Antique Peg Wooden Dolls

      Peg wooden dolls, also known as Dutch dolls, are a type of wooden doll from Germany. They originated as simple lathe-turned dolls from the Val Gardena in the Alps. These dolls were sold undressed. Children would then make their clothing from scraps of fabric.

All three sample peg wooden dolls depicted above are from Val Gardena.

      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.

• View Grodnertal peg woodens at Ruby Lane
• Antique Miniature Grodnertal Peg Wooden Doll in It's Original Box
• Kate Honesty doll The Pedlar at The Salisbury Museum
• The Heart of the Tree: A Wooden Doll Luncheon With Rosalie Whyel

      Tuck comb dolls are a special style of peg wooden doll, named for their carved hair comb. The head and body are turned as one piece. The hair is usually painted with curled fringes 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.

• Appraisal of a Peg Wooden Tuck Comb Doll, ca. 1825 
• Travel The World With Hitty a Peg Wooden Doll
• Life of A Wooden Doll by Lewis Saxby, 1903 

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