Early English Wooden Dolls 1650 -1700

 Lord and Lady Clapham at 

The Victorian and Albert Museum

by Ruby Lane

       England is famous for their carved wooden dolls from approximately 1650 to 1700. The English carved heads were usually a little larger an scale and some even had glass eyes. English dolls stood about 15 1/2" tall. The head and neck were carved as one piece, and the lower arms and hands were finely carved of wood with separated fingers stretched out. The eyebrows were typically  painted on, with a thin brown line, and the whole face had a nice serene expression. The doll's lower arms were usually stitched on into the sleeves of the dress.

       It was natural that dolls were dressed as grown-ups, because children also were dressed like their parents in almost every detail, though less elaborate, in those times. Male dolls wore long square coats buttoned all the way down the front, with full breeches beneath, and garters with bows on the sides.

In 1690, some dolls had black painted patches on their
 faces, and in England muslin is worn for the first time.
Drawing and edited article from Gwen White, 1956

       During a visit to the Bartholomew Fair, Mr. Pepys (an author) reports seeing the puppets, the top shops, hobby horses, and gloves of gingerbread. Indeed, he goes round twice in one day. The dolls are elegantly dressed and carefully packed in boxes, and the Bartholomew Babies seem to have been regarded as the best, Dryden refers to baby-toys as "little babies or poppets," but during William and Mary's reign many of them are referred to as dolls by contemporary writers. One of the cries of the cities is "Pretty little Doll-pol."

       The ladies' hair was in ringlets with little curls on the forehead and sometimes loops of ribbon held up their hair. They wore capes, with hoods tied under the chin. Their gowns had pointed bodices, long flowing skirts, and little loops and bows here and there.

       In the Victoria and Albert Museum there is a fine English wooden doll of 1630, with painted features, and about 1 ft. 9 in. high.

       Quite a number of wooden, painted dolls existed after the Great Fire of 1666. Some remaining examples from 1690 have painted hair, but a few have real hair poking out in from of their caps, or fair tow.

       In 1693 pulp dolls were made, ones of gum tragaeanth also, and those dolls made with heads of wax and alabaster were fragile and worth a great deal of money. In Augsberg, a Daniel Neuberger made wax dolls as hard as stone, and painted them realistically.

       Sometimes the wooden heads were covered with gesso and painted, the hands and arms were carefully carved and made separately to be sewn into the sleeves of the dresses.

       The gowns were beautifully embroidered, and many of them had leading strings attached to the back at the shoulders, as did the children's costume of this period. Most of the dolls had quite flat backs.

By 1702, English wooden dolls have carved
and jointed legs covered in silk stockings.

        It was also the fashion to have the hair tightly curled, with one or two curls falling over the front shoulder, and the sleeves came just below the elbow with a turned-up cuff. The over-skirt was looped back, showing the underskirt and little pointed shoes.

       Later, around 1690, the hair was parted in the center and put on top of the head, except for one or two curls left to hang over the shoulders. The dresses were long and cut in one, and often a beautifully embroidered, short apron was sewn over the front of the dress and was sometimes edged with braid at the hem.

       The gentleman dolls were very grand, showing waistcoats under their coats, with much embroidery, and had even little "watches" on their waist coats. Daniel Defoe, Bach, Hogarth, and Chardin were all children at this time and many of Chardin's pictures, later on, show children holding dolls like these or playing with toys wearing similar fashions. Most of the dolls still have no legs, but rely on their stiff petticoats and dresses to make them stand erect.

The Old Pretenders:

• The Old Pretenders Reproduced
• 'Old Pretender Dolls', 17th & 18th Century Antique Doll Restoration
• David, Paul and a few chicks!
• The Old Pretenders from Mississippi Sisters
• Lord and Lady Higgs from babesfromthewoods
• Early 18th-Century Queen Anne Wooden Doll

  Return to the Doll Guide Index Page