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| Left, a Chinese gentleman or Right a Grand Duchess (called "Butterfly") both dressed in lavish silks for a lady's boudoir. No expense is spared for the costumes of such dolls as these are carried around by collectors in public and when not socializing, they are displayed on their owners beds among fine linens and silk sheets! |
This post spells danger. Beware! If you've escaped so far the lure of the doll, and feel very superior about it, we give you fair warning. It's your fault , now, if you persist in gazing at Sarah Berhardt as Camille or the lovely Grand Duchess in pearls and purple. Do not boast, either, of being immune to feminine loveliness, for you are apt to be snared, then, by a Chinese gentleman or fall victim to the smoldering eyes of a dark mysterious Moroccan lord.
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| Left, Sarah Berhardt doll and Right, a Moorish lord, Boudoir dolls dressed with expensive fabrics wearing the latest Paris fashions. |
These dolls, (4 dolls above only) from Paris, are from 30 to 34 inches high, their bodies are of cotton-stuffed muslin, and heads of composition with a linen finish and painted features. The Chinese gentleman's head is of chamois. The bodies and costumes are easy to make, and you can buy heads at a toy or department store if you do not care to try a 'prentice hand at this more difficult part. (available heads were sold during the early 1920s)
"Butterfly" is the name of the exquisite lady displayed on the right at the top of the page, for her sleeves and the four fringed panels over her flowered taffeta skirt are butterfly's wings of lavender fringed taffeta. Her hair is of white silk embroidery floss sewed on crinoline, loops forming puffs. The pink muslin body, almost triangular-shaped, measures 5 inches from shoulder to shoulder, and 7 12 inches from shoulder to waistline, which is 7 inches around. The thickness of the body is 2 1/4 inches. Arms are 14 inches long, with white lace mitts; sleeves 5 inches long; skirt 23 inches long, 70" wide, with panels 19" long, and it is over a crinoline skirt 18 inches long and 70" wide. The legs are 23 inches long, with flesh-colored silk stockings and purple taffeta slippers with pasted-on soles of white kid.
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| Ladies socializing with their boudoir dolls draped across their arms. These versions have embroidered facial features and many of them are dressed in contemporary American fashions, some also dressed as school girls. |
The Sarah Bernhardt doll - of the same dimensions - wears white satin, the ruffled skirt adorned with white camellias. The Mandarin's yellow chamois head has a 33-inch pigtail of black wool, and measures 12 inches around and 6 from neck to top. His straw-stuffed body is 12 inches around, 9" from neck to waist, 16" for his arms and 21" for his legs. His black silk trousers, with yellow silk stripes sewn on at regular intervals, are 12 inches around his legs and 22" wide at pointed sides. The tangerine brocade coat - 18" long has yellow silk, sewed in points spreading over the left side; 4" white satin bands at the bottom make a dragon. His sleeves are 15 1/2 inches long.
The Moor's body is the same as Butterfly's . The yellow taffeta for his bodice is cut 2 inches longer than his measurement and drawn around with tiny folds, the seam being hidden by his inch-wide jade-green and Persian-red ribbon panel in front. His dark brown sateen arms are 12 inches long, the legs 17". His bloomers, made from a piece of taffeta 17 inches long by 34 inches wide, and his sleeves, 12 inches long by 23" wide, are over crinoline of the same dimensions. His turban, which measures when finished 8 inches in width by 5 in depth, boasts a yellow, Persian-pink and Persian-blue ostrich tip. The green wooden beads around his neck and the feather fan tied firmly to his right wrist match the green of his ribbon panel.
More Boudoir Dolls:
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