeenth-century Queen Anne dolls have survived.

Only thirty 17th century Queen Anne dolls have survived.  What a shame.

The Simple Beauty of Clothespin Dolls

Image Courtesy of The Old Stone Fort Museum

Peg Wooden dolls and spoon dolls have been arounds of years and played with by millions of children over the years.

Another wood doll that has been a favorite of children and parents from colonial times to the present are clothespin dolls.  Part of the reason was they were an item readily available at home.  Just add a few rags and you have a clothespin doll.

Like spoon dolls clothespin dolls and clothespin doll kits continue to be popular items for sale in many museum shops.  Not only are they fun for children but the fun is sprinkled with a little bit of education in learning about the history of these dolls.

The Clothespin Doll Kit shown in the picture above is from The Old Stone Fort Museum and is similar to the clothespin doll kits sold by many museums.

According to their description: Our Clothespin Doll Kit makes two dolls, a boy and a girl doll. Included in the kit are two wooden clothespins, fabric, lace, ribbon, pipe cleaners, pearl cotton for the hair, pattern, instructions, and history. These cute dolls will look adorable displayed with other old-fashioned dolls. The clothespins we provide have flat bottoms so the dolls will stand by themselves.

Given how popular the clothespin dolls have and continue to be I thought I'd have no problem finding pictures of antique or vintage clothespin dolls and current clothespins dolls being sold by many crafters today.  The latter was no problem.  The former was.  They are basically nonexistent.

Wooden Spoon Dolls and More - Past and Present

The Spoon Doll Image Courtesy of Deborah Darling's Tinchapel Textiles Blog.

As you're well aware I love dolls of all sorts, shapes, sizes, and made from just about anything including wood spoons.  I've made Santa's, Pilgrims, witches, bunnies, chickies, and snowmen from wooden spoons.

Wooden doll spoons have been around for quite some time and were a favorite plaything for many English and Colonial children. Today, wooden doll kits are sold by many museums, wooden doll spoons are a favorite craft for many children, and are growing in popularity amongst crafters.

Vintage sterling silver spoons are also gaining in popularity and are a favorite material for mixed media and altered art artists as well.

The Spoon Doll picture shown above is from Deborah Darling's Tinchapel Textiles blog.

She wrote about this doll in a blog post entitled "The Spoon Doll......beauty from simplicity....." and according to Deb the doll is from the Museum of Childhood.

While wooden spoon dolls have been around for hundreds of years pictures of them are not readily available. I've been searching the various museum websites and have yet to find an online image.

Grodnertal Wooden Costume Dolls

Image Courtesy of Theriaults.com 

If you follow my Victorian Dolls, Victorian Traditions, The Victorian Era and Me Blog you know that I just LOVE the Victorian Era, love history, love to do research, and love fashion doll collections. Several years ago I ran across the Metropolitan Museum of Art website and fell in love with their collections, the ability to see everything they have in their collections, and the ability to set-up my own "My Met" space to bookmark items at the MET that I love.  So, I spent an afternoon "Moseying At The MET!" and wrote about it HERE.

Well, while researching the "Penny Wooden and Peg Wooden Dolls" I came across a series of beautiful Grodnertal Wooden Costume Dolls depicting the 11th - 16th century and just had to show them to you.  All of the dolls are from the Theriault's website.

I think they're all absolutely beautiful and love all their costumes.  As you would except they are all very pricey - especially the doll depicting the 16th century costume.

Early Grodnertal Tuck Comb Wooden Peddler Dolls and Other Grodnertal Peddler Dolls

Image Courtesy of Theriaults.com 

It seems like every time I'm doing research for one thing I find so many other things that pique my curiosity. Such was the case with my research on the "The Sweet Simplicity of Tuck Comb Wooden Dolls" I posted about earlier. I discovered the "Early Grodnertal Tuck Comb Wooden Peddler Dolls" and absolutely had to know more.

The "Early Grodnertal Wooden Doll As Doll And Notions Peddler Lady" doll shown above is from Theriaults.com website is a doll after my own heart. Not only do I absolutely love her large bonnet, but she's selling sewing notions and dolls. She has five tiny dolls on her table including two mini Grodnertal woodens. Perhaps that was me in another life?

According to her description :7" Condition: generally excellent,original finish perfectly preserved. Comments: Grodnertal doll,circa 1850,presented for the English market as a peddler lady offering sewing notions and dolls. On her table are arranged a myriad of tiny laces,ribbons and buttons, sewing tools such as tiny scissors, various papers with lettered names "Robert","Margaret" and "John", several tiny doll costumes, and five tiny dolls including two mini Grodnertal woodens. Realized Price: $4,100

According to The Ultimate Doll Book by Caroline Goodfellow peddler dolls were popular from 1820 - 1920.  They were a conversation piece in fashionable 19th century English drawing rooms and held a prominent place on the fireplace mantels. During this period there was a fascination with itinerant traders who travelled all over Europe, but peddler dolls were a "peculiarly English phenomenon." Most of the dolls were made in Germany and dressed in England with heads of wood, composition, apples and wax. The bodies were made of wood, composition, or stuffed cloth.

The Sweet Simplicity of Tuck Comb Wooden Dolls

Image Courtesy of Theriaults.com.

While I was doing research  on the "The History of Faceless Dolls" I read several articles about antique wooden dolls and fell in love with Penny Wooden Dolls so much so that I ended up writing a blog post entitled, "I'm In Love With Penny Wooden or Peg Wooden Dolls."

In researching the penny wooden dolls I learned about a special type of peg wooden doll called "tuck comb dolls."  The dolls are so named for their carved and painted hair combs.

According to Wikipedia.org, " Tuck comb dolls are a special style of peg wooden doll, named for their carved hair comb. The head and body is turned as one piece. The hair is usually painted with curled bangs and with a painted comb. Early tuck comb dolls had elongated, graceful proportions, nicely carved details, painted slippers, and sometimes with wood pendant earrings. Some dressed as merchants were called pedlar dolls."

Also, according to The Ultimate Doll Book by Caroline Goodfellow: The high comb, often painted yellow was a fashionable hair ornament and special feature of early 19th century wooden dolls.

I just love these dolls and find them irresistible. I love their adorable painted tuck combs and their clothing. So, of course, I wanted to see more pictures and find out more about these types of peg wooden dolls. Here's what I found and what drew me to each of the dolls:

Beautiful Early American Wooden Dolls By Joel Ellis From 1873

While I was doing research  on the "The History of Faceless Dolls" I read several articles about antique wooden dolls and fell in love with Penny Wooden Dolls so much so that I ended up writing a blog post entitled, "I'm In Love With Penny Wooden or Peg Wooden Dolls."

While doing that research I also ran across the wooden dolls created by Joel Ellis in 1873 which piqued my curiosity as he was from Vermont and only made his dolls for one year. Given I'm a die hard New Englander and curious as to why he only made them for one year I had to find out more.

Not only did I love his wooden dolls, what interested me was the workmanship on his dolls clothes, which was exceptional, unlike the cheap clothes on manufactured dolls today.

The doll pictured above is for sale on the Liveauctioneers.com website - 9: Rare 19th Century Wooden Head Doll, Joel Ellis.  According to their website this doll is attributed to Joel Ellis with metal hands, legs & feet and stands 15" tall.

According to their website, "Joel Ellis created a doll whose face is indeed a portrait of the traditional New England model of graceful simplicity – a quiet composed and simple beauty that now transports us to a long ago time. Yet we may forget the technological challenges and triumphs so benignly represented in this little rendition of humanity."

It turns out that Joel was an inventive genius who patented 13 different articles, one of which was for a wooden doll. He is credited as being the creator of the first commercial doll for America which he manufactured through his company, the Co-operative Manufacturing Company, on the premises of the Vermont Novelty Goods Company.

He filed his patent for a wooden doll of rock maple with mortise and tenon joints, and pewter or iron hands and feet on February 21, 1873 and it was granted on May 20, 1873.

According to the article from the Old and Sold Antiques Marketplace, "In 1873 Ellis took out a patent for a wooden doll of rock maple with mortise and tenon joints, and pewter or iron hands and feet. Heads were of blocks of wood taken from the end of the grain and rounded, except for one pointed side which allowed for the nose. Each block was put into a steel mold and shaped under hydraulic pressure. When it came out of the press, holes were drilled to fit a large tenon that had been made on the end of the body. The head, which was stationary, was glued to the body by means of this large tenon. The doll came in twelve, fifteen, and eighteen-inch heights. The most plentiful is the twelve inch, the least, the eighteen inch."

I'm In Love With Penny Wooden or Peg Wooden Dolls

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia.com

As you all know I absolutely love dolls of all kinds, shapes, and sizes.  However, while doing my research on the "The History of Faceless Dolls" I read an article about Penny Wooden Dolls, like the doll pictured above from Wikipedia.org, and fell in love with them.

According to Wikipedia.org, " Peg wooden dolls also known as Dutch dolls are a type of wooden doll from Germany and the Netherlands. They originated as simple lathe turned dolls from the Val Gardena in the Alps. These dolls were sold undressed. Young girls would then make their clothing from scraps of fabric."

"Other similarly constructed wooden dolls, using a jointing technique where the arms and/or legs are attached to the body with pegs, are some of the oldest surviving dolls, and were made worldwide. Sometimes a peg wooden doll's arms or legs are locked together by the jointing system, so if one arm is moved the other will move. An advanced form of peg joints is where the body pegs are "split" and attached separately allowing independent movement."

I was intrigued by the picture, shown here, and wanted to know more.  So, of course, I had to do some research.  Here's what I found.

Page 146 of the Information Please Girls' Almanac by Alice Siegel said this about Pennywooden Dolls, "These are English dolls carved out of wood.  The joints are moveable and fastened by pegs. These are also know as dancing dolls."

My question was whether Peg Wooden dolls and Penny Wooden dolls were the same thing.  I had to find out.

According to an article on eHow.com entitled Penny Wood Dolls History by Christy P., "Penny wood dolls were known by a variety of names, including peg wooden dolls, penny woodens and wooden poppets. These dolls typically resembled wooden clothespins with simple peg joints."

So now we know they may be called Dutch dolls, peg wooden dolls, penny wooden dolls, pedlar dolls, and tuck comb dolls.

There was a Grodnertal Wooden Peddler Doll that sold for thousands of dollars on the Rubylane.com website.  According to her description she was a spectacular example of a Grodnertal wooden pedlar doll.

There was a Grödnertal Carved Wooden Doll, ca. 1820 on the PBS.org WGBH Roadshow Archives website here.  This doll was appraised at several thousand dollars and was a tuck comb doll due to the little comb on the top of her head.

So now we know they may be called Dutch dolls, peg wooden dolls, penny wooden dolls, pedlar or peddler dolls, tuck comb dolls, Grodnertal Wooden Peddler, and Grodnertal carved wooden dolls.

Image Courtesy of Frills, Frocks and Fancies Blog

The doll pictured above is from a wonderful post on the Dolls from the Attic...Mis Muñecas blog, which I absolutely love,  about Grodner Tal, "Tuck Comb," Peg Wooden Dolls.    This post is filled with information on these dolls as well as a ton of beautiful pictures. If you would like to read this post please click here.

According to this post, "From the home industry of the Groden Valley, Grodner Tal and South Tyrol, came the little peg wooden dolls. These are some of the oldest surviving dolls. Although the term peg-wooden refers to a jointing technique the term came to be synonymous with lathe turned dolls from these areas of the Alps. They were the inexpensive play dolls of generations in both Europe and America."

"Most of the dolls had combs carved into their heads-hence the term Tuck Combs. Their heads and bodies were lathe turned as one piece and had simple peg joints, but the larger dolls had ball joints and even swivel waists. They had elongated graceful proportions, nicely carved details, painted slippers and sometimes with wood pendant earrings."

"The hair is usually painted with curled bangs. Once painted and varnished they were ready for whatever adventures their little owners could conjure up. They are often referred to as German Tuck Combs, probably because they were sold in the German Nuremberg Toy Market, and sometimes incorrectly they are called Dutch dolls but this was a mispronunciation of the word Deutsch."

This was confirmed by a excerpt from the Early North American Dollmaking: A Narrative History and Craft Instructions by Iris Sanderson Jones in 1976 which said, "Long before the American Revolution, Grodner Tal doll salesmen carried great containers of toys and dolls into Italy and Spain.  By the Civil War these dolls were known to English children as "Dutch dolls," probably the same distortion of the word "Deutsch," or "german," which occurred with the "Pennsylvaia Dutch" in the United States."

So, now we know they aren't actually Dutch dolls, but mispronounced Deutsch Dolls.  This means they've been called Dutch aka Deutsch dolls, peg wooden dolls, penny wooden dolls, pedlar or peddler dolls, tuck comb dolls, Grodnertal Wooden Peddler, Grodnertal carved wooden dolls, Grodner Tal dolls, and Grodner Tal peg wood dolls.

According to the Wood Dolls article by By Denise Van Patten, Doll Collecting Expert, on the About.com website, "Dates of Production Of Wood Dolls: As mentioned, wood dolls are known from ancient times. Italian creche figure examples are known as early as the 1500s (very rare) and English wood dolls from the late 1600s and early 1700s are quite rare. English wood dolls are more plentiful from the late 1700s and early 1800s, and German Grodner Tal and Peg Wood dolls are from the 1800s. A cottage industry created peg woodens well into the 20th century, and there are artists today still making wood dolls."

We learn from an exhibit on the Illinois State Museum website that,  "Berechtesgaden, Grödner Tal, Oberammgergau--Peg-wooden Dolls - In several German-speaking areas of central Europe, the making of wooden dolls with peg jointing became an important part of the local economy. Most of these dolls were made in the mountainous area surrounding St. Ulrich, which was part of Austria until World War II, and is now part of Italy. In this area, called the Grödner Tal (Valley), wooden dolls and doll heads were being carved as early as the 1700s. By 1800, about 300 wood carvers in the Grödner Tal were making dolls, and sales agents took their work all over the world. The farm families living in the mountains spent their winters making dolls in a wide range of sizes from local wood, mostly pine. Most of the attention was put into the head, which required the most skill in carving and painting. The peg-jointed wooden bodies allowed for movement of the arms and legs. Peg-wooden dolls were also made in the forests of Thuringia (a northern area of Germany) and in the Berchtesgaden and Oberammergau Tyrolean area. Craftspeople making these dolls were also working in England, America, and China, but the quantities produced could not match those of the Grödner Tal. The Verlagers in Grödner Tal were important middlemen who organized production, purchased dolls from the carvers, stored them, and marketed the dolls for export. By 1873 almost the entire population of the Grödner Tal (3,500) were involved in the doll business, and one Verlager had thirty large showrooms containing millions of dolls."

There is an utterly adorable children's book published in 1895 entitled "The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a 'Golliwogg' by Florence K. Upton" that is visible on the Gutenberg.org website that is so charming you have to read it.  I loved the story and the adorable illustrations.  If you would like to know more about the author, Florence K. Upton please click here.

Image Courtesy of Theriaults.com

The TWO GRODNERTAL WOODEN DOLLS,MOTHER AND SON,WITH ORIGINAL COSTUMES shown above were listed on the Theriaults.com website.  Here's what they had to say about them:

According to their description: "TWO GRODNERTAL WOODEN DOLLS,MOTHER AND SON,WITH ORIGINAL COSTUMES - Lot Number: 78 - 9" (23 cm.) Each is all-wooden with one-piece head and torso,dowel-jointing at shoulders,elbows,hips and knees,the woman with black painted hair decorated with highly- stylized spit curls and tuck comb,elongated throat,and tiny centered painted features; and the boy with short black hair,suggestion of sideburns,painted features. Condition: good,unrestored,costumes are original albeit frail. Comments: Grodnertal,circa 1830,the dolls were featured in Ackerman's Dolls in Miniature. Value Points: both dolls wear their original stylized costumes."

How beautiful are they? Are you in love with penny wooden dolls, too?

The History Of Faceless Dolls - Updated February 2015 - Part X - Twig, Pine Cone, Willow and Nature Craft Dolls

Dolls can be made out of just about anything, like twigs, reeds, pine cones, rocks, etc. When supplies and funds are limited parents and children will use their imagination to create playthings out of just about anything that is available. Even pine needles.

According to the Nature Dolls chapter of The Complete Photo Guide To Doll Making book by Nancy Hoerner, Barbara Matthiessen, and Rick Petersen - Page 55, "Probably the most primitive dolls were made of twigs and a scrap of fabric or whatever was around."

The picture to the left is a twig doll from the Anatomy Of A Doll: The Fabric Sculptor's Handbook By Susanna Oroyan.  In the discussion under elemental forms we learn the following, "Almost every society and culture has a history of using elemental materials - commonly stone, wood, clay, wax, hide, or bone, depending on the location - to make dolls.....None of these forms require instructions or patterns because they are usually created by assembling an assortment of materials, moving them around, noting the suggested form, and combining the materials to accentuate the form."

"It is interesting to theorize which came first - the form or the idea for the form. Did the shape of the twig suggest the figure or a person, or did the maker decide on the person figure, pick up a handy twig, and make it?"

If you would to see or read more of this discussion please click here.

According to The Information Please Girls' Almanac By Alice Siegel - Page 146 and 147, "Most Pioneer dolls were small, between 3 and 10 inches high. A typical doll had a twig or pine cone body.  A child doll had a chestnut head; an adult doll had a hickory head. Acorns, pecans, and walnuts were also used to make these dolls. They were made by women and children who traveled to and settled in the wilderness that became the United States, before there were stores that sold dolls."

If you would like to see or read more of this article please click here.

In the Missouri School Journal, Volume 37 From 1920 under the dolls category we learn about twig dolls.  Here is what they had to say, "Twig dolls are grotesque.  Take a twig which can be trimmed so as to leave two brances for arms and two for legs.  The irregular shapes will suggest the type of costume, i.e. - an old man, a clown, a jolly fat boy, etc.  Cut head, hands and feet from paper making each double.  Glue together on the appropriate ends of the twig.  Make the clothes from either cloth or paper."

If you would like to see or read more of this article please click here.

On the Craftside Blog there is a blog post with the picture shown to the right of a faceless twig doll and a tutorial showing how to make one. The blog post is entitled, This tutorial on how to make a twig doll is from the new book The Complete Photo Guide to Doll Making and it is a review of The Complete Photo Guide to Doll Making book By Barbara Matthiessen, Nancy Hoerner, and Rick Petersen.

On the page is the following summary, "With hairs of roots and arms of twigs, this doll is simple enough for a child to make.  Transforming such crude materials into a plaything or art object hints at the many other wonders nature inspires.  You'll never look at twigs the same again."

If you would like to read her post please click here.  If you would like to preview this book please click here.