Porcelain two ways

I'm going to interupt my hiatus today, because I've got something to share that I've been wanting for quite some time.  Today's post is (partially) about a china doll.  Not Eva, though.  No, I'll have to make her a body, as my attempts to find one in the right size have proved fruitless.  That last post was what, four years ago?  <pauses to count>  It's been six years since I last monkeyed with Eva and her friends.  Anywho, on June 10th I wondered about the prices on eBay for "pet name" china dolls, dolls that are similar to my Eva but have names molded and painted onto their chests, below the neckline of any dress they might wear, but still accessible if one looks.  As it happens, pet name china dolls are relatively affordable, more so than Simon and Halbig dolls (spoilers), so I grabbed one.  A big one.  Ethel is her name.  Not my favorite name, LOL.

If I could've cherry-picked a name I'd have named her Dorothy or Helen or Esther (all pet name options), but Ethel was pretty, affordable, and well-dressed, so I picked her.  Here's what her nameplate looks like; some of the paint has worn off, but her name is legible.  Forgive my groady nails, LOL.

As I said above, Ethel is not my favorite name, but it's better than Bertha.  Bertha was also an option, and I hate that name with a passion.  Like my Eva, Ethel is late china, made towards the end of the china doll's heyday.  Hertwig made most of 'em, though neither Ethel nor Eva are marked...take that back, Ethel is marked, but the markings are hard to read. 

Here's a closeup of Ethel's face.  Her head is turned slightly to the right.

Unlike Eva, Ethel is a big doll, at 22 inches.  Shehas a fully cloth/kid body (Eva had cloth with porcelain limbs) with really big legs covered in really big socks!

She's a pretty doll, just about everything one could want in a china doll.  Ethel isn't alone, though.  One of her new housemates is a Simon and Halbig doll...sort of.  LOL, I bet y'all forgot how terribly I wanted a Simon and Halbig doll!  I've got some nice Armand Marseille dolls (Hattie, Mabel, and Elfriede) and one Morimura Brothers doll that I love, but Simon and Halbig dolls are...well, to me their beauty is the most consistent.  I haven't searched constantly over the past six-or-so years since I bought my first bisque doll, but I HAVE searched and it finally paid off.  This is Liesel.  

Truth be told, while I keep calling Liesel a Simon and Halbig doll, she was actually produced by another German company named Heinrich Handwerck.  Simon and Halbig did make their own dolls, but they also produced heads for other companies like Handwerck and another of my favorites, Kammer and Reinhardt.  The latter was responsible for one of my all-time favorite bisque dolls, Mein Liebling.  Anyway, when Simon and Halbig made a head for another company they'd mark the head with both their name and the name of the other company, just as they did here.

The seller said that Liesel dates from around 1900 or so and is an example of Handwerck's early work.  She's a big doll, similar in height to Ethel, with a fully jointed compo body.  Those balls at her knees are separate pieces. 

Here's a better look at Liesel's face.  She does have little teeth showing, but from some angles they're hard to see.

It's interesting:  Liesel and Ethel are both German dolls, both antiques, and both north country girls (they came from Port Huron, Michigan and Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts, respectively), but that is all they have in common.  Their hair color, their eye color, their measurements and the media from which they're constructed, it's all different.

I've made a few references to Carl Fox's The Doll in the past, and one of my favorite images in the book is Plate 50, showing a pairing similar to what I've got.  

Fox writes stories for each doll in his book, and he notes that the difference between these two is like a cloudy day vs. a sunny day.  He goes on to say that the bisque doll is unhappy, bothered by a premonition that she had before World War I.  The premonition was that the years to come would bring sadness for the doll and her family, and indeed, she was separated from them in 1914 and never saw them again.  She also has really big legs, LOL.  The china doll is as Edwardian as they come, being very strict about her manners and morals.  Fox goes on to say that the two dolls became close friends, and while they were polite to their French housemates they didn't go out of their way to be friendly.  In the late 1800s and early 1900s there was no love lost between French dolls and German dolls.  As for me...jeez those French bisque girls are expensive!  And truthfully they're no better or worse than Hattie and Mabel and Liesel are.  Or Katsumi, can't forget her.  Next goal???  Find a way to display this old squad all together.  

Next post will be June 24th, rain or shine.  That's the day I talk to my doctor.

All of my love,

RagingMoon1987 

EDIT, 6/23/26:  I learned that despite the fierce competition between French and German dollmakers, Simon and Halbig occasionally supplied heads to Jumeau.  The heads that I've seen do NOT have "Simon and Halbig" incised on their necks, but the two companies did work together.  Food for thought.

Readdressing Jenny Lind

Specifically, my pretty parian reproduction.  Or I thought she was a reproduction.  Read on and you'll see that I was mistaken.  For the sake of reference, here's Jenny.

Yesterday I was digging around online for pictures of I forget what, when I discovered a doll on Etsy that looked a lot like my Jenny.  Granted, she ISN'T Jenny, but she looks a lot like her.  Said doll is up for adoption if any of y'all want her, by the way.  Anyway, Jenny's friend had the name "Yield House" attached.  I'd never heard of them before, so I started snooping for info.

Apparently Yield House specialized in doll kits, with most of the dolls being modeled after literary and historical characters.  Romeo and Juliet and the Little Women were all available at one time, as were George and Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, and Betsy Ross among others.  I don't know who completed this Martha but she is gorgeous.  Interestingly, my Jenny is piecemealed from two different dolls.  The head is definitely the Nightingale, as stated by her chest plate...

...but the Nightingale dolls wore white painted stockings and black flats.  The body I found for my doll has high-button boots.

A closer look at the Jo March doll reveals that the shoes belong to her, or to one of her sisters.  Oh well, I can live with Jenny wearing shoes that belong to Meg or Amy or Beth or Jo.  The boots may also belong to Betsy Ross, who...wouldn't have worn high-button boots in real life.  Regardless of whose body this is, publicity posters of the real Jenny Lind showed her wearing high boots like this, so she at least looks accurate.

But wait, there's more!  My doll is apparently not Jenny Lind after all!  I got so caught up in china dolls (of which Jenny Lind was one) that I didn't even think about another, far more important Nightingale.  According to Melody Maker and to Yield House themselves, my doll is Florence Nightingale, the great British nurse.  Indeed, my doll's hair looks more like Nurse Nightingale's than it does Jenny Lind's.

Well...come to think of it, Nurse Nightingale's hairstyle and Ms. Lind's hairstyle are kinda similar.  Regardless, I feel a little silly having misidentified my doll, since Nurse Nightingale's achievements still carry significance today (Jenny Lind is all but forgotten by the modern day).  But then again, Jenny was a popular china doll for awhile, and as far as I know Nurse Nightingale was not.  That's likely where my confusion sprang from, but either way I know now who my doll is.  The original doll's plain white socks and simple black shoes make more sense now, since nurses spent a lot of time on their feet back in the 1800's, just as they do today.  If you were a nurse back then, what would you prefer to wear?  Skin-tight high-button shoes or plain little black flats?  I know what I'd pick!  A completed Florence Nightingale doll can be seen (and bought) on eBay.  So my doll is not who I thought she was, nor is she even intended to be a reproduction of an old doll!  Well, Squidward, what have we learned today?

Melody Maker noted that two of the kits Yield House made were for Pinkie and the Blue Boy, and if I can I'd like to find those.  I have a fondness for those paintings that dates back to my childhood.  But until then I'll be content with my Jenny...yeah, I'm going to keep calling her Jenny.  Since she's wearing a fancy dress like an opera singer I'll just stick with my pet name.  But it's good to know who she really is!  And now y'all know more than you ever wanted to about Yield House dolls!  Keep your eyes peeled; I don't think these dolls are as common as Walda dolls are, but you never know.  They're so nicely made that some folks may mistake them for the real thing.  But don't be fooled!  Yield House dolls date from...I think the 1970's, just like Walda.  A finished Yield House doll is of better quality than a Walda doll, but it's still not vintage.

Love and sunshine,
RagingMoon1987

Regarding Eva's new friends

This is Eva, whom some of y'all may know.

This is Elvira.

This is...well, her breastplate says "Nightingale," meaning that she is probably the Swedish Nightingale, Jenny Lind.

And this is Elfriede, complete with her black scarf.  

The saga of my china dolls continues.  I'm STILL trying to get Eva put back together again, but my attempts aren't going well.  I have two bodies, one a kid body and the other a reproduction parian body...

...and they're BOTH too big for poor Eva.

That's where Elvira comes in.  I bought Elvira under the guise that she was the real deal, but no antique china doll has eyebrows this crummy.

She's also got crazing all over, meaning that she's most likely not the real deal.

Since I'm unimpressed with Elvira's paint I will likely get some sandpaper and paint and do her over.  Hey, she's a reproduction, so what've I got to lose?  Elvira is modeled after the Mary Todd Lincoln china head, hence the hairnet.

My heart's on fire for Elvira!  LOL, I don't know why I chose to name this doll "Elvira" instead of "Mary," but it seems to fit her.  Unfortunately the bodies I have do NOT fit her, as they're...too small.

I've really had rotten luck with these china dolls, kids!  I started the year off with one head, and now I've got two heads and two bodies that won't work out!  This mess started clean back in...March, I think it was.  Yeah, it was one of the last things I did before the coronavirus mess got really bad, and when Elvira's head didn't fit on either body I just shoved everything into storage, I was so done with it all.  I didn't mess with these doll parts again until June 29th, which was when Jenny Lind came into the picture.  This doll doesn't look exactly like the china Jenny Lind dolls, but the resemblance is there.

Nightingale, hov'ring high, harmonize the wind...yeah, I think I know now why my college friends called me a walking MP3 player.  I strongly doubt that Jenny Lind is the nightingale that "Voices in the Sky" refers to, but again it fits well enough.  Obscure song references aside, I chose a reproduction parian doll's head to try on this body because the arms and legs are matte like the head.

I don't know why unglazed china dolls are called "parian" dolls, though Google's definition suggests that the porcelain looks like parian marble.  Parian dolls are not made of marble, of course, but I can see the resemblance...or I can with the real dolls (Jenny's head and body are both obviously flesh-toned).  Either way, parian dolls are arguably some of the prettiest antique dolls I've seen.  LOL, okay, it's my opinion that parian dolls are some of the prettiest, though I'm not the only one who thinks so.  LOL, I'll admit that I'm biased towards them because I like the fashions and hairstyles of the day.  Just for the heckuvit, here's Jenny's "made in" sticker.  Made in Japan.

Jenny doesn't fit the parian body perfectly, but she fits good enough that I'm going to lash her to the body anyway (I think this putting the pieces together is called a "marriage").  The only problem here is that this dress is too tight to come off the body.  This is as far as I can get it.

No worries, I'll just sew her to the body one side at a time.

The end result:  one complete Jenny.

I ended up lashing her head to her body with satin ribbons and cotton thread, both of which I obtained at Wal-Mart.  The joining is not very pretty to look at, and the job would've been easier if I'd been able to take off the dress, but I got the parts married.  Jenny's head does not flop around at all, so I'm calling this a successful marriage (LOL).  I s'pose one could say this was my first foray into dollmaking, even though I didn't cast the parts or make anything.  Either way it's nice to have a full doll come together after having nothing but floating parts for months.  Oh, and as an aside, I need to show y'all Jenny's boots.  She's wearing high-button shoes, which one doesn't see too often on dolls nowadays.

I guess I'm going to have to overcome my laziness with both Eva and Elvira and make them bodies.  I have legs for each of them, but not arms.  As for the remaining kid body...well, it's pretty chubby, so I thought a bisque head would do the trick.  And so it did, as Elfriede shows.

The fit is not perfect, but it's good enough for me.  I ran into a problem when I discovered that Elfriede has no sew holes, but my friends on Facebook suggested tacky glue so that's what I did.  I think I used a bit too much, LOL. 

I'll have to be careful with this doll, as I don't really trust glue like I do sewing the head in place.  And before anyone asks...no, Elfriede is not a Simon and Halbig doll.  LOL, some of y'all may remember that I'd love to own a nice Simon and Halbig doll.  Elfriede is my third Armand Marseille, and her mold is one I didn't own, 370.

The 370 is one of AM's most common molds, a pretty dolly face mold with chubby cheeks, big eyes, and...usually dolls with this head have inset teeth, but Elfriede does not.  That surprised me, since Hattie, Mabel, and Katsumi all have teeth.  Elfriede's mouth is open, but as y'all can see, there are no choppers.

The counterweight on Elfriede's eye mechanism is sometimes visible through her open mouth, and at least two folks on Facebook thought she was missing a tooth because of that.  Speaking of the eye mech, Elfriede's eyes are sleep eyes.  She's only my second bisque doll to have this function (Katsumi was the first).

Here's a look at the inside of her head, since I haven't yet seen what this mechanism looks like.

Of course Elfriede will need a pate before she can have a wig, but until then I'm content to peer into her head and see how this mechanism works.  As an interesting aside, Elfriede's eyes are brown.  My other bisque dolls all have blue eyes.

Although she is without teeth, without pate, without arms, without clothes, and without wig, Elfriede maintains a touch of class.  She wears a black silk ribbon around her neck, which I think makes a very good scarf.

This reminds me of something I read about Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who inspired another popular Armand Marseille mold.  At some point during her brief life Queen Louise developed a swelling on her neck and used a scarf to conceal it, creating a fashion trend.  Sometimes the dolls done in her likeness also sported a scarf, as did other little dolls of her time.  Elfriede is NOT a Queen Louise doll, but no one said she couldn't follow the same trend, even if Queen Louise does predate Elfriede by half a century (LOL).

Well!  I'd say I'm in a better position than I was, as I've got one complete doll and one that's on her way to being complete.  Elfriede will need her arms and a dress in addition to a wig and a pate, but her head and body are joined and that's good enough for now.  Notice the counterweight, and how it does indeed look like Elfriede is missing a tooth.

I like that better than headless bodies.  But unfortunately my success with Jenny and Elfriede does not help Eva any, and now I have to fix Elvira as well.  Sewing Jenny together has given me a bit of confidence, so I'm just going to be patient and see what pops up on eBay...or on Etsy.  Etsy has what appears to be the perfect body for Eva, but I'm having to watch the ol' pesos right now.  That does prove though, that if I'm patient enough I'll be able to find what I need.

Stay cool,

RagingMoon1987 

China boy

Another patron came in with a doll to show me today.  This is him.

He's late china with some crazing on his face, hands, and feet.  His eyes are brown, which I love (my older china dolls all have blue eyes).  He's got some big ol' lips too, LOL!

His clothing is sewn on, and for some weird reason I fell in love with these buttons.  They're orange-red plastic with fluted edges, and they were the perfect size for the tip of my finger.

My friend says that the doll is about her age (somewhere around 55-60), and he's been her companion all her life.  She says she was hoping to pass him on to a daughter or a granddaughter, but so far that plan hasn't panned out.  Guess who volunteered to take him if he needed a new home?  LOL again.

I love it when patrons bring their dolls in for me to see!  It's almost always something different that I either have not seen before, or have seen but am not familiar with.  I own three of my own china dolls now (one antique and two reproductions), and none of them are brown-eyed boys!  Needless to say I thanked my friend lavishly for showing her doll to me.

Stay cool,

RagingMoon1987

Of autumn leaves and dolly parts

Yes, fall has descended quickly here in the Bootheel, with the sky dropping rain and the trees dropping leaves.  Here's what my driveway looks like.

The combination of rain and leaves has proven hazardous to my wellbeing, by the way.  Yesterday when Mama came to pick me up for lunch I stepped wrong on those wet leaves, and I slipped and fell and busted my rear.  I'm pretty sore today as a result.

Autumn isn't all bad, of course.  Indeed, it's more good than bad, with the insects and other small fauna coming out from hiding for one last hoorah before winter.  Last Saturday I made friends with this little guy.

I don't get to see snails in the wild too often, so seeing this one was a treat indeed.  He's pretty too, or as pretty as a snail can be.  His shell looks a little like polished petrified wood.  The snail was residing on one of my potted plants, but after the wind blew the plant over I had to rehome the snail.  As far as I know he's now slithering around in my sedum bed.

In dolly news I'm taking the first steps in the long process of putting Eva back together.  Legs for this type of china doll have proven relatively easy to find, and I've managed to land two pair for the choosing.

Right now I'm leaning towards the larger pair, but of course I want to show all of y'all how the pairs compare in size to Eva's head.

To tell the truth, neither pair is as large as Eva's original legs were.  So I found a larger pair on eBay, a pair that was advertised to be five inches long.

They're decent legs for a china doll...but they proved to be WAYYYYYYY too big for Eva!

Yeah...no.  Looks like it'll be the pair with the ribbed stockings, then!  I like that pair anyway, due largely to those molded stockings which weren't always present on china dolls.  I'll keep the other two pair for a rainy day; maybe I'll resell them or maybe I'll keep them in case I want to try making a doll from scratch.  Those large legs would be perfect for that.

My other package was also intended for Eva, but upon rereading the description on Etsy I knew it would be way too big.  It's this vintage doll bonnet, crocheted out of off-white thread and sporting a single pink ribbon.

The Etsy proprietor suggested removing the remaining ribbon if the asymmetry bothered the buyer, but in this case the buyer is not bothered with asymmetry.  As I said above the bonnet is quite large, too large for a china doll like Eva.  It isn't too large for American Girls though, and as it turned out it's not too big for Mama's old Kissy doll either.

Kissy received some old baby clothes from Coworker A about a month ago, and as y'all can see this little dress looks quite nice with the bonnet.  The dress is a bit too big for her...but then again most of my baby clothes for Kissy don't fit properly.  It's not like she looks bad, though, and at least I didn't have to put stress on her fragile little shoulders in order to get it on (I did that once and don't recommend it).  So this ended up working out well.  Thank goodness that little bonnet is a neutral color too, because now it can go with everything Kissy wears!

So that's Kissy dressed, Eva legged and me sore from falling on my butt.  That leaves me wanting some Icy Hot for my back and some arms for Eva.  Believe it or not, arms have proven tricky to come by, and when I do find them they're pretty steep.  Eva still has one of her original arms, so my best bet might be to get some self-drying clay and make a matching arm.  As simple as the old arm is that option is an attractive one.

Much love,
RagingMoon1987