Dolls Made From Metal Parts

I discovered this metal headed doll in a rural thrift shop.
Read how her paint was removed and replaced.
See some restoration on a child version of JUNO 5, open mouth.

       Metal-headed dolls most familiar to collectors are the Juno and Minerva heads. They were first made in Germany about 117 years ago, and attached to cloth or kid sawdust-stuffed bodies, with eyes inset or painted and either natural or modeled and painted hair. Heads of metal other than the two mentioned were quite diversified. At the time fancies in Parian were delighting children and grown-ups alike, the metal head with fancy hairdo made its appearance. It was never as popular with the fine trade as the bisque, for enamel peels off metal fairly easily, with unattractive results.

       Precious metals, gold and silver, were used centuries ago for wealthy European families, and occasionally one finds a really old "charm" doll of precious metal. These tiny dolls were made of gold and white metal (1 1/8 inches long) Although so tiny, they were perfectly jointed at elbows, hips and knees.

       The most interesting modern dolls, with an all-metal bodies, came from Switzerland. The metal joints came apart and were brought together  again by suction. These dolls had adult proportions, and some of them represented: a fireman, policeman, clown, etc. Head, hands and feet were made of composition. The dolls sold in America in 1941 for a few dollars apiece. They could be used as artist's lay figures, but were sold as toys.

       About the middle of the nineteenth century, metal was also used under wax. Sometimes the bodies of such dolls were sawdust-stuffed and equipped with jointed wooden arms and hands too.

This Minerva metal head and shoulders has the 'official' marks - JUNO, 5 and Germany.
There is also a crown shape logo above the JUNO word.

       How early metal was used for the toy doll is not recorded, but we know that the tin soldier made its debut in Europe in the Middle Ages. Those we find today are probably not made before the 1850 's, if we except the antique "charm" dolls as playthings.

       Up until the 1940s, tin or like metal was used to strengthen parts inside a doll's body. For instance, the lovely Kathe Kruse baby doll was reinforced with metal under the cloth to preserve intact the features, and the large Bru, French kid-bodied doll, was metal at the elbow joint for added strength. While metal has never been as popular for the complete doll as other substances, all varieties have been made, from the bow-legged "baby" to the sedate "lady" doll. The beauty of the metal figure depends upon proportions, style and coloring, as is the case with any other doll. Most of the late common tin-heads are secondary collector's items, but interesting as part of the record of doll history.  Fawcett, edited by Grimm

Catalogue from 1908 advertises JUNO metal head dolls at the bottom.

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