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| A small doll made from Celluloid. |
Just how early celluloid dolls were made is a matter for conjecture; it was probably soon after its successful use for billiard balls in 1869, but there is no patent in America for a doll of this kind until 1881, when M. C. Lefferts & W. B. Carpenter (assigned to the Celluloid Manufacturing Co. of New York City), obtained one. However, reference is made to earlier celluloid dolls made by the same company.
According to Walter Ross, writing for the March, 1945, number of Mademoiselle, the first commercial plastics, or celluloid, was invented in 1869 for a billiard ball company who offered a prize of $10,000 to anyone discovering a material which could be substituted for ivory. John Wesley Hyatt, working with collodion (a glue-like substance used to form a coating or film on wounds, photographic plates, etc.) then invented celluloid. A patent for cellulose nitrate had previously been granted to Christian Frederick Schonbein (1846.)
The word celluloid is a trade name, derived from cellulose contained in cotton or raw cotton. The cotton is treated to a weak solution of nitric acid, the effect of which is to transform it into a pulp similar to paper pulp. Then, after it has been thoroughly cleansed of the acid, it goes through a partial drying process, mixed with camphor-gum, rolled into sheets, and dried on hot cylinders. It can be softened by steam, but hardens when dry again.
America made a number of celluloid dolls during the period of the First World War. One will sometimes find in dolls' hospitals and antique shops, celluloid heads labelled Marks Bros., Boston. They are unexceptional copies of a German model. Ball-jointed bodies came with the large swivel-necked Marks Bros, heads. They are interesting only as part of the record of doll history.
Immediately after World War I, Germany produced vast numbers of ball-jointed, cloth and kid-bodied dolls with celluloid heads, as well as smaller ones made entirely of celluloid. Among the most attractive is the boy's head sketched. A similar one in bisque is dated 1927. These were evidently copied from the earlier model d. Eyes were either painted on or of glass inset, or sleeping, with and without lashes. Sometimes teeth, too, are inserted, and both the rotating and the stationery or shoulder heads are used.
Old and unusual celluloid dolls are worth collecting, but for the most part, they are secondary collector's items. The new plastics heads made prior to World War II are the latest derived from cellulose. They look like the old celluloid, and fade in the same way, but are stronger. It would be interesting to know their future history.
Kimport of Independence, Mo., has handled gaily-attired peasant costume dolls with celluloid heads, and good examples of the old type are often picked up in Thrift Shops and Dolls' Hospitals. Hallard
More Celluloid Dolls at YouTube:
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